A Contextual Overview
In recent years, universities in the UK have been under a lot of strain. Capped tuition fees and rising costs means that, now more than ever, university boards must deliberate on diversifying their funding streams.
Also, midway through 2025, the Office for Students’ (OfS) E7, E8 and E9 requirements regarding governance and management became effective. In their new conditions and guidelines, they clearly underline the importance of the following records: governing body documents, risk and audit documents, decision-making documents, conflict of interest policy and shareholder agreements.
As well as the financial cuts and new conditions, universities must navigate the digital transformation of governance. As the digital landscape goes through continuous change, digital literacy must be prioritised.
So, what does good governance look like and how can you tell if your council is effective?
Principles of Good Governance
Open Communication
As councils represent shareholders by overseeing a university’s strategic planning, open communication is vital for effective governance. Prioritising open communication creates an atmosphere of honesty. This allows council members to share their ideas and to ask questions. It seems simple, but clarity is often overlooked. For board objectives to be met, everyone’s points or concerns should be heard.
Digital Literacy
Open communication should be encouraged outside of the boardroom and council members don’t have to be extremely tech-savvy to achieve this. Whether your board uses email, meeting tools, a board portal or other agenda software it’s essential that all council members understand how to use them. If some council members don’t understand the technology that your board uses, it should be noted down for future training sessions as digital literacy enables effective contribution.
Additionally, it helps to strengthen your council’s record-keeping. This helps with following legal requirements like the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA), keeping the team accountable and justifying the university’s decision-making.
Mentoring
A reliable approach to making sure that councils are operating effectively is having an effective onboarding process for new members. There are many benefits such as role retention, increased participation and filled knowledge gaps which lead to overall better governance. Making sure that new council members and governors get the support they need gives them a good impression of the board. A positive start will create a sense of enthusiasm for future participation.
Accountability
In the governance field, ‘accountability’ is often mentioned and means that your board should be able to explain and justify its actions. This is important as it promotes a sense of responsibility and ethical decision-making which positively impacts the students.
Risk Management
Every institution has risks that they should pre-empt. A few examples concern the university’s budget, cybersecurity, reputation and employability. These topics should be thoroughly discussed amongst council members and adequate plans should be put in place to prevent or manage the risks or incidents.
Inclusion
University stakeholders come from various backgrounds. Regardless of a council members identity, they should come together to make sure everyone is represented. The Committee of University Chairs (CUC) outlines that there must be processes that ‘eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation.’ Does your board have a plan for reaching equality? An effective board will explore this topic during meetings and address the issue with the university’s values and cultural context in mind.
Participation
An effective council is one that contains enthusiastic members. To ensure that council members are actively participating, each member should understand what their roles and responsibilities are. This can clarify what skills they need to work on to become more effective. Confident board members are more likely to participate in meetings. For example, does the CFO have all the information about your university’s expenses and revenue? Does each board member have all the resources they need to fully participate?
Board Evaluations for Continuous Growth
A sure way to decide if your board if governing effectively is to complete board evaluations. These evaluations consider the board’s processes, strengths and weaknesses to pinpoint what aspects need to be improved for better governance. Essentially, these reviews assess whether all these principles are being adequately met.
Continuous Learning
When board evaluations are completed, does you board have a tailored plan to improve its processes? Continuous training helps the board in many ways. The first advantage is that it ensure individual improvement. The second advantage is that it improves the council’s dynamic. That’s because training often involves group discussions or programmes. Building rapport amongst council members or governors creates a sense of trust during meetings which leads back to open communication.
Key Takeaways
Overall, for 2026 university councils should evaluate how effective they are in these areas.
Aspects of good governance:
- Open communication
- Digital literacy
- Mentoring
- Accountability
- Risk management
- Inclusion
- Participation
- Board evaluations
- Continuous learning
Prioritising these values will ensure continual growth. Every council should strive to have the right mix of skills, a constructive culture, a clear vision and adequate risk management in place.
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