Frequently Asked Questions

Click on a question to take you to the answer:

1. How did Universities that Count start?
2. Who runs Universities that Count?
3. First things first, why did Business in the Community develop a Corporate Responsibility Index for business?
4. How does the CR Index relate to the Environment Index?
5. What does the CR Index measure?
6. Why should we have a CR Benchmarking Index for the Higher Education sector?
7. Why should we take part in Universities that Count?
8. What are the main benefits of taking part in UTC?
9. Some areas of corporate responsibility are not very relevant to Higher Education. How is the issue of 'materiality' handled? Has Universities that Count made the CR Index more specific to us?
10. What does the Index say about participating HEIs?
11. What does it mean if a university or HE college does well in the Index?
12. What’s the difference between the HE CR Index and the Business one?
13. What if I’m already completing a Regional Environment Index with BITC?
14. What if I want to take part in both Regional and UTC Indices?
15. Why do we have to pay to take part in UTC?
16. What do we get for our money?
17. But I’ve already paid to be a member of BITC!
18. How much time does it take to complete the survey?
19. What sort of team do I need to help me?
20. What is the role of the Environment Association for Universities and Colleges (EAUC) in the CR agenda – I thought they focussed on environmental concerns? How does membership with the EAUC support my participation in UTC?
21. Who is CSR Consultancy and why are they involved?
22. Is this a one year experience or a permanent engagement?
23. What’s the timetable?
24. What will my feedback report cover?
25. How should we respond to our feedback?
26. What does the UTC programme offer that others do not?
27. I already collect data for numerous surveys - isn’t this further duplication?
28. What will CSR Consultancy, BITC or the EAUC do with my data? Is there any risk of my information being passed on without my consent?
29. Is it going to become mandatory to complete UTC?
30. Will the Index develop from year to year to raise the bar and continually provide an acceptable standard?
31. How much trust can people have in the results of a self-completion tool? How robust is the validation process?
32. How will Universities that Count be publicly reported?
33. Who should I contact for more information?

1. How did Universities that Count start?

In the early 2000s, although Universities and Colleges felt they were making improvements in their Environmental and Corporate Responsibility performance, there was no way of gauging performance or benchmarking one institution alongside another to measure improvement, highlight areas of sector success and identify where more work was needed. Therefore in 2005 a pilot project started, initiated by EAUC through Leeds Metropolitan University and funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), to test the appropriateness of Business in the Community’s (BITC) Corporate Responsibility Index and Environment Index for the Higher Education sector. Using the BITC Indices offered the prospect not only of benchmarking between Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) but also of comparing the HE sector with the corporate sector, which has been completing the Indices for some years. The pilot project was judged a success by the 25 participants in England, and the project report - ‘Universities That Count” - was released at the Environmental Association for Universities and Colleges (EAUC) Conference in April 2007. Click here to view the report.

Driven by the enthusiasm of the participants and other HEIs who wished to benchmark themselves, the project partners applied for funding to continue the programme on a permanent basis. In June 2008, the UK Funding Councils confirmed a 3 year tapered funding scheme, leading to self-sufficiency in 2011/12. The programme is available to Universities and Colleges of Higher Education in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England.

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2. Who runs Universities that Count?

There are four project partners:

The Environment Association for Universities and Colleges, who provide overall programme direction, recruit participants and manage communications with participants and other stakeholders. The EAUC also provides overall project fund management and auditing.
Business in the Community, who provide and operate the Corporate Responsibility Index and Environment Index software, provide programme governance and training for the UTC Index Reviewers, and provide independent quality assurance through Arthur D. Little.
CSR Consultancy Ltd. who manage the programme delivery, organise workshops for participants, operate the secure online questionnaire system that collects data for the indices, perform a review and challenge process on the data submitted, and produce individual feedback reports and overall programme reports.
The University of Gloucestershire, which is the HE sponsor for the programme and provides accounting and treasury services to Universities that Count

Universities that Count (UTC) also benefits from guidance from a high-level Advisory Board chaired by Prof. Patricia Broadfoot, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Gloucestershire, who also chairs the Universities UK Sustainability Task Force.

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3. First things first, why did Business in the Community develop a Corporate Responsibility Index for business?

Business in the Community (BITC) developed the Corporate Responsibility (CR) Index to challenge and support its members in managing, integrating and communicating their positive impact on society. Click here to find out more.

BITC has been operating the Environment Index for over ten years now (known as ‘the BiE’ - Business in the Environment - Index). Its original mission was to elevate environmental issues to a higher status at board level and generally raise the importance of environmental risks and opportunities for all organisations.

The idea of an Index for Corporate Responsibility was first recommended in Business in the Community's Winning with Integrity report in November 2000. An attitudinal survey of investors and fund managers in May 2001 also identified the need for "reliable, standardised information that would enable a company's performance to be compared with its peers" while further market research identified a gap for a business-led, voluntary and inclusive management tool. The survey concluded that in 2001:

"There is no authoritative, voluntary, CR initiative that is business led and engages with companies from all sectors, publicly ranking their CR activity, while consolidating information demands made on companies."

The position was the same in 2005 for Higher Education – hence Universities that Count was born.

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4. How does the CR Index relate to the Environment Index?

The CR Index fully incorporates the Environment Index. By completing the CR Index, participating companies receive two sets of feedback, one on the environment and one on the full corporate responsibility agenda.

Participants in Universities that Count have the option of completing either the full CR Index or the stand-alone Environment Index. It is anticipated that when participants choose to complete the Environment Index they will use this experience as a stepping stone to the CR Index.

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5. What does the CR Index measure?

The CR Index is a benchmarking tool that assesses and compares responsible business/organisational behaviour by evaluating:

Responsible business/organisation strategy
The integration of this strategy into the business/organisation
The management of corporate responsibility within the organisation
Performance in a range of social and environmental impact areas.

6. Why should we have a CR Benchmarking Index for the Higher Education sector?

It is generally well accepted that HEIs are ‘businesses’ in as much as they employ large numbers of people, have sophisticated supply chains, and have an impact on the financial context, environment and community in which they are based. And in terms of ‘core-impact’, they produce the next generation of society’s professionals and decision-makers.

Individual institutions can measure their own performance improvements from year to year, but without the context provided by benchmarking there will be no indication of whether the improvements are better than others are achieving, or worse - so a 5% annual improvement may actually mean the institution is falling behind the sector, if the sector is averaging a 7% improvement.

A common benchmarking platform means that institutions are comparing like with like - the same data, collected in the same way, covering the same period. The pilot project helped to define the data set by which institutions are measured, and the Universities that Count UK programme will further embed data collection and assurance in institutions.

Pilot Project HEIs and those that have been consulted prior to the funding proposal for UTC also favoured the sector’s CR benchmarking programme being defined and driven by the sector, rather than imposed on the sector from outside.

Public interest in sustainability and CR is growing, and an independent, quality assured benchmarking programme will provide a sound foundation for institutions to measure and report their performance in these areas.

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7. Why should we take part in Universities that Count?

The UTC benchmarking programme offers a structured framework against which to test the measurement and reporting of your environmental and social impact and related activities. It also offers an opportunity to compare your responsible management and performance against others and provides feedback for improvement. By publicly completing the Index, HE institutions demonstrate a desire to lead developments in reporting and benchmarking, and a commitment to performance improvement.

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8. What are the main benefits of taking part in UTC?

The Index provides a structured measurement and reporting framework that enables institutions to plan activities more confidently and identify areas where improvement is needed. Participation also helps to make institutions more aware of what they are already doing in these areas, raises the profile of such activities both internally and externally, and encourages dialogue throughout the institution.

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9. Some areas of corporate responsibility are not very relevant to Higher Education. How is the issue of 'materiality' handled? Has Universities that Count made the CR Index more specific to us?

The survey includes some flexibility in the “marketplace management section” and in the completion of the social and environmental impacts to accommodate the variation in material issues experienced by different organisations.

We have also created the opportunity for participants to complete an “HE specific impact area” which will be core to your business. This will require you to report on ESD; embedding sustainability or CR into your academic curriculum or research activities. We are currently developing guidelines for completing this question set. To begin with these guidelines will be very broad allowing you to demonstrate how activity in this area can be best captured and reported.

In addition, we are amending the Index guidance notes by changing some of the text, giving you HE specific examples and ideas for evidence to support your answers.

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10. What does the Index say about participating HEIs?

Completing the Index demonstrates an institution’s commitment to continually improving its impact on society, which can affect strategic organisational decisions. It also provides a framework for open and transparent reporting on performance, which helps to build stakeholder relations, and shows that an institution is concerned about how it operates and about delivering ‘sustainability-literate’ graduates to society.

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11. What does it mean if a university or HE college does well in the Index?

Such institutions are demonstrating that they have successfully translated their high-level values into management systems and programmes, and can measure and report how this works in practice.

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12. What’s the difference between the HE CR Index and the Business one?

One of the key benefits of the HE benchmarking programme is that the results are comparable across sectors as well as within the sector - so HEIs can compare their performance with leading corporates as well as peer institutions. Therefore the Index questions are the same for HE as they are for corporates. The key improvements to the HE Index are custom-written guidance notes (which appear on screen as you complete each question) to help HEIs fit their organisational model and operations to the Index framework, and instructions on how to answer the “Impact Area” questions in a way which best displays the impact of HEIs on the world around them, chiefly through including environmental and CR issues in teaching and research.

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13. What if I’m already completing a Regional Environment Index with BITC?

Some HEIs are already taking part in regional Environment Indices through their regional BITC office. The Universities that Count Indices offer the opportunity to complete the more comprehensive Corporate Responsibility Index (as well), which gives a wider view of your institution’s impact on society. Participating in UTC will also give you a broader group of peers to compare your performance with, and give you access to a Best Practice Network of ideas and techniques.

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14. What if I want to take part in both Regional and UTC Indices?

The data you submit to UTC can also be used for the BITC Regional Indices, so taking part in both is completely possible – without too much extra effort on your behalf. BITC/CSR Consultancy staff will simply transfer your data from one programme to the other. You will need to confirm your position for each question and add any additional data, if ‘upgrading’ to the CR Index from the Environment Index. We can discuss this with you in more detail if it becomes an issue for consideration.

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15. Why do we have to pay to take part in UTC?

Organising and administering a quality assured benchmarking programme is a complex task. The programme is being heavily subsidised by the Funding Councils in the first three years and after that Universities that Count will be self-sufficient. In the first year, participants will pay £750 to take part, rising to all participants paying £1500 in year 4. This compares with £4000 to take part in the corporate version of the BITC CR Index. The Funding Councils are also supporting significant development work in the first two years, resulting in sector-specific guidance notes and Corporate Responsibility Impact Areas.

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16. What do we get for our money?

There are two aspects - what you see as an organisation, and the processes which support the quality of the benchmarking.

As an organisation participating in UTC, you will benefit from a ‘Getting Started’ Workshop, a pack of detailed background information including the project report on the UTC Pilot Project, guidance on completing the Index and contact details for CSR Consultancy staff who can help you with your preparation. You will receive your own confidential user name and password to gain secure access to the Index on-line questionnaire, and an email and telephone hotline for questions about completing the Index. Once you have completed your submission, you will benefit from a two stage review process with CSR Consultancy, following this, you will receive a confidential Individual Feedback Report detailing your scores and comparing these with the sector averages, giving you valuable insight into your areas of leadership and where you have room to improve. We are planning a conference for Index participants which will take place each year, summarising the main findings and plotting a course for the next year’s UTC Index.

In the Pilot Project, a Best Practice Network evolved, with HEIs exchanging ideas about improvements, and this is likely to happen again in UTC.

Behind all this is a series of support systems that ensure the quality and independence of the benchmarking programme. These include independent assurance of the Index process by Arthur D. Little, BITC’s constantly evolving Index software and question set, supported by wide-ranging consultation with stakeholders, and competency training for Index reviewers to ensure consistent standards are applied across all institutions completing the Index.

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17. But I’ve already paid to be a member of BITC!

BITC membership will still obviously provide you with all the benefits of membership including expert support across all areas of corporate responsibility and in preparing for participation in UTC. However, UTC is not exclusively a BITC programme. It is a sector-owned programme led by the EAUC, using the BITC tools, and project-managed by CSR Consultancy Ltd.

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18. How much time does it take to complete the survey?

The time taken to complete the survey - there are around 60 questions in the Corporate Responsibility Index and around 20 in the Environment index - varies greatly with your approach. The Environment Index, depending on the sophistication of your Environmental Management System (if any) should only take a couple of days. Some people have attempted the CR Index in one session and claim to have completed it within 3 working days, but a much more fruitful approach is to recruit a team of colleagues and divide up the work amongst you (see below). The need to gather supporting data from all over the university or college is a challenge - so the “time taken to complete” involves a degree of waiting for colleagues to supply data. You should also allocate time to the Index Review process in April and May, when CSR Consultancy staff will be asking you for clarification or more data to support some of your answers - the review interviews take half a day, your subsequent data collection around half a day.

Remember, that the first submission is the most time consuming. From this point on you will now have a fully populated survey to refresh and update so you will not be starting from scratch. You will also have an experienced Index team with a greater understanding of the issues and of what the survey is looking for. This means that there will be more focus on progressing the agenda and less on interpreting the survey and process administration.

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19. What sort of team do I need to help me?

The CR Index covers a broad swathe of university policies, processes and operations, so it would be surprising if any one person had all the facts at their fingertips. Teams of between 5 and 15 people have been assembled to complete the CR Index, with expertise drawn from the departments responsible for the areas covered by the Index; for example:

Strategy, Integration and Governance - Vice Chancellor’s office, Registrar’s office, University Secretary, Planning and Policy.

Management, Performance, and Impact in each of 4 areas:
Workplace - HR, OH&S, Legal dept.
Community – Community Liaison/Relations, HR (for staff volunteering), Lifelong learning/outreach, student associations (for student volunteering and community work).
Environment - Environmental manager, Energy Manager, building design team, groundskeepers, transport planners, student associations (for recycling, waste reduction etc.)
Marketplace - Procurement manager (for sustainable procurement, supply chain), heads of marketing, development and communications, and (a developing field) academics responsible for/with an interest in embedding sustainability in the curriculum - a key impact area for HEIs.

Assurance and Sign-off - Vice Chancellor’s office.

The person co-ordinating the responses - the main UTC contact person - has the role of ringmaster to all of this, making sure that the responses from colleagues are complete, backed up by appropriate data as evidence, and properly moderated so that the self-assessment scores produced ‘look like’ your organisation. It is important to set early internal deadlines to give adequate time to perform this important final stage.

For those completing the Environment Index, a smaller team can be assembled, covering the Environment (and supply chain) areas listed above.

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20. What is the role of the Environment Association for Universities and Colleges (EAUC) in the CR agenda – I thought they focussed on environmental concerns? How does membership with the EAUC support my participation in UTC?

With a membership of over 250 universities and colleges, the EAUC is the environmental and sustainability champion within Further and Higher Education in the UK. The Association was established over 12 years ago and has since grown from the environmental interest at that time to embrace the wider sustainability and corporate responsibility agenda today. The Association actively works with all aspects of further and higher education and seeks to build better understanding and bridges between campus management, curriculum specialists and community and student engagement professionals.

A key role for the EAUC is the sharing of information and best practice amongst the wealth of experience and skill within the membership. In addition EAUC identifies and delivers sustainability staff development and works with sector funders, governors, suppliers and professional bodies to drive sustainability deeper into all aspects of member universities and colleges.

The EAUC was established by and is run for its members. The EAUC is self-financing and uses funds for the benefit of the membership.
Being a member of the EAUC gives your institution access to this valuable network and the ability to influence the direction the organisation takes and the kinds of areas, issues and projects (such as UTC) it becomes involved with, both now and in the future. Click here for more information.

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21. Who is CSR Consultancy and why are they involved?

CSR Consultancy Ltd. was founded by directors Simon Cooper and Liesl Truscott to bring their experience in corporate social responsibility benchmarking, reporting and communication to a wide range of organisations.

Simon came from a career in broadcasting, where he was a presenter, programme controller, managing director, HR director and communications director in his 25 years in the industry. In 2005 he graduated with an MSc in Responsibility and Business Practice from the University of Bath.

Liesl has a background in environmental management and auditing, with a first class degree in Environmental Science from Newcastle University in Australia: she is a qualified environmental and OHS auditor and has published a number of papers on the impact of pesticides in wine production and sustainability in the NZ dairy industry. She was one of the team which launched the Business in the Community Corporate Responsibility index in 2003, is now an Associate of BITC. She continues to perform a number of Index reviews each year.

CSR Consultancy’s involvement in CR benchmarking for universities and colleges dates back to 2005, when a HEFCE-funded pilot project tested whether the BITC Corporate Responsibility and Environment indices would work in an HE context. CSR Consultancy delivered the pilot project and the report - judging it to be a success - was presented at the EAUC Conference in April 2007. In June 2007, HERDA-SW commissioned CSR Consultancy to manage a benchmarking project for the universities and colleges in the South West of England, using the BITC Indices. This project claims almost a 100% participation rate with over 60% completing the full CR Index. CSR Consultancy then led a partnership approach to the Funding Councils for a permanent Universities that Count Programme, which was confirmed for a 3-year tapered funding programme in June 2008.

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22. Is this a one year experience or a permanent engagement?

Business Index participants say the year-on-year opportunity to measure performance improvements - and to compare these with how colleagues are doing – is one of the most valuable part of the process, so an ongoing commitment is the best way to see your involvement in Universities that Count. A one-year snapshot is much less worthwhile than a continuous moving picture of your achievements.

In addition, the benefits of the first year pay off - you will not be starting from scratch since your previous data will be available to you each year and you will simply have to update and refine in line with your annual improvements.

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23. What’s the timetable?

After consulting with participants in the forerunner programmes, the timetable has been set to fit as well as possible with the changing pressures of the academic year. In the first year the timetable is:

‘Getting Started’ workshops October & November 08
Index Completion Period December 08 to March 09
Completion Deadline March 31 2009
Individual Index Reviews April and May 09
Feedback Reports to participants June 09
Programme Report published July 09

24. What will my feedback report cover?

The confidential feedback report provides institutions with their position in their sector (HE), and an overall position against each impact area. Your scores across the Index will be confidential to you and you will be benchmarked against the sector average and the business average each year (extracted from Companies that Count). This gap analysis helps participants to identify strengths and weaknesses in performance and to establish where improvements can be made.

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25. How should we respond to our feedback?

The feedback provides you with a powerful management tool to help engage senior management and university board members by raising awareness of the full range of responsible business issues within your institution. Since the Index benchmarks performance within the HE sector and against your peers, it provides a basis for an action plan and a framework for improvement.

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26. What does the UTC programme offer that others do not?

There is no other independently quality assured CR benchmarking programme specifically for HEIs. Other programmes usually consider environmental impacts alone, and sometimes rely on data in the public domain which can be incomplete or out of date. Where questionnaires are issued for completion by HEIs, these are not reviewed and challenged in the way that UTC does.

UTC is sector driven and will remain sector-led in terms of setting the agenda for stakeholder reporting.

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27. I already collect data for numerous surveys - isn’t this further duplication?

Minimising duplication is a key objective for the business version of the CR Index, and many corporates use data from their CR Index submission to answer queries from other organisations which used to require a separate data gathering exercise. Many of the Index questions for ‘environment’ run parallel with the data required for your Environmental Management Statistics required by UK funding councils now, so you will find one set of data will serve for a number of purposes.

We will do our best to highlight areas within the Index that may be seen as duplicating other programmes or requests for data. We will strive to reduce any extra effort on your behalf by illuminating where the same information can be used to satisfy both requests - or better still investigate ways of sharing this data with other bodies to completely eliminate your need to supply this information more than once.

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28. What will CSR Consultancy, BITC or the EAUC do with my data? Is there any risk of my information being passed on without my consent?

Absolutely not. The contractual arrangement between the three programme partners has a confidentiality clause. Data will remain the property of the programme participants. Any data-sharing will be initiated by programme participants. If information is to be used in the public domain (as an example of best practice, etc) approval will be sought.

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29. Is it going to become mandatory to complete UTC?

Universities that Count is a voluntary benchmarking and reporting programme, there has never been any suggestion that it should be mandatory. However, in the corporate sector participation in the BITC CR Index is seen as the most effective way for companies to demonstrate their CR credentials, so most companies with an active CR strategy do take part. The same effect is likely with UTC, and however you predict the political future issues of environment and corporate responsibility will grow as a concern for students, staff, funders and other stakeholders. UTC will be a valuable, independent resource in assessing, reporting and improving your CR position.

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30. Will the Index develop from year to year to raise the bar and continually provide an acceptable standard?

As best practice develops, particularly in the social and core-impact areas, UTC will evolve to reflect it, in the same way that the CR and Environment Index has developed and evolved for the corporate world.

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31. How much trust can people have in the results of a self-completion tool? How robust is the validation process?

A number of approaches have been adopted to validate the survey responses:

The guidance notes have been strengthened where possible to provide clear and explicit guidance on definitions and examples. These are presented as drop-down menus on the electronic tool and provided as a standalone document.
The assurance question represents 10% of the overall score, and half of that relates to an institution’s willingness to disclose its results.
The survey requires sign off by the Vice Chancellor, President, or a member of each institution’s Board of Governors.
The review process involves visits to a proportion of participants, focussing on newcomers to the Index.
Business in the Community provides a level of governance to the UTC programme – as well as providing any developmental improvements to the survey tool.
CSR Consultancy‘s validation process, including checks at the collection, analysis, aggregation and presentation stages, is independently assured by Arthur D Little.

32. How will Universities that Count be publicly reported?

Part of the success of the business benchmarking programme is the status it receives through the annual publication of Companies that Count - released as a supplement in the Sunday Times each May. HE stakeholder consultation to date reveals that publication through a reputable and relevant national media partner would be welcomed by the sector and key to the programme’s success. We will continue our stakeholder activities to ensure that any public reporting is indeed a celebration of the sectors achievement and a ‘badge of honour’.
In the first year of UTC (2008/09) a ‘league table’ will not be produced. From the second year of the programme, participants’ results are likely to be banded platinum, gold, silver, bronze - in line with Companies that Count. The intention of UTC, however, is that the results should focus on highlighting areas of strengths, progress and the interpretation of data rather than a set of numbers.

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33. Who should I contact for more information?

Please email us or call 01242 714321

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