The Development Plan

1. The University Plan

1. The University Plan was adopted in 2009 to cover the period 2009-19. The
overarching objective of the University Plan is to describe the kind of
university that York aims to be.
2. The University Plan identifies our mission as to be:
A world leader in the creation of knowledge through fundamental and applied research,
the sharing of knowledge by teaching students from varied backgrounds; and the
application of knowledge for the health, prosperity and wellbeing of people and society.
3. The University Plan also identifies our underlying values as:
Encouraging participation, openness, creativity and innovation;
Supporting academic freedom, tolerance and the provision of equal opportunities;
Acting as co-creators and custodians of knowledge;
Helping all students and staff to realise their full potential; and
Applying the best ethical standards to shape the future leaders of society.
4. To make progress towards achieving our mission, the University Plan
identifies four main objectives, namely:
Excellence, internationalisation, inclusivity and sustainability.
5. The University Plan describes these objectives in more detail, and concentrates
on how they should be applied at York.
6. This paper describes an associated Development Plan. The overarching
objective of the Development Plan is to identify the future size and shape of
the University, consonant with the objectives of the University Plan.

2. The national and regional context

2.1 The national and regional economies
7. To succeed in an increasingly competitive world, the UK needs a knowledge
economy, with innovation based on outstanding research, and a high quality
workforce based on open access to higher (and further) education.
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8. With only 1% of the worlds population, the UK has:

17 universities in the world top 100 (York is one of them), 2nd to the USA;
Over 300,000 overseas students/year, again 2nd to the USA;
8% of all research publications and 9% of all citations, again 2nd to the USA; and
More university spin-outs per head than the USA.
9. The higher education sector contributes a total of 69b directly and indirectly
to national GDP, larger than (for instance) the aerospace or pharmaceutical
sectors. Higher education also makes substantial export earnings, through
teaching overseas students and research.
10. The Regional Economic Strategy places universities at the heart of economic
development. High-tech industry is one of Yorks two main economic drivers
(the other is tourism). Overall, the University of York, together with
associated high-tech industry and indirect support activities, contributes jobs
and GDP corresponding to approaching 8% of Yorks economy.
2.2 University funding
11. For most of the 1990s and 2000s UK universities (including York) received
sustained increases in government funding, supported by a growing national
economy. The situation has now changed dramatically, with substantial
government cuts in funding caused by the global economic downturn.
12. Nevertheless, as often happens in a downturn, a combination of weak job
markets and a devalued pound is making UK universities popular with
potential home and overseas students.
2.3 Yorks position
13. York is very successful academically. We have been in the UK top ten for well
over a decade, and the world top hundred for the last three years, one of very
few young universities to be in the top hundred. Recent research (RAE) and
teaching (NSS) quality markers are strong, and we have been winning national
awards for academic and non-academic activities. Current levels of student
applications are booming and research grants are at an all time high.
14. York is also successful financially. We expect a good out-turn for 2009/10, with
a surplus and cash flow of over 10m and 20m respectively, on a turnover of
almost 250m. Our current budgeting round sees us maintaining good
financial performance over the next four years , even after allowing for
substantial government cuts and continued further investment.
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3. University growth
3.1 Student numbers
15. Current full time student numbers are about 12,000, with approximately 21%
postgraduate and 20% overseas.
16. Long term planning meetings with academic departments indicate that we
should aim for about 20-25% student growth over the next 10 years, ie an
increase of about 3,000 students, at the same time as maintaining or increasing
the proportion of postgraduates and overseas students, to support our
internationalisation, inclusivity and (financial) sustainability objectives.
17. This represents a slowing but not a cessation of overall university growth,
aiming for a total of about 15,000 students in the second half of the decade.
Further growth will depend on opportunities emerging as the world and UK
economies recover.
18. As the University grows we will need to work hard to retain our friendly,
informal and collegiate atmosphere, which is so important for inclusivity and
interdisciplinarity. Beyond 15,000 students, this will become increasingly
difficult, and the University will change its character, requiring more complex
management arrangements such as a faculty structure.
19. The main positive drivers of growth are:
Strong UK and overseas student demand;
The potential for developing exciting new interdisciplinary courses;
Opportunities for innovative CPD;
Continued need for smaller departments to grow to critical mass (to provide breadth
and depth in teaching and research, to be resilient against staff turnover, to provide
administrative support, and to develop financial strength); and
Strong growth potential in some of our larger departments.
20. The main restraints on student growth stem from:
Weak UK and world economies;
The current cap on UK student numbers; and
The need for tight budgets in the light of government cuts.
21. We believe that the optimum size for a department is in the range 25-50
academic staff and about 600-800 students. Departments that are too small
struggle financially and find it difficult to provide a high quality student
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experience. Departments that are too large become anonymous and again find
it difficult to provide a high quality student experience.
22. Small departments requiring growth to achieve critical mass are:
Archaeology, Language & Linguistics, History of Art, Music, Philosophy and TFTV;
Environment, Physics and Psychology; and
Education, Law and Sociology.
23. Large departments with the capacity to grow include:
Economics, Management, English, and History.
24. To support our inclusivity objective we will want to increase access to
disadvantaged, disabled and under-represented (eg BME) groups of students.
25. In 2003 about 40 potential new departments were assessed against criteria
such as student demand, financial sustainability, and alignment with our
strategy (eg widening participation and increasing impact). Alongside
recently created departments, only dentistry, pharmacology/pharmacy and
journalism were also thought to be potentially viable. Experience shows that
new departments are difficult and expensive to set up, requiring substantial
managerial attention as well as financial subsidy in the initial years. In the
current economic situation it seems sensible to concentrate instead on building
up the strength of our existing departments.
3.2 Staff
26. Current staff levels are about 3,300, about 40% academics and researchers, and
60% administrative and other support staff.
27. It is essential that we support our excellence objective and maintain or
improve academic quality by operating at academic staff/student ratios similar
to or better than current practice. We should, however, be able to achieve
economies of scale and improved administrative support with less than
pro-rata growth of non-academic staff, up to a maximum of 3,500.
28. Academic quality and innovation is driven by the highest quality academic
staff. Our market position is strong and we should take the opportunity of our
50th anniversary to launch a new round of Anniversary Professors and
Readers, to recruit the next tranche of leaders for the second decade of the 21st
century

3.3 Research and innovation

29. Research and innovation are essential to the Universitys wellbeing. They are
two of the Universitys three main aims in our mission statement. Research
and innovation also underpin the Universitys reputation, and thus impact
indirectly on our third mission, teaching and learning (via affecting our ability
to attract the best staff and students).
30. Maintaining a balance of strengths in research and teaching is a major
challenge in all top universities. At York, we believe in a fine-grained
relationship between the two (ie we expect most academics to contribute to
both).
31. York is characterised by (and has prospered with) strong departments
conducting both research and teaching in a flat management structure.
Recently, a variety of research centres has grown up interweaved throughout
the departments, which continue to play the primary financial role. This more
complex structure will evolve further, with more interdisciplinary teaching,
research, graduate and faculty centres.
32. We have always maintained a balanced portfolio of research and teaching at
York, spread evenly across the sciences, social sciences and humanities.
33. More recently we have developed:
New departments in the arts and in professional subjects (eg History of Art, TFTV,
Nursing, Medicine, Management, Law);
Applied, translational and policy-related research (eg the Centre for Health Economics,
Institute for Effective Education, Electronic Engineering, Institute for Public
Understanding of the Past);
Strategic research strengths, with groups of collaborating researchers within and
across our departments, as well as with others around the UK and the world;
Major research facilities which require support and maintenance (eg the Biology
Technology Facility, Centre for Immunity and Infection, York Neuroimaging Centre,
York-JEOL Nanocentre, Borthwick Archives, Raymond Burton Humanities Research
Library).
34. These developments all enhance intellectual vitality across the range of
subjects, and maximise opportunities for exciting new interdisciplinary
research breakthroughs as well as innovations for the benefit of society.
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35. Our flat management structure and non-zoned estate both help to promote
interdisciplinary research and innovation opportunities.
3.4 Summary
36. Overall the University will aim to grow over the next 10 years as follows:
20-25% student growth to a total of about 15,000 students;
Similar levels of academic staff growth with lower non-academic staff
growth, to a total of about 3,500;
Continued growth of postgraduate, overseas, disadvantaged, disabled and
BME students;
A new round of Anniversary Professors and Readers;
No new academic departments but more interdisciplinary centres; and
Maintaining a flat management structure and a balanced portfolio of
teaching, research and innovation, across the sciences, social sciences, arts,
humanities and professional subjects.

4. The University estate

4.1 Background
37. Heslington West is about 85ha. The maximum buildings footprint is 20%, and
this is full. About half of the Heslington West buildings are clasp, built in the
1960s and 70s, of low quality (by modern standards) and expensive to
maintain. The other half were built in the 1990s and 2000s, and are of much
better quality.
38. Heslington East is about 110ha. The central 65ha has a maximum buildings
footprint of 23%, surrounded by green buffer zones. Planning permission is
for a mix of academic, residential, economic and amenity buildings. There are
important conditions, notably:
Accommodation must be provided for all students beyond a 2008 baseline;
Up to about 40% of the footprint is for Science City economic uses; and
Amenity buildings are to be provided, including performing arts, a swimming pool and
an athletics track
39. An important development principle is to maintain and build our inclusivity
and interdisciplinarity. This includes:

Supporting colleges for student residential and social life;

Maintaining a non-zoned mix of college, academic and administrative buildings; and
Continuing our variegated building style, with buildings set attractively and
informally in a landscaped and parkland environment.
40. Until recently the critical limitation on strategic development was lack of
space, with Heslington West rapidly filling towards its maximum 20%
footprint. (This led to the Heslington East project being adopted as the
Universitys key strategic requirement.) The critical limitation is no longer
space, but money. Our estate needs are now dominated by two requirements:
The need to develop Heslington East at an appropriate rate; and
The need to improve the poor 1960s and 1970s estate on Heslington West.
41. Building on Heslington East should be determined by a balance between our
growth needs (section 3) and the possibility of securing finance (section 5).
Building on Heslington East is a necessary precursor (by decanting) of growth
across the campus (by relieving the Heslington West footprint).
42. Improvements on Heslington West will be determined by the poor condition
of the clasp estate. As a growing university, however, we will not find it easy
to de-commission buildings, and a better policy will be a carefully managed
mix of demolition, refurbishment and conversion to less stressful uses.
4.2 Heslington West
43. Our condition survey of Heslington West indicates that the worst buildings (ie
the most difficult and expensive to maintain) combine the following features:
Clasp, with flat roofs, asbestos, and inflexible structure;
Laboratory-based, with expensive servicing needs; and
Single storey, with poor environmental sustainability, difficult and expensive to heat.
44. This indicates a top priority on Heslington West for removing (or
downgrading the use of) single storey Chemistry, Physics, Electronics and
Biology clasp laboratories.
45. We should also remove the unattractive clasp accommodation on Spring Lane
and replace it with a small amount of new family housing.
46. A second priority is to convert, where possible, residential clasp to offices in
the older colleges, notably Derwent, Langwith and old Goodricke (Vanbrugh,
Wentworth and Alcuin have largely been refurbished).
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4.3 Heslington East

47. The Heslington East masterplan identified key principles for the estate:
A parkland, lakeside and landscaped setting;
Buffer zones to preserve the character of Heslington village and Badger Hill;
Public accessibility, with attractive and sustainable architecture;
Integration with Heslington West (ie joint development as a single campus);
10 minutes access via cycling and other means; and
Phased development over 10-20 years, with a first phase with critical mass.
48. The masterplan identified phase 1 as consisting of new Goodricke College (for
620 students), academic buildings (TFTV, Computer Science, Law,
Management and the Hub), and an incubator. Subsequent phases were to
include:
More colleges of a similar size to new Goodricke, the first to be new Langwith;
More academic buildings, to house Economics, Politics and Philosophy;
More incubators and Science City buildings; and
Amenity buildings, the first to be a fitness centre/swimming pool.
49. The current student growth rate means that we will need new Langwith by
2012, and a decision to go ahead will be needed during 2010. We will also
need more new colleges before 2019, in order to:
Comply with accommodation guarantees to 1st year and overseas students;
Comply with planning constraints; and
Increase the proportion of 2nd and 3rd years and postgraduates on campus, to support
our internationalisation and diversity objectives.
50. We will also need to re-locate at least 2 or 3 academic departments to
Heslington East, partly to relieve pressure on Heslington West. Key academic
pressure points are:
Economics, Health Sciences and SPSW in Seebohm Rowntree/Alcuin;
Politics and Philosophy in Derwent;
The split site for Education;
Chemistry, Physics, Electronics and Biology clasp labs (as discussed above);
Others, such as Environment, Music, Psychology, Sociology and Medicine.
51. Growth will also require new teaching and administration space to
accommodate the related expansion of these activities.
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52. Students have long wanted a Student Centre, and this was included in the
Heslington East masterplan. Finding funding has, however, proved difficult,
and it may be easier to use refurbished space on Heslington West.
53. We have provided for performing arts, with theatres and cinema in TFTV.
Together with the City Council we are about to build a county standard
Swimming Pool and Indoor Sports Centre, and the possibility of an Athletics
Stadium is under active consideration.
54. The present Science Park occupies about 8ha and, with 18 buildings, is full.
Except for the Smith & Nephew Building (built in 1994), the Science Park was
built out in less than a decade, from 1998 to 2007. High-tech industry has been
resilient in the downturn, and will be essential to the UK economy when
growth resumes. As well as our current programme of developing embedded
innovation space within academic departments, we should, therefore, allocate
another 8-10ha at the eastern end of Heslington East, leased for mixed mode
occupation in the same way as the present Science Park.
4.4 Summary
55. Overall the University will aim to develop its Estate over the next 10 years as
follows:
Complete existing projects (Library renovation; Heslington East phase 1);
New colleges on Heslington East, the first (new Langwith) by 2012;
New academic department and teaching buildings on Heslington East;
An Indoor Sports Centre, Conference Centre and 10ha Science Park on
Heslington East;
Replace single storey clasp laboratories and the Spring Lane houses on
Heslington West; and
Continue to refurbish and convert college clasp, eg to administrative offices
and, perhaps, a Student Centre.

5. Finance
56. The Universitys turnover in 2009/10 is almost 250m. We have worked hard
throughout the last decade to build a sustainable financial position, with
reasonable levels of surplus and cash flow, so as to provide resilience to
financial shocks at the same as time as investing in our infrastructure, both
equipment and estate.

57. For 2010/11 and the following 3 years we have budgeted for continued growth
in turnover, reaching almost 300m by 2013/14. We aim to maintain strong
operating and trading surpluses, even after allowing for substantial
government cuts and further investment in buildings, equipment and people.
58. We can safely assume that developmental funding will be hard to find in the
next few years. Nevertheless we should still have opportunities to make
progress on future phases of Heslington East and with the legacy estate on
Heslington West.
59. Capital funding will rely on (as with Heslington East phase 1 and previous
Heslington West projects) a mix of:
New capital grants from national, European and regional governments:
Donations from individual benefactors, foundations and trusts;
Research Council, industrial and other agency funding; and
Off balance sheet arrangements for residential colleges andother commercial
propositions.
60. We should aim to finance new colleges (such as new Langwith) off-balance
sheet and sell leases on the proposed new science park on Heslington East, in
order to provide capital for the new and refurbished academic and
administrative buildings.
61. Managing the funding and building mix will be critical in determining the
pace at which the Universitys strategic development can take place over the
next 10 years.

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6. Overall summary
62. The University will aim to grow over the next 10 years as follows:
20-25% student growth to a total of about 15,000 students;
Similar levels of academic staff growth with lower non-academic staff
growth, to a total of about 3,500;
Continued growth of postgraduate, overseas, disadvantaged, disabled and
BME students;
A new round of Anniversary Professors and Readers;
No new academic departments but more interdisciplinary centres; and
Maintaining a flat management structure and a balanced portfolio of
teaching, research and innovation, across the sciences, social sciences, arts,
humanities and professional subjects.
63. The University will aim to develop its estate over the next 10 years as
follows:
Complete existing projects (Library renovation; Heslington East phase 1);
New colleges on Heslington East, the first (new Langwith) by 2012;
New academic department and teaching buildings on Heslington East;
A Swimming Pool, Indoor Sports Centre, Conference Centre and 10ha Science
Park on Heslington East;
Replace single storey clasp laboratories and the Spring Lane houses on
Heslington West; and
Continue to refurbish and convert college clasp, eg to administrative offices
and, perhaps, a Student Centre.

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