External Member, Finance Committee

Role Overview

• Contribute to the high-level oversight of all financial aspects of SFC.
• Provide appropriate strategic guidance, insight, and challenge, and offer specialist sector expertise.
• Review and monitor the financial health of institutions and funded bodies and make recommendations to the Board.
• Review the medium-term financial planning and recommend to the Board its approval and any subsequent changes.
• Scrutinise the annual budgets for programme fund, for both financial (April to March) and academic (August to July) years, prepared by the SFC Executive, and recommend the Board's adoption.
• Review the financial aspects of the annual report and accounts for consistency with financial information reviewed by the Committee during the year.

Requirements

• Accounting experience, particularly in respect of financial management and financial reporting, budgets and medium to long term financial plans.
• Skills and experience in overseeing the management of investments.
• Excellent analytical skills and the ability to interrogate and interpret complex information and participate fully in Committee deliberations.
• Effective interpersonal and communication skills, demonstrating an ability to work collaboratively, identify key issues, and reach balanced conclusions.
• Appreciation of the importance of confidentiality. At least one of these:
• Knowledge or experience of the tertiary education sector.
• An understanding and/or experience of college sector funding.
• An understanding of the role of the further and higher education sectors to provide high quality teaching and research and to provide economic, social and cultural value to society.
• An understanding of the external pressures in the further and higher education sectors and the challenges facing universities and colleges to overcome these.
• Proven ability to work effectively within the public sector requirements for accountability and openness and within financial constraints. External committee members would be required to comply with SFC’s Model Code of Conduct. Applicants are required to submit their CV and provide a short personal statement (no more than 500 words) setting out an overview of the skills and knowledge that they have to offer and why they feel suitable to serve on this committee.