Academic Services Board

Remit

Strategic alignment

• Develop plans and oversee the delivery of integrated professional services across the area, directly enabling the effective and cohesive provision of academic and student services within the strategy framework.
• Develop, lead and contribute to strategic projects, plans, and services across the Academic Services area, working in partnership with other areas to deliver institutional plans and objectives. Ensure impact, dependencies, opportunities and risks for supporting academic excellence and student success are understood and addressed, and that long-term benefits for the University are realised. 

Financial planning and resource management:  

• Providing governance and assurance regarding the delivery of financial, planning, and performance targets, and ensuring Board-level visibility of performance across the Academic Services area. This includes:

• • Oversight of Academic Services Directorates’ revenue and capital budgets.
  • Partnership working with the Faculty Deans and Directors of Faculty Operations to ensure integration of resources and PS staffing budgets (based in faculties) to deliver integrated professional services.
  • Ensuring the annual planning process is effectively implemented across Academic Services areas of professional services, including the development and implementation of investment and efficiency plans; ensuring alignment with faculty and Corporate Services planning.
  • Establish and monitor a framework of Strategic Performance Indicators (SPIs) designed to measure the efficiency, effectiveness, and impact of academic professional services.
  • Management of resources (financial, human, and technological) across the area, within the budget envelope, to deliver strategic and operational goals.
  • Promote resource sharing and provide constructive challenge to ensure resourcing decisions are made in the best interests of the entire institution.
  • Strategic workforce planning across the Academic Services area, considering and contributing to plans for professional services organisational change and development to ensure cohesion, impact and that streamlined approaches can be embedded.

Partnership working:

• Ensuring genuine partnership, collaboration, and engagement between services, wherever they are located in the University, to deliver an integrated approach to service priorities that supports the needs of our students and enables excellence in education, research, and innovation.
• Collaborate with senior leaders, staff and students to co-create strategies and services that enable the achievement of the University strategy.
• Undertake regular reviews of performance and user perspectives on relevant professional services, including external benchmarking to identify opportunities for improved outcomes.

Governance and Assurance:

• Ensure appropriate governance and assurance approaches, and policies are being applied and monitored at an operational level across Academic Services, to ensure efficiency and effective management of compliance and risk for the University.
• To monitor and review the effectiveness of managing the corporate risk(s) and other key risks related to the Committee's business and advising and assuring the relevant UEB corporate risk owner.
• Ensuring the University is protected, compliant and meets its regulatory and legislative requirements.
• Ensure the Academic Services area of PS is business-ready for new implementations and that lessons learned are incorporated into future programmes of work to improve success.

Operational Excellence:

• Provide functional expertise and knowledge to enable specialist aspects of service delivery and operations, with a specific focus on student services and the operational infrastructure to support education and research.
• Student Success: Define key principles for service design and delivery to ensure the needs of our student community are met, across both digital and physical environments to support the "holistic" experience.
• Enabling academic excellence through the provision of integrated support that identifies opportunities to enhance overall organisational effectiveness; enhancing structures, infrastructure (processes/technology), and community to deliver efficiency, connectivity, innovation and agility across education and research.

Leadership and People:

• Oversee the development of professional services staff in the area to ensure the workforce possesses the skills and competencies required to meet evolving institutional needs. This includes monitoring the effectiveness of staff training and developing initiatives that support internal mobility and career progression.
• Foster a culture of transformation and collaboration across Professional Services, and between PS and Faculties, to optimise the University strategy and achieve our academic mission.

Authority

ASB has delegated authority to make decisions on professional and technical services staffing and operations across academic services that impact the student and academic experience.

Reporting to UEB

ASB reports into UEB via the Chief Academic Services Officer, who is a UEB member and Chair of ASB, and through the formal reporting mechanisms set out below. ASB reports key points arising from its meetings to UEB as follows:

• Frequently: At least eight times per year: through minutes of ASB.
• Ad hoc: where urgent University-wide matters pertaining to academic services require direct escalation to UEB for decision or discussion. 

Reporting to the Committee

ASB is empowered to establish its own sub-groups and committees to reflect the requirements of University-level initiatives, promoting a task and finish approach where possible. The actions of the sub-groups/committees (or updates drawn from these in writing) should be presented to ASB on a timely basis.

ASB maintains a critical interface with Pro-Vice-Chancellors (Research, Education and Students, and Enterprise, Partnerships and Engagement), Academic Faculty Deans, other areas of Professional Services, and University of York's Student Union.

Meeting Frequency

The Board will meeting at least eight times per academic year. Additional meetings may be called at the discretion of the Chair.

Meeting modes

Meetings will be held either in-person, online or via a hybrid format, subject to agreement by members.

Meeting dates 2025-26

Date	Time
Thursday 5 March 2026	11:00 - 12:30
Wednesday 6 May 2026	11:15 - 12:45
Wednesday 3 June 2026	11:15 - 12:45

Joint Think Tank Meeting dates 2025-26 (with Corporate Services Board)

Date	Time
Tuesday 21 July 2026	15:00 - 17:00

Meeting dates 2026-27

Date	Time
Tuesday 8 September 2026	13:30 - 15:30
Wednesday 4 November 2026	11:15 - 12:45
Wednesday 3 February 2027	11:15 - 12:45
Wednesday 3 March 2027	13:00 - 14:30
Wednesday 5 May 2027	11:15 - 12:45
Wednesday 2 June 2027	11:15 - 12:45

Joint Think Tank Meeting dates 2026-27 (with Corporate Services Board)

Date	Time
Monday 12 October 2026	15:00 - 17:00
Tuesday 19 January 2027	15:00 - 17:00
Tuesday 20 April 2027	15:00 - 17:00
Monday 12 July 2027	15:00 - 17:00

 

The Committee’s membership comprises ex officio members.  

Other membership considerations

Professional Support members are drawn from across the University and between them have sufficient experience to be able to speak to the matters discussed by UIC from a range of levels and experiences. 

In consultation with the Chair, members may authorise an appropriate colleague to represent them if they are unable to attend a meeting. Individual colleagues may be invited to attend in order to advise and inform on select items as and when the need arises.

Quorum

50% of members, or 50% rounded up where the number of members is odd.

Membership Review

Membership will be periodically reviewed by the Committee itself on behalf of UEB's approval by the Chair. Membership is otherwise coterminous with the individual’s appointment term. Gender balance and wider EDI considerations should be factored into the Committee’s reflection on its own size and composition.

Members

• Vikki Goddard, Chief Academic Services Officer (Chair)
• Tom Banham, Academic Registrar & Director of Student Education and Experience
• Justine Daniels, Director of Research, Innovation and Knowledge Exchange (RIKE)
• Kirsty Lingstadt, Director of Library, Learning, Archives and Wellbeing
• Director of Faculty Operations
  • Natalie Armstrong, (Sciences)
  • Ros Roberts, (Arts and Humanities)
  • Dr Mark Shaw, (Social Sciences)

In attendance

• Jo Black, Senior Executive Officer and Head of PS Central Administration (Secretary)

In attendance as required

• Rachel Barson, Director of Communications
• Pro-Vice-Chancellors
  • Prof Tracy Lightfoot (Education and Students)
  • Prof Sarah Thompson (Research)
  • Prof Kiran Trehan (Enterprise, Partnerships and Engagement)
• Deans of Academic Faculties
  • Prof Andy Dougill (Sciences) 
  • Prof Duncan Petrie (Arts and Humanities)
  • Prof Karen Rowlingson (Social Sciences)
• Representatives of York Students Union
• Other Professional Support Directors:
  • on strategic issues:
    • Timothy Andrew, Head of Strategic Projects Office
    • Simon Donoghue, Director of Strategic Planning and Performance
    • Adam Hewitt, University Secretary
  • on areas relating to student and academic services:
    • Joan Concannon, Chief Reputation and Stakeholder Relations Officer
    • David Hudson, Global Recruitment, Marketing and Admissions
    • Lisa Woods, Director of Facilities Management and Campus Services