The College Record 2022

Reports and College Activities
Credit: John Cairns
FROM THE BURSAR
Dr Andrew Timms
Bursar
The past year has been marked by a sense of returning
normality and it has been very pleasing to see the College
come back to life. That is not to imply that it has been plain
sailing, however: life has become very much more difficult
on financial and operational fronts. We have struggled, like
many other employers, to recruit and retain waiting staff
and cleaners (scouts), which has made it quite difficult to
resume the customary level of operations at precisely the
moment when it was most desirable to do so; and as
inflation has taken hold we have also experienced a certain
amount of understandable tension in what is normally a
very tranquil and happy workforce. The College has responded to this in a number
of ways. Firstly, we have kept a close eye on remuneration: we reviewed pay several
times, and brought forward a significant portion of our normal August pay rise for
all staff; we also increased the salaries of the lowest paid staff so that they now
receive the so-called Oxford Living Wage – this is a multiple of the Living Wage
Foundation’s ‘real’ Living Wage (with which we have been an accredited employer
for several years). And we also paid all staff bonuses in respect of the exceptional
efforts made to keep the College functioning during the pandemic. Secondly, we
have embarked upon a consultation on employment terms and conditions with all
non-academic employees, which will look to replace the current patchwork quilt of
varying contractual arrangements that have accumulated over time with a modernised
employment contract, offering more holiday, flexibility, and better benefits in return
for the harmonisation of working hours and other practices across the College.
So in some ways the past year has been more demanding than the pandemic
itself. This has certainly been true of the College’s finances. For example, the
budgeting process had to be interrupted twice to take account of changing inflation
expectations, and the general level of pressure on financial decisions has increased
markedly. Energy costs are a particular concern: they are expected to more than
double if we compare this year (2022–23) with last year (2021–22), and forecasts
for next year suggest further significant increases. To put this into context, in more
normal times the College would have expected to be spending a little under £500k
on energy in a year; the budget this year is over £900k and forecasts for next year
have varied wildly, at times reaching numbers well in excess of £1.5 million. This is a
significant fraction of our core unrestricted educational and operational expenditure
(which is around £10 million per annum). A notable constraint is that, realistically,
we cannot expect simply to pass these costs on to students, so the College ends
up increasing its subsidisation of accommodation. We can absorb this for a year or
two, but if higher energy costs persist then we will have to reconsider our charges
more fundamentally.
34 The Queen’s College | College Record 2022