appointment of vice principal - saxbam.com · • to underpin all college activity with the...

Rose Bruford College Appointment of Vice Principal

Appointment of Vice Principal November 2020


CO NTENTS 1. Introduction

2. About the College

3. The role

4. The person

5. Terms of appointment

6. How to a pply


Introduction from the Principal Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance is an outstanding international higher

education institution, with its own taught degree awarding powers, based in South East London.

We do things differently - founded in 1950 by visionary voice teacher, Rose Bruford, we seek to

maintain and develop her pioneering spirit.

Innovation is part of our DNA and we continue to push the boundaries of training in performance

and technical arts, making us one of the world’s leading theatre and performance

conservatoires. For example, we introduced the UK’s first ever university BA degree in Acting in

the 1970s, developed the first degree course for actor-musicians, and have the largest suite of

technical courses in the UK, including new courses in digital/mixed reality design for theatre and

live events. For the academic year 2020/21 we have introduced a BA in Theatre and Social

Change (examining how performance skills can be used to reach out to communities and drive

social justice) and are considerably enhancing our taught postgraduate portfolio.

We are one of the UK’s largest performance colleges, with over 750 students undertaking full-

time undergraduate and full/part-time postgraduate degrees, and 50 taking foundation, part-

time and professional development courses. We hold a Gold Award from the Teaching Excellence

Framework for consistently delivering learning outcomes of the highest quality. The College is

planning to apply for university status and will begin this process early in 2021.

We are proud of our legacy but also need, and intend, to do much more to respond to the

unacceptable lack of equality, diversity and inclusion within Higher Education and the creative

industries. D/deaf and disabled young people, young people of colour, care leavers, mature

students, and those from a low socio-economic background, are under-represented. This

imbalance has a knock-on effect on society: excluding viewpoints; disenfranchising talented

artists; and deepening societal divisions.

Much more needs to be done to put the perspectives of under-represented groups at the heart

of the creative industries. To address this, we have decided to make a step-change in the way

that we operate. Over the next five years we will undergo a strategic transformation to provide

a completely inclusive, high-quality educational and training model that will Create the Change-

Makers of the future - artists and practitioners who are articulate and motivated, alive and

curious.

The College is also undertaking a programme of strategic development and growth of our

curriculum and student numbers at all levels. As part of this development we are looking to

restructure the senior academic team and it is anticipated that the new Vice Principal will be fully

involved in this restructure.


The current Vice Principal, Dr Andrew Walker, is leaving the College after 10 years in post where

his achievements include the accomplishment of TEF Gold and Taught Degree Awarding Powers.

We are now looking to appoint a Vice Principal who will provide strategic leadership to the

College academic portfolio and its delivery in line with the College vision, values and principles.

The Vice Principal will deputise for the Principal on all academic matters and be a strong, visible,

effective and supportive member of the College executive team. We welcome applications from

suitably qualified candidates who bring creativity and inspiration, either creative practioners in

a discipline relevant to the College or experienced academics, or those with mixed experience.

Strong candidates will have the ability to determine an imaginative vision for the academic

portfolio, and a creative strategy to realise it. They will understand and enjoy the innovative and

inclusive spirit of the College.

Rose Bruford College advocates integrity, inclusivity and creativity. We champion diversity

because a rich mix of people makes Rose Bruford College a more productive and creative place

to study and work; and we champion equality because it is the right thing to do. We particularly

welcome applications from candidates of colour and from the D/deaf and disabled communities

who are currently under-represented in our academic workforce.

This document should be read in conjunction with other supporting material and information

on the College website. Thank you for taking the time to consider this role; we look forward to

hearing from you.

Best wishes,

Clarie Middleton

Principal and Chief Executive, Rose Bruford College


ABOUT THE COLLEGE INTRODUCTION TO THE 2019/20 ACADEMIC YEAR In 2019/20 the College ran 21 undergraduate and postgraduate degree programmes, and a range of

courses for professionals and the local community. These courses involved over 900 students, both on

campus and via online learning.

• 13.6% of our full-time undergraduate students who joined us this year were students of colour

• Over 36% of our students identified themselves as D/deaf or disabled

• 61% of the new first year undergraduates were female, with 39% male.

Although the second half of the College’s production schedule was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic

there were some notable successes in the earlier part of the academic year such as RBC’s first visit to the

Trafalgar Studios in London’s West End with the Showcase for Level 6 Acting and Actor Musicianship

students which attracted exceptional attendance from agents and casting directors.

During the College’s “lockdown” period after 23rd March 2020 due to COVID-19 all teaching and learning

successfully adapted to being fully online. Students in their final year adjusted well and some exceptional

digital projects were delivered. Students in the first two years returned to campus from 1st September

2020 to catch up on the practical work they had missed, and which needed to be completed for them to

progress to their next year of training and study. This was done in a COVID secure environment including

the use of the refurbished Dome which allowed performances to take place out of doors. During this

period the College presented 42 performances and 2 films.

Early in 2018 the College heard that it had been successful in its bid to the HEFCE Catalyst Fund for

£941,352 towards a new Centre for Digital Creation and Production. This has enabled us to develop new

programmes to attract new undergraduate students. The Centre was completed at the end of 2019/20

and has enrolled its first cohort of undergraduates in the 2020/21 academic year. In addition to this, we

have also built two new performance training studios.

In July 2020 the College received its annual NSS results. The overall satisfaction score within the

performance programmes was up on last year at 90.6%.

All RBC achievements in 2019/20 have been accomplished against the unforeseen effects of the global

COVID-19 pandemic, a continuing background of unprecedented flux and uncertainty in the world of

higher education - including subject level TEF and the Post-18 Review - and in the wider political uncertainty

posed by Brexit.


2020/21 AND BEYOND As Rose Bruford College moves into the 2020/21 academic year we are looking forward to a period of

increased resilience and strategic growth within the next three years as we progress towards full university

status.

We will continue to review our existing curriculum to ensure that all our programmes are providing the

best possible learning and personal development experience for each of our students, are fully accessible

and inclusive, are providing an excellent springboard for the students to progress into employment, and

provide both value for money for the student while being cost effective for the College.

Alongside this we will be researching and developing new programmes for the curriculum to be

introduced over the next five years, together with new and flexible modes of delivery. We will develop and

enhance our academic offer with the following key objectives:

• To be distinctive

• To create and empower cultural leaders, the Change Makers of the future

• To extend what is meant by “performance” to reflect the creative industries in the 21st century

• To respect the history and values of the College and the legacy of Rose Bruford herself within a

vibrant and contemporary learning and teaching framework

• To underpin all College activity with the principles of equality, diversity and inclusion.

New courses that are being explored include:

• BA (Hons) Contemporary Cabaret and Popular Culture for 2022/23 – in partnership with Marisa

Carnesky and the Tramshed in Woolwich

• BA (Hons) Spoken Word and Urban Performance for 2022/23

• BA (Hons) Acting for Screen for 2022/23 – possibly also in Belfast

• MA Cultural Activism through Creative Practice for 2021/22

• Certificate of HE Music Leadership for 2021 – in partnership with the Notting Hill Academy of Music

• Further BA and MA courses in digital arts, music creation and production, and film creation and

production.

In 2021 RBC will be a UK partner for the epic walk of Little Amal, a 3.5-metre-high puppet (made by the

creators of War Horse) representing a 9-year-old refugee girl. This walk will cover 5,000 kilometres from

Syria to the UK and is the brainchild of director, Stephen Daldry.

To read our online prospectus for 2021/2020 please Click Here


History and Context Innovative pedagogy and professional practice have been at the heart of the College’s mission since its

inception. In 1950 Rose Bruford, a trained actor and verse and speech teacher at the Royal Academy of

Music, founded a unique drama school that unified theatre practice and drama education into one

curriculum. She aimed to train actors who could teach and teachers who could act. Her college, dedicated

at first to the training of drama teachers, officially opened on 6 July 1951 as Rose Bruford Training College

for Speech and Drama.

Rose Bruford was part of a pioneering British post-war movement that saw theatre training as more than

an elite, privileged activity. Her school and its renowned Theatre Arts programme, produced practitioners

with an informed view of their responsibilities as communicators and educators. Graduates were teachers

and theatre workers who were fluent in the theory and practice of theatre making.

Whilst much has changed at the College since its founding, especially with the development of more

undergraduate and taught postgraduate programmes in performance and technical arts, Rose Bruford’s

pioneering philosophy and vision continue to underpin the College’s mission. The institution has

continued to produce graduates who have made significant contributions to the development of theatre

production and practice and theatre education worldwide. Over the years, both the graduates and the

College’s portfolio, have diversified into the broad range of creative industries.


The Campus The College is located in Lamorbey Park, Southeast London, in beautiful, green grounds just 30 minutes

by train from Trafalgar Square and the heart of London’s West End. The campus clusters around the Grade

II listed Lamorbey House with modern, purpose-built facilities, including a 330-seat theatre-in-the-round,

a 100-seat flexible Barn theatre, one black box studio theatre, spacious rehearsal rooms, recording

studios, technical laboratories, a new digital creation and production centre, a unique drama library and

well-equipped study areas. In 2015 the College opened Christopher Court, a 168 en-suite room

accommodation facility a short walk from campus.

Vision Create the change-makers of tomorrow

Mission To achieve social as well as cultural impact through delivering the highest quality vocational training and

education across a wide, innovative spectrum of learning and teaching that delivers proactive graduates

who are creative, empowered, employable, inclusive and diverse, ethical and intercultural in outlook.

Values The behaviour of RBC is guided and determined by its core values; Integrity, Creativity and Inclusion.

Strategic Aims: • Provide an inclusive, collaborative and supportive student experience which empowers, equips and

transforms their personal and professional growth in the wider creative industries

• Develop and enhance the academic offer (training/ education/ research) to ensure it is inclusive,

innovative and empowering

• Recruit and retain a current, industry engaged, and diverse staff cohort enabled and empowered to

develop and challenge the students, themselves and the wider industry

• Facilitate organisational growth and resilience, and underpin staff and student transformation and

empowerment y developing the academic officer, alternative income streams, and professional

systems and services

• Become a centre of excellence and a leader of good practice across all areas of access and

participation within HE, and particularly within the small specialist creative sector

https://www.bruford.ac.uk/study/whilst-here/accommodation/


What will success look like in 2025 – A Snap Shot • RBC alumni clearly making a tangible social as well as cultural impact

• RBC consistently placed in the top five specialist creative industries HEIs in all polls

• A unique brand established as a sector leading specialist HEI with the highest reputation for

access and inclusion, interculturalism and employability across all programmes

• Unique inclusive programmes flourishing and attracting new and different communities of

learners

• Specialist programmes that support disadvantaged groups flourishing

• Holistic college-wide engagement with well-being and inclusion

• Excellent diversity amongst both staff and students

• Approximately 1,500 students on UG, PGT and PGR programmes together with various

uncredited programmes

• 100% increase in turnover and a regular surplus on the P&L

• Reasonable cash reserves

• University status achieved

• Structures and systems fit for purpose

• Second campus facility firmly established

• RBC attracting significant new income streams

• Significant engagement with new technologies in learning and teaching and the overall student

experience

• Regional hubs established

• Significant new national and international partnerships established


Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: RBC is striving to be a centre of excellence and model of good practice in access and participation –

particularly within the small specialist creative HE sectors – and has had its Access and Participation Plan

2020/21 to 2024/25 approved by the Office for Students.

Throughout the life of this Plan RBC will change the culture of the institution to make it inclusive by design

across the whole College community. We will remove elements that might make under-represented

groups feel “othered” and integrate inclusion into all of our existing systems and practices in order to

move from a reactive to an anticipatory environment.

We will enhance our attractiveness to students from disadvantaged groups by ensuring they can see

themselves reflected in the academic and professional services workforce of the College. This is especially

relevant to students of colour and D/deaf and disabled students. RBC has begun a pro-active recruitment

campaign to diversify staff in all sections of the institution and at all levels. This strategy is supported by a

curriculum development plan. This change in our workforce will be incremental over a five-year period

with a target of 35% of our permanent and visiting workforce being drawn from our target communities.

The College is committed to a number of strategic measures to meet its targets for its identified

disadvantaged groups. During 2019/20 we continued to award low-income bursaries £101,463, offered

counselling £26,845, and hardship support £6,360 to over 35 students. Through the Audition Fee

Remission Policy, the College offered applicants from households with an income under £25,000 the

opportunity to audition for free.

RBC will explore whether all of its undergraduate portfolio can be taught more flexibly (potential from

2022/23) – possibly over a longer (flexible) or shorter (intensive) time frame, at different times of the day,

or over weekends/holiday periods to facilitate participation by, for example, mature students who are

carers and/or need to work to support their studies.


THE ROLE Objective: Providing strategic leadership to the College academic portfolio and its

delivery in line with the College vision, values and principles, and ensuring

that our provision is distinctive and inclusive, and responds to learners’

needs while addressing Government priorities, the needs of the industry

and continuing to improve quality

Responsible to: The Principal and Chief Executive

Areas of responsibility: Planning and development of the College academic portfolio and its

delivery, academic staff engagement and external funding activities, and

quality of all learning programmes

MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Provide a strategic academic steer to the College academic portfolio and its development and

delivery, guiding the Senior Management Team in the development and continuous

improvement of the College’s provision of theatre and performance education and training at

post-18 level and its relevance to the creative and cultural industries.

• Working with the Academic Registrar, take responsibility for producing an annual quality

improvement plan aimed at the raising of standards of recruitment, retention and achievement

and for setting and monitoring appropriate targets with relevant managers

• Create a high performing body of academic staff, nurture talent, releasing potential and ensuring

all staff are engaged, flexible and agile with a desire to achieve

• Work to embed policies and processes that support and promote the College’s commitment to

equality, diversity and inclusion

• Working with the Professor of Theatre and Performance, establish and implement a clear

strategy for research across the College

• With the Principal, lead on bidding for external funds to run or enhance education and training

provision based both within and outside College

• Work with the Principal and the Director of Finance and Operations, to ensure the viability of

course provision, setting and reviewing targets for all activities including income and expenditure


OTHER RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Deputise for the Principal on all academic matters

• Be a strong, visible, effective and supportive member of the College executive team

• Work with senior managers and staff across the College establishing relationships based on

respect and clarity, and consulting widely on change

• Contribute actively to the development and review of the College’s strategic plan (including, but

not limited to, its Access and Participation Plan), overseeing annual action plans and reporting on

progress

• Deliver, when required, staff development on issues and changes in your areas of responsibility

• Undertake external liaison, representing the College with regional, national and international

partnerships and other external agencies and stakeholders


THE PERSON

For this post we are looking for a person who can bring creativity and inspiration to the role. There are

four key requirements for this post:

▪ Leadership – an inspirational vision for the academic portfolio and a strategy to turn it into

reality; qualities to help to navigate the College through change, building on its record of

achievement and reinvigorating a high-quality academic community

▪ Imagination - a sustainable and systematic approach to quality improvement

▪ Innovation – the creation of ideas and processes that create value and improves lives

▪ Empowerment – a style of management, which is pro-active, consistent and in line with our

vision, values and principles.

QUALIFICATIONS

➢ Have undertaken continuous professional development

SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE ➢ Understanding of the national policy context of the Higher Education sector and the ability to

translate this into strategies.

➢ Have your own creative practice in a discipline relevant to the College

➢ Have a real passion for the education, creative and cultural sectors and their continuing

relevance, based on practical experience as a leader, and a desire to see them flourish

➢ At least four years’ experience as a member of a senior management team.

➢ Ability to determine an imaginative vision for the academic portfolio, and a creative strategy to

realise it.

➢ Ability to advise and support others on the operational aspects of a college academic portfolio

➢ Ability to develop and implement quality assurance resulting in improved standards for students

➢ Ability to give leadership on equality and diversity, and to embed them into curriculum and

staffing decisions

➢ The ability to translate the challenges faced by marginalized groups into portfolio strategies and

student achievement, with a focus on:


• Learners from BAME backgrounds

• D/deaf and disabled learners

• Care leavers

• Mature learners

• First generation participation in HE learners

• Working class learners

➢ Ability to manage teams and individuals

➢ Experience in implementing HR procedures such as absence management, discipline, grievance,

harassment / bullying and under-performance

➢ Ability to manage data and resources

➢ Communication: ability to write complex reports, to articulate arguments, talk to groups, chair

meetings, and be empathetic, respectful and clear in one-to-one meetings

➢ Ability to manage complex projects

➢ Ability to practise the principles of collaborative working

EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY Rose Bruford College advocates integrity, inclusivity and creativity.

This means we aspire to the highest achievements for our students and the best possible working

environment for our staff. The whole College community - women and men, younger and older, from

different social and ethnic backgrounds, a variety of faiths, cultures and languages, lesbian, gay, non-

binary and straight, disabled and non-disabled – we are all treated with the same respect and entitled to

the same chances to succeed.

We champion diversity because a rich mix of people makes Rose Bruford College a more productive and

creative place to study and work; and we champion equality because it is the right thing to do.

We particularly welcome applications from candidates of colour and from the D/deaf and disabled

communities who are currently under-represented in our academic workforce.


TERMS OF APPOINTMENT

• This role is a Board of Governors appointment.

• It is a full-time position (35 hours per week/52 weeks per year).

• The appointee will be offered an attractive remuneration package, commensurate with the

seniority and responsibilities of the role; this will be negotiated with the preferred candidate.

• The remuneration will be inclusive of Outer London Weighting Allowance, as well as 35 days’

holiday per annum plus Bank Holidays, a generous pension scheme and access to personal

development.

• Working hours can be flexible.

HOW TO APPLY Saxton Bampfylde Ltd is acting as an employment agency advisor to Rose Bruford College on this appointment.

Candidates should apply for this role through our website at www.saxbam.com/jobs using code WAWXB

Click on the ‘apply’ button and follow the instructions to upload a CV and cover letter, and complete the

application and equal opportunities monitoring* form.

The closing date for applications is noon on 22 December 2020

If you are unable to apply through the website, please email [email protected] quoting reference

WAWXB

* The equal opportunities monitoring online form will not be shared with anyone involved in assessing your

application. Please complete as part of the application process.

http://www.saxbam.com/jobs

appointment of vice principal - saxbam.com · • to underpin all college activity with the...

Documents