USS research open meeting, Thursday 18 November 2021
Duration: 1 hour 59 mins
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| Description: |
The presentation starts at 0:41 after the initial slide.
The University of Cambridge hosted an online panel discussion on two recent research papers that raise important questions about the valuation assumptions used by USS in its 2020 valuation, as well as how the scheme might ultimately be put on a long-term sustainable footing. |
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| Created: | 2021-11-18 17:55 |
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| Collection: | USS open meetings |
| Publisher: | University of Cambridge |
| Copyright: | Cordelia Brown |
| Language: | eng (English) |
| Abstract: | The University of Cambridge hosted an online panel discussion on two recent research papers that raise important questions about the valuation assumptions used by USS in its 2020 valuation, as well as how the scheme might ultimately be put on a long-term sustainable footing.
The meeting took place on Thursday 18 November from 10.30 to 12.30, and the invite was extended to USS members at all employer institutions. Attendees heard from Professor James Sefton from Imperial College London on his and Professor David Miles’s recent research on USS, and from Professor Raghavendra Rau of the Cambridge Judge Business School, who has compared the assumptions about real returns used by USS in the 2020 valuation with actual market performance in the twentieth century. Professor Rau’s modelling concludes that starting from the £80.6bn value of USS’s assets at 31 March 2021, and with no de-risking of its portfolio, if historic assets returns repeat themselves, there is no pattern since 1900 that would cause the scheme to run out of money before meeting all of its liabilities. The meeting considered the practical implications of both papers for the long-term future of the scheme, particularly in relation to the potential benefits offered by a risk-sharing structure between employers and members such as conditional indexation. This is something that USS, UUK and UCU have all agreed to explore. Other panellists included Mike Otsuka, Professor of Philosophy at the London School of Economics and UCU negotiator (alternate), Anthony Odgers, Chief Financial Officer at the University of Cambridge and a member of the UUK negotiating team, and Norma Cohen, an ex-Financial Times journalist with a specialism in investments, pensions and economics (currently pursuing a PhD in Economic History). The meeting was moderated by Chris Havergal of the THE, and there was an opportunity to put questions to the panel via the MS Teams Chat function. |
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