Vice-Chancellor foreword

The pandemic continued to cast its shadow over the last academic year, causing uncertainty and change. Most of our staff and students had to move back to online learning before Christmas. I am in awe of the resilience of our students and grateful for the agility of our staff who worked in impossibly difficult conditions to get students through their studies. I could not be prouder of them.

Winchester continued to record relatively few Covid cases and we created a safe and secure campus.

We did not get everything right. Communication is a challenge at the best of times, but we failed to keep an open and transparent line of communication with our students at key times. The work was being done in the background – for example developing policies to protect students’ grades from the impact of the pandemic – but we did not keep them sufficiently in the loop. This breakdown in communication came through in the feedback we received from final year students in the National Student Survey.

We are committed to improving the student experience with a firm focus on teaching excellence. We have already taken measures to reset our relationship with our student body, working closely with the Student Union, and I am confident we will return to our previously high student satisfaction scores.

In July, we finally had the opportunity to celebrate the achievements of our students at graduation ceremonies in Winchester Cathedral. Over 2,000 graduands, whose ceremonies were postponed last autumn due to COVID-19 restrictions, graduated at in-person Covid-safe ceremonies with guests attending in-person and virtually.

We were delighted to welcome

Michelle Donelan, Minister of State for Higher and Further Education to the campus in July. The Minister visited our growing Faculty of Health and Wellbeing, and met with students training to be teachers and nurses.

We have an excellent team of staff right across the institution, committed to doing the best for our students and our community. This report demonstrates the sound organisation and management underpinning everything we do, including the strong financial position we are in even with the huge challenges presented by the pandemic.

We continue to develop our ambitious and clear plans for a post-pandemic future which will see a demographic upturn and one in which we intend to focus firmly on our core business of delivering excellent education.

THE REVEREND PROFESSOR ELIZABETH STUART VICE-CHANCELLOR (DURING THE PERIOD 1 APRIL TO 31 DECEMBER 2021)