19 Virtual Brochure – March 2025 The main headlines from our 2024 analysis are: Financial Sustainability Unsurprisingly this risk appears on almost all institutional risk registers and 2024 has seen an increase in the ranking of the average unmitigated and mitigated scores. Despite 80% of institutions undertaking efficiency programmes to address financial challenges, neither doing more with less nor expecting to substantially increase income from student recruitment provide viable solutions in the medium term. While the sector seeks to engage with policy makers about future funding, innovation and reform, it is essential that audit committees and governing bodies assure themselves that they have sufficient understanding of financial sustainability risks and opportunities to challenge assumptions, stress tests and scenarios. This should include consideration of impacts on other strategic risks as well as the achievement of strategic goals and ensuing that transformation activities are subject to robust risk assessment. How Uniac is supporting institutions We have a comprehensive and tested methodology which provides institutions with assurance on the management of their financial sustainability risks, including the effectiveness of governance, data quality and contingency planning. Additionally, Uniac’s approach to every piece of work we undertake aims to identify actionable efficiency opportunities. Student recruitment Human capital, diversity, and talent management remains the second highest ranked risk, with businesses expecting it to remain significant in the medium term. The ECIIA report highlights a growing challenge of effective workforce planning and a general trend towards faster staff turnover. Businesses are concerned about access to digital skills, upskilling their workforce to enable effective use of AI, and the continuing challenges of meeting expectations around work life balance. We encourage institutions to ensure that needs for AI and other emerging digital skills are identified and embedded in recruitment and training strategies. Institutions may also want to test that onboarding, induction and exit processes are efficient and effective, and that business continuity plans are revised to take account of changing personnel and organisational structures. How Uniac is supporting institutions We have specific expertise in domestic and international student recruitment, provided by a team with direct experience of running these services. We provide assurance around the design and effectiveness of recruitment strategies and processes, including optimising the use of recruitment agents and managing associated risks.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTI5NzM=