62 Virtual Brochure – February 2024 An additional council or board subcommittee A number of primarily large, post-92 universities have introduced a new council or board sub-committee (or expanded the terms of reference of an existing sub-committee) to provide independent advice and assurance to the governing body on the academic conditions. Having an additional sub-committee has a number of benefits. It provides the time and space to enable more detailed scrutiny of academic governance by a sub-set of independent governors, and enables the involvement of external, co-opted experts. In doing so, it enables a sub-set of governors to develop their own knowledge of academic governance and practice, and by providing assurance to the governing body (and audit committee), frees up time at governing body meetings. However, this should be weighed against risks to the relationship between the governing body and the senate or academic board, and the time and resources involved in running and servicing an additional subcommittee. To mitigate relationship risks, some institutions include members of their senate or academic board on their subcommittee. However, having a separate sub-committee doesn’t negate the audit committee’s responsibilities for reviewing the effectiveness of an institution’s entire risk management, control, and governance arrangements. As outlined above, the audit committee still needs to scrutinise and provide assurance to the governing body on academic governance. Where different subcommittees are considering the same issue from different perspectives it is important that respective responsibilities are clearly defined within terms of reference. We can help We’re happy to discuss the content of the report with you and we can support with the design of compliance and assurance maps, advice on academic risk management, and briefings for governing body and committee members. In addition, we use the ongoing conditions as one of the drivers for the development of our internal audit programme and provide an assurance assessment on each of the conditions in our annual report – thus ensuring we are supporting the audit committee with their broader assurance responsibilities. Helen Thorne – Senior Audit and Risk Consultant – hthorne@uniac.co.uk
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