Wednesday 28 March 2018

Staff Newsletter issue 65

Data protection – the need for speed

The last time we looked at data protection in the staff newsletter we emphasised the requirement in the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to pause, plan and document our activities using personal data. In this update we want to point out an area where speed is crucial.

If you suspect that personal data has been lost, stolen, misplaced or corrupted please contact Information Governance as soon as you are aware that there might be a problem. They will support you in conjunction with UoDIT, Estates and/or Legal in establishing what has happened, what actions we need to take in mitigation and what adjustments we might need to make in future to reduce the risk of recurrence.

There are three very good reasons for this need for speed:

• the sooner we become aware of an incident the greater the chance of mitigating it and reducing the risk to the people whose data may have been compromised
• when GDPR comes into force on 25 May 2018, we only have 72 hours to decide whether we need to notify the regulator or the people affected - don’t think about whether to get in touch with Information Governance for a couple of days, before doing so at 3pm on Friday afternoon - we won’t have the luxury of that much time
• GDPR requires us to keep a log of all incidents, however minor. We need to know about all data incidents and we need to know quickly, even if we decide no action is required in mitigation (this includes ‘near-misses’).

Of course, the best way to avoid data incidents is to use good security practices when collecting, storing, using and disposing of personal information. We published some tips in a September issue of the staff newsletter. Please also remember that incidents don’t have to be technological – the loss or damage of paper files can be just as significant.

To report a problem, or if you have any questions, or if you are unsure about any of the above, please contact Alan Bell, Head of Information Governance dataprotection@dundee.ac.uk.

New guidelines for staff expenses and advances

Staff requesting expenses reimbursement at the cash office desk
There will be no further staff expense claims processed through the Cash Office. All approved staff expense claims should now be submitted to Accounts Payable and will be paid directly into employees’ bank accounts.

Foreign currency requests from staff which are facilitated through the cash office
Provision of cash funds across the counter, in any currency, from the Cash Office are no longer available. All approved cash advances should now be submitted to Accounts Payable and will be paid directly into employees’ bank accounts.

Returning unspent staff advances
Unspent staff advances should be repaid to the University in one of two ways:

• by bank transfer to the University main bank account (Royal Bank of Scotland sort code 835000 account number 00279732) or
• by debit card by telephoning the Cash Office on ext. 88911 (please have your staff ID number available).

In all cases please also complete this form. Please ensure you complete sections 1, 2 and 4. The form should be returned to the Cash Office by email or internal mail before or immediately after making your payment.

Any questions about expenses and advances please contact accountspayable@dundee.ac.uk.

Childcare voucher scheme - extended for six months

The government has agreed to extend the deadline for the closure of the Childcare Voucher scheme to new joiners for a further six months, from April 2018.

This means that following the introduction of Tax Free Childcare, the University’s Childcare Voucher Scheme will close to new joiners from October 2018.

Please refer to the HR website for further information.

Dundee ranked among UK’s best for student experience

The results of the 2018 edition of Times Higher Education’s Student Experience Survey were published last week and once again made good reading for us at Dundee. The University was ranked 2nd in Scotland and 14th in the UK, out of the 116 universities included.

Professor Sir Pete Downes, Principal and Vice-Chancellor said, “This is another very good result for the University and shows that we continue to offer one of the best student experiences in the UK. It is testament to the efforts of the entire University community, students and staff.

“Combined with our Gold rating in the Teaching Excellence Framework, and the many other accolades that the University and the city have received in the past year, this demonstrates once again that Dundee is one of the best places in the UK to live and study.”

Within our overall ranking are some impressive results. We ranked top in the UK on questions relating to 'Centralised/convenient facilities' and 'Cheap shop/bar/amenities' and were in the top five for 'Good students’ union' and 'I would recommend my university to a friend'. We also had notable rises on questions including 'High-quality staff/lectures' (up 31 places to 10th in the UK) and 'Helpful/interested staff' (up 31 places to 11th in the UK).

On the vast majority of questions we ranked in the top 3 in Scotland.

The full tables can be seen on the Times Higher Education website.

Radio 4's The 3rd Degree

Congratulations to our staff team of Chris Spray, Janice Aitken and Paul Campbell who beat our students, Sam Ryan, Mary Am Jabir and Georgia Timpson during Friday's recording of the Radio 4 programme The 3rd Degree, hosted by Steve Punt.

Listen out for the broadcast coming in June/July.

Students answer the web's most searched questions

We asked our students to answer the most googled questions about Dundee, find out what they said on YouTube.

Saturday Series - Against All Odds (Sat 14 Apr)

Anuja Dhir graduated in English and Scottish Law in 1988, after which she moved to London with a Gray’s Inn Scholarship to sit her Bar finals. She practised at the bar for 23 years, prosecuting and defending in serious criminal cases and appeared in cases involving national security and human rights.

In 2010 she was made QC, and in February 2017 she was appointed as the youngest and first non-white judge to the Old Bailey.

In this public lecture she’ll discuss her career, how it all started in Dundee and the challenges she has faced along the way.

Book tickets

Restoration of The Glasgow School of Art (Wed 18 Apr)

Wed 18 Apr 2.30-4pm venue City Campus tbc

Director of the Glasgow School of Art and former Dean of Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, Professor Tom Inns, will be back in Dundee to give an insight into the project to restore their Mackintosh Building.

This event is organised by the University of Dundee Former Staff Club, and there will be a charge of £5.

More information

Book by email before Fri 30 Mar a.pass@dundee.ac.uk

Nursing and Healthcare recruitment fair (Wed 25 Apr)

Wed 25 Apr 11am-2pm Bonar Hall

An excellent opportunity for students to speak directly to a range of employers, with a free bus from Kirkcaldy campus.

Find out more, and book at https://www.dundee.ac.uk/careers/fairs/nursing/

Unsure if it's for you? Watch the video from last year.

Exam Bites – a major new resource for your students

Please highlight Exam Bites to your students. They are a new group of short videos and presentations, offering advice on topics such as:

• planning and organising revision
• study strategies
• what to do during an exam
• how to cope with exam nerves.

They are available on the Academic Skills Centre webpage or as part of the Exam Revision Toolkit (which gives more in depth information), via My Dundee, My Organisations.

More information.

Academic leads for distance learning and for new international programmes

Two exciting new posts are currently recruiting internal candidates:

• academic lead for distance learning 
• academic lead for international programmes.

Further details and information on the application process can be found on the University's internal recruitment webpage  (UoD log in required).

Participants wanted for study on conversations about colour

The Digitally Augmented Research Lab is looking for participants with and without impaired colour vision in an experiment on the perception of, and conversation about colour.

If you are interested, please contact us and we will provide you with additional information about the study before you decide whether to participate. You will be under no obligation to take part.

If you know someone with impaired colour vision, please pass this information on.

To join the study and for any further information please contact m.mauderer@dundee.ac.uk

2018 Reimagine Education Awards: call for judges

The Wharton-QS Reimagine Education competition is the world’s leading awards program for educational innovation. They are recruiting their new panel and are encouraging University of Dundee staff to take part. All judging is done remotely.

More information about what is expected and how to apply can be found on their website.

SANE dog statue

Thanks to all who contributed to the competition to choose a name for our dog statue.  There were almost 100 entries and Mark Beaumont, University Rector, chose the name Hope.  Congratulations to the winners Melanie Wightman, Sharon Kelly and Susan Walker.

Can you design Hope's coat?  Template and dimensions, and submission details are available from: https://www.dundee.ac.uk/disabilityservices/sanedog/

Closing date for entries is Friday 20 April.

From the Web Team blog

Launch of Engineering pages

"We have just finished working with colleagues in Marketing and Engineering to create a new set of web pages. This project was significant for us as it marked a change in the way we deal with common stumbling blocks..." more

Design Sprints

Read about one of our recent design sprints - and if you haven't been along to one, consider booking onto one in the future.

From the Student blog

Why Dundee

"Dundee is definitely one of the smaller, more student friendly Scottish cities. It may take a little while to grow on you but I’m so glad I’ve gotten to spend my university days here..." read more from Sandhya.

Meal tips

Read Navin's tips for eating well when you're busy.

If you wish to communicate around the University, this fortnightly newsletter is just one way to do that. Please check our Methods of Internal Communication webpage, and feel free to get in touch if you have any questions.

The next newsletter will be distributed on Wednesday 11 April - the deadline for information to be included is 4pm on Friday 6 April.