Middlesex University


Financial Statements 2016/17


direction of the University and for the finance, estates and general business of the University and is required to present audited financial statements for each financial year.


As the University’s governing body the Board of Governors is also responsible for ensuring the effective oversight and management of the institution and for planning its future development. The Board has ultimate responsibility for all the affairs of the institution, including setting its general strategic direction. An important role the Board of Governors played this year was to review and approve the University’s new five year strategy.


In carrying out this role the Board met at two strategic away days to review the aims and objectives of our new strategy in detail and to endorse the direction of travel and priorities of the University going forward. They ensured that the new objectives were clear, realistic and embedded across all strands of activity. The Board of Governors guided the Vice Chancellor’s Executive in creating a strategy that prioritised and focused the University’s efforts and work in an ever changing external landscape.


The Board of Governors conducts its business through a number of committees. Each committee has terms of reference approved by the Board of Governors. The standing committees are the Finance Committee, Governance and Nominations Committee, Remuneration Committee and Audit and Risk Committee.


All Governors are able to take independent professional advice in the furtherance of their duties at the University’s expense and have access to the Clerk to the Board, who is responsible for ensuring that all applicable procedures and regulations are complied with. The appointment and removal of the Clerk are matters for the Board of Governors as a whole.


Formal agendas, papers and reports are supplied to Governors in a timely manner, prior to Board meetings. Briefings are also provided on an ad hoc basis.


The Board of Governors has a strong and independent non-executive element and no individual or group dominates its decision making process. The Board of Governors considers that each of its non-executive members is independent of management and free from any business or other relationship which could materially interfere with the exercise of their independent judgement.


There is a clear division of responsibility in that the roles of Chair and Deputy Chair of the Board of Governors are separated from the role of the University’s Chief Executive, the Vice-Chancellor.


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Appointments to the Board of Governors Any new appointments to the Board of Governors are a matter for the consideration of the Board as a whole. The Board of Governors has a Governance and Nominations Committee that considers the skills set available to the Board and issues of succession planning. It also advises on mechanisms for securing the services of new Governors, including advertisement and interviews, and identifies preferred candidates to the Board. The Board also has responsibility for ensuring that appropriate training is provided as required. In early 2017, the University recruited six new governors to serve an important role in the strategic planning of the University’s future development. Colin Hughes demitted his role as the Chair at a meeting of the Board of Governors on 3 July. Geraldine Proudler, who had previously been Deputy Chair and Chair Designate assumed the role at that same meeting.


Finance Committee


The Finance Committee meets three times a year and comprises four independent members of the Board of Governors who meet with members of the Executive team. It provides oversight and scrutiny of the University’s financial performance against budget and re-forecasts and reports any significant variances to the Board of Governors. These meetings provide more time than is available within the full Board meetings for a small cohort of nominated Governors to monitor and review the University’s financial management.


Audit and Risk Committee


The Audit and Risk Committee meets four times a year, with the University’s external and internal auditors in attendance. The Committee comprises five independent members of the Board of Governors and one co-opted member, and considers detailed reports together with recommendations for the improvement of the University’s systems of internal control and management’s responses and implementation plans.


The Committee reports to the Board on the adequacy and effectiveness of the University’s arrangements for:


— Risk management, control and governance;


— Financial reporting (i.e. the integrity of financial reporting arrangements, including the corporate governance statement and the statement of members’ responsibilities as reported in the annual financial statements);


— Economy, efficiency and effectiveness (Value for Money); — Data quality


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