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The Panel have serious concerns about the absence of an on-going appraisal system for academic staff. The current position is that the University has a Performance Planning, Appraisal and Development (PPAD) system for academic staff which seeks to identify areas in which the staff would benefit from further development. The system is deliberately designed to be non-judgemental with the view to generating a positive attitude from the staff towards appraisal and development. However, in view of the Panel¡¯s comments the PPAD system is under review together with the possible introduction of a unit performance monitoring system, mentioned in paragraph 10. above.
The University shares the concern of the Panel on the number of Committees. The initiative taken by the President to reduce the number and the frequency of meetings, together with an attempt to simplify the process of recording meetings, has had an impact in this area. However, the simplification of the committee system will continue to be pursued with a view to further reducing the overhead this represents on academic staff time.