At RHSU, we want to ensure we are as transparent as possible about how decisions are made and who makes them, so let’s dive into what was on the agenda at our latest meeting.
Board of Trustees Summary
On 18 June 2026, we held our final Board meeting of the 2025-26 academic year. This is always a special meeting as we not only say goodbye to our Sabbatical Officers, but we also welcome our new Trustees and Officers as observers to experience their first Board meeting before formally taking on their role as Trustees of RHSU. For this meeting we said goodbye to Olivia, David and Vaishnavi as Sabbatical Officers, Poppy Coates as Student Trustee and one of our Lay Trustees, Lydia Halls who has served on the Board since June 2023.
Building Community, Leading Change
The 2025-26 Officer team presented progress with their priorities across the past academic year, which saw significant success and impact.
The Head of Community Engagement shared early results for the annual Rate your Union survey, with full results to be shared with staff over the summer and Board in October 2026. The initial headlines were very encouraging.
Annual Trustees Report and Audited Accounts
The Head of Finance and Resources updated Trustees on delays with the production of the annual report and audited accounts, driven mainly by additional audit requests and the complexity caused by auditing two finance systems and an extended year end to January 2026. It was agreed that an additional online meeting of Board will be scheduled for late August to receive and approve the audited accounts, as well as note any recommendations in the audit findings report.
April Management Accounts
Trustees noted the 2025-26 performance to date and overall favourable position to the budget, noting that year-end will likely give a surplus position against original budgeted deficit. However, it was noted that depreciation was not factored into the current position meaning that overall, RHSU would still likely be in a deficit position at year end.
2026-27 Budget, Pay Award and Three-Year Forecast
The Head of Finance and Resources presented the draft 2026-27 budget for approval. Following prior scrutiny at the May Finance and Risk Committee, the budget and recommendation for a 4% cost of living award, excluding spine point increase due to affordability, was approved. However, the context for the three-year financial forecast remains challenging if the annual Block Grant remains frozen.
The three-year forecast will be an annual exercise at budget setting that provides a longer-term financial planning horizon and enables Trustees to think more strategically when making decisions. The forecast will also focus attention for senior leadership team and senior managers in terms of charitable impact and commercial return.
Freedom of Speech Code of Practice
The updated code of practice, developed and shared with the university, was presented and approved and will subsequently be shared with all students ahead of the academic year.
General Insurance
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) presented progress with the competitive process for RHSU’s insurance requirements. It was noted the process will likely reduce overall costs, whilst improving cover for the organisation.
Governance
The following approvals were made:
Approval to extend Rory Shanks term of office to February 2028 and to appoint him as Chair of the Board to the end of his term of office as Trustee. This follows University Council’s approval of our new Articles of Association in February 2025, (developed for the new legal entity and Company Limited by Guarantee to which we transfer to on 1 August 2026) which included changes to the Chair of the Board.
It was agreed in line with our Board of Trustees terms of reference that our new President, Matthew Paterson, be appointed as Deputy Chair of the Board lasting until the end of his term of office.
The appointments of Fathima Fysal and Evie Jones as Student Trustees were approved for a term of office till June 2027.
The decision was made to re-appoint Mike Johnson to serve a second term of office as Lay Trustee until June 2030.
The Chair and Deputy Chair were delegated authority to make appointments to Board sub-committees, following expressions of interest to the Board Secretary.
It was noted that Lydia Halls did not wish to be re-appointed to a second term as Lay Trustee and Trustees and senior leadership thanked Lydia for her significant contribution across her term.
Trustees approved the annual calendar of business for Board and its sub-committees for the 2026-27 year and revised the Scheme of Delegation.
CEO Update
The CEO presented a broad update which included a strategic plan progress; the new strategic plan research partner; noted charitable impact across March to June; organisation updates related to enabling themes of People and Culture, Well Governed and Sustainable and Physical and Digital Infrastructure.
Taken as Read Items
The following reports and minutes were noted by the Board: Deputy returning Officer Report; External Speaker and Foreign Influence Registration Scheme; Insanity Radio Annual Report; minutes for People and Culture and Finance and Risk Committees.