Advancing governance

Halpin’s review methodology included a desk review of Goldsmiths’ governance documents and papers and a membership benchmarking exercise against comparator institutions. This was alongside extensive consultation and engagement opportunities with the university community. This included:   

• Oversight by a Steering Group 
• Governance (15 responses) and Academic Maturity (19 responses) Self-Assessment Surveys by the Council and Academic Board 
• Interviews with members of the Council, Secretariat, and Executive (30 individual interviews) 
• Six Focus Groups to receive insight from University stakeholders under the following headings: Professional Services staff (two sessions); Academic Leaders; Student representatives; Student Officers; Staff Union representatives;  
• Attendance at Council away day 
• Observation of the Council, Audit and Risk Committee, Finance and Resources Committee and Academic Board 
• Additional anonymous comments from the wider Goldsmiths community where all of the community was invited to make a submission (10 responses) 

Students and staff are thanked for engaging with the review and helping shape governance at Goldsmiths.  

At its meeting on 1 October, Council approved the matters set out below. Approval of the proposals followed consideration and recommendation by Nominations and Governance Committee.  

Council was mindful in particular of proposals impacting the size and composition and appointment processes for Council. The changes are intended to ensure continued and broaden opportunities for staff and student membership, and that appointment processes align with those for Independent Council members. Council also wanted to ensure alignment with approaches within the sector. 

Council approved the following

Council membership 

A revised composition for Council membership, reducing to 18 members as below. This reduces the size of Council from the current maximum provision of 28 members, with 21 the actual number of members at the end of August 2025. 

The approved Implementation Plan in June 2025 included a target of 17. Nominations and Governance Committee considered options for memberships of 16, 17 and 18 members. They took into account the Privy Council/Charity Commission requirement for an Independent majority. After careful consideration, Nominations and Governance Committee agreed to recommend the option providing for a membership composition of 18 members. 

The revised membership reduced the provision for the number of Independent members by four, Academic Board members and a Senior Academic Staff member by one. The revisions remove Deputy Vice-Chancellors and the Clerk to the Goldsmiths’ Company.   

The provisions for Academic members will be three in total, from previously three Academic Board members and one Senior Academic Staff member. Any Academic staff member would be eligible to apply, but if they were not already an Academic Board member they would be appointed to the Board ex officio. This is in order to provide for the link between Council and Academic Board. This would open out opportunities for Council membership to the wider academic community. 

Changes to membership will be undertaken during 2025/26 in order to allow members to see out their current terms where relevant and/or amendments to Statutes.  

Becoming a Council member 

To replace the current staff and student election process for Council membership with a panel appointment process. In particular this is to encourage more applications from those individuals who may not wish to apply via election, but also so that appointment processes align with those for Independent Council members and are based on skills and expertise, and allowing for a more representative Council. Council considered it was important that relevant constituencies had ownership of the appointment process.   

Therefore, appointment processes would comprise:   

• all appointments to be open calls, application and interview process; shortlisting and interview to be undertaken by a panel. Panel membership will comprise: three academic or PSS or student members, as relevant to the constituency and no Executive Board membership included on the panel; two Independent Council members, one of whom must be a member of Nominations and Governance Committee 

In order to ensure relevant constituencies have responsibility for panel membership and the appointment process that panels members are appointed as follows:

• academic panel members appointed by Academic Board
• PSS panel members appointed by a group of PSS staff comprising a nominated representative from each PSS department
• student panel members appointed by the Students’ Union
• Independent Council members by Nominations and Governance Committee

Proposals on the process to appoint panel members will be brought to the next meetings of Nominations and Governance Committee and Council.  

Committee changes 

Revised terms of reference and membership compositions for committees listed below. As set out in the Action Plan this includes having provision for an Independent majority in the committee membership and ensuring compliance with external requirements.   

• Audit and Risk Committee  
• Finance and Resources Committee  
• Remuneration Committee 
• Nominations and Governance Committee (incorporating Honorary Awards Committee)  

The revised information will shortly be available on the governance webpages. 

That the Joint Negotiation and Consultation Committee is reassigned from Council (retaining appropriate reporting to Council) to be a standalone body. This is in line with practice elsewhere in the sector.   

Standing order amendments   

Confirmation of amendments to the Standing Orders, previously approved by Council Chair’s Action.  

Standing Orders will need to be fully reviewed as part of broader work to modernise governing documents, but minor amendments were made, in particular to facilitate changes to committee compositions and allow the implementation of the new arrangements from start 25/26 (e.g. regarding quoracy arrangements). Other amendments were to provide clarity/ flexibility.   

The revised information will shortly be available on the governance webpages. 

Statute amendments 

In principle approval of proposed amendments to the Statutes. 

The proposal includes amending Statute 3 so that overarching Council membership detail is included in Statute and the detailed membership provision is moved to Ordinance. Currently all Council membership detail is within Statute and means any amendments have to be approved by the Privy Council. The proposal allows for Privy Council oversight and final approval on the overarching membership detail which it would expect to maintain control over (particularly concerning there being an Independent majority membership and in relation to meeting quoracy), but allow the detailed membership composition to be subject to final approval by Council (thereby allowing increased flexibility and timely revisions as required in future). 

The amendments to the Statutes also include provision for Council meeting quoracy, a proposal to move Academic Board membership to Ordinance in line with the approach to Council membership, to remove provisions for senior officers as the information does not need to be retained in Statutes, and some ‘tidying’ amendments (e.g. references to the ‘Warden’ are amended to ‘Vice-Chancellor’).  

Revised Statutes and Ordinances will be brought to November Nominations & Governance Committee and Council for formal approval ahead of submitting the Statutes to the Privy Council for approval. 

Senior Independent Governor  

The responsibilities for a Senior Independent Governor (SIG) on Council are formally combined with the role of the Deputy Chair of Council. This decision recognises that that in practice the current Deputy Chair of Council undertakes a number of the SIG functions at Goldsmiths alongside the core functions of the Deputy who is part of the leadership of Council and deputises for the Chair where required. Key SIG responsibilities include to help advise the Chair, to be an intermediary for other Council members and to help facilitate/ lead an annual appraisal of the Chair.