Understanding the Strategic Plan

Understanding the Strategic Plan

Would you like to know a bit more about how planning works in Higher Education? Understanding the Strategic Plan is a one day event where we will be joined by Directors of Planning, Finance and HR from 3 very different Universities who will discuss their significant experience of strategic planning in a university context. If you have ever wanted to know more about how your university’s strategic plan is developed and HR’s role in this, or if you are new to the sector and would like to hear from senior leaders about how they are involved in the development and implementation of strategy, this is the event for you.

Wednesday 28^th September

3 x 90 min slots throughout the day - the day will run from 10am until 4pm.

Module Outline:

Led by Richard Billingham, Executive Director of Human Resources and Organisational Development, Aston University, Jeung Lee, Head of Integrated Planning at the University of Manchester and Simon Arthurs, Director of Finance at Plymouth Marjon University.

Richard spent over 15 years in local government before joining Aston in 2017. He has a strong track record of driving workforce and HR function change in support of changing organisation strategy and has led a wide range of multi-disciplinary project teams which have focused on people and culture change, HR function transformation (including technology implementation), workplace transformation, employee engagement and improving workforce efficiency.

Jeung joined the Univeristy of Manchester in May 2021 from Brunel where she worked for over 10 years, latterly as the Head of Institutional Effectiveness.

Simon is Chief Operating Officer and Finance Director at Plymouth Marjon University. Simon is a Chartered Accountant who has responsibility for finance, procurement, IT & digital services, as well as management of risk and business compliance. Simon joined Plymouth Marjon in 2019, having previously been Director of Commercial Finance at Plymouth City Council.

Input from a Director of Planning, Director of Finance and Director of HR, which will cover:

• Strategy development & implementation
• Annual planning round
• Student number planning & course development
• Student demographics
• Financial planning & forecasting
• Risk
• Wider employment context
• HE specific HR challenges

All of the above will be brought together to give a picture of the university and the importance of strategic planning. 

Outline for the Day:

10-10.15:             Introductions (Sophie Crouchman, UHR)

10.15-11.45:       Head of Planning session (Jeung Lee, Head of Integrated Planning at Manchester University)

11.45-12.30:       Lunch break

12.30-14.00:       Director of Finance session (Simon Arthurs, COO and Director of Finance, Plymouth Marjon University)

14.00-14.15:       Comfort break

14.15-15.45:       HR Director session (Richard Billingham, Executive Director of Human Resources and Organisation Development

Aston University)

15.45-16.00:       Final comments & close (Sophie Crouchman, UHR)

This programme has been developed as part of a wider strategic workforce planning programme in which it constitutes Module 1 of 5 Modules – you can find out more about the full programme here.

Please note, in order to book a place on this event you will need a website user account. 

UHR: If you do not yet have an account, please click here to submit the request and gain immediate access; our admin team will contact your HRD within a week to verify your access level.  If you just wish to book on this event as a one-off then please visit the quick registration page where you can set up an account just for booking events.

BUFDG, HESPA and AUDE - if you do not have a website user account please click the Register button at the top of this page.