One of the great pleasures of my PVC job that was unexpected when I started in 2004 has been the creation of the network of friends I have made amongst those doing the same role in other universities.  In September 2004 a Russell Group PVC L/T network was formed, and we have had twice-yearly meetings ever since - originally taking over a small hotel in a village near Swindon, but more recently becoming peripatetic and going round the home cities of our universities (I hosted such a meeting in Sheffield in March 2007).  More recently I have taken up the role of co-chair of the PVC L/T network of the Higher Education Academy - again with twice yearly meetings, although held in London.

As PVCs L/T it could be thought that we are all competing for our respective universities. In fact we have a lot in common, and a lot to be gained from talking together about how we are tackling a number of major issues.  We all have interactions with the QAA, with the HEA, and with UUK's Europe Unit over the implementation of the Bologna Process, to name but a few.  And we have all had to respond to recommendations such as those of the Burgess review on degree classification.  Within the Russell Group we all face similar challenges in ensuring that teaching agendas and concerns get their rightful share of attention in the face of research pressures.  It is good to have a network of colleagues who I can phone up to find out how they have tackled a particular problem, and from time to time e-mail messages go out around the whole group in the attempt to build up a comparative picture of actions being taken on some agenda item facing us all.

Our meetings have also attracted significant participants as guests: the HEA network meeting I co-chaired in London in November had Phil Willis MP (Chair of parliament's Select Committee on Innovation, Universities and Skills) and the new Chief Executive of the Quality Assurance Agency (Anthony Maclaran) among the speakers.  Guests at Russell Group meetings have included Bill Rammell, David Willetts, Michael Arthur (as Chair of the Russell Group) and Ruth Deech (then Head of the Office of the Independent Adjudicator - the Ombudsman for Higher Education).

Today my new PVC colleague at Nottingham, Saul Tendler, came to visit me and we exchanged experiences on a wide range of issues including actions in the face of NSS results, initial professional development courses for new lecturers, teaching innovation, and views on the current consultation on the national system of quality assurance.  Joined by Jackie Gresham, the Head of LeTS, we toured the Information Commons and the CILASS spaces there - and as is customary Jackie and I received warm praise, on behalf of the university, for the IC concept and its design. I have lost count of how many visitors from other universities we have now had to the IC, and there has been nothing but commendation for what we have created there.  I was delighted last week that our students had voted our library and opening hours the best in the UK in a Times Higher Survey - and pleased also that our Marketing Team got that onto the unviersity home page so quickly (if for too short a period!).

Richard Jones (PVC Research) and I both have these extended networks outside the university - as also do the Vice-Chancellor, the Registrar, the Director of FInance (Bob Rabone), the Academic Secretary (Claire Baines) and the Director of HR (Rosie Valerio).  It is unfortunate that the Faculty PVCs do not have access to such networks - in part because Sheffield now structures its executive team rather differently from many other universities, and in part also because there is more natural competition with other institutions for the best students and for research income at Faculty level.

This evening I attended the welcome party, held in the Students' Union, for the newly-arrived January entry cohort into Sheffield International College - amounting to around 200 students.  From my point of view this necessitated a short speech and provided the chance to meet a number of students who have the aspiration to succeed in SIC and move into the University in September.  I managed to speak to students from China, Libya, Iran, Pakistan and Nigeria among others.  Something that I am keen to do is to spread the understanding more widely around the university of how important SIC is to us.  Yesterday I received data to show that 26% of our new overseas undergraduates in 2009 came to us via SIC, along with 11% of our new overseas postgraduate taught programme entry.