Meet the Chair of Compliance, Assurance and Scrutiny Board

Board Member Profile - Paul Burns, Chair of UUK/GuildHE Code Compliance, Assurance and Scrutiny Board and Accommodation Office Manager at The University of Manchester

Hello everyone – I’m Paul, Chair of the Compliance Assurance and Scrutiny Board, and this short piece is the first in what we hope will become a series of introductions to the people working behind the scenes to support The Code. Over the coming months, other board members will share their own personal and professional journeys. 

So… here’s mine. 

I’ve been immersed in the world of student accommodation since the early 2000s. My first role was as a Residential Warden in an international postgraduate hall of residence, followed by a stint as Senior Warden overseeing several halls – all while teaching English to international students at The University of Manchester. 

Eventually, the lively, unpredictable, and endlessly interesting business of managing student halls lured me away from the whiteboard and into the boardroom. I progressed from managing a single hall to multiple halls, and eventually to leading the Accommodation Office itself. 

From the earliest days of The Code, I was involved in audits – and, as The University of Manchester opted to audit every year from the start, the initial “drumroll moment” of the auditors are coming soon faded into a sense of normality. Audits became not a hurdle, but part of “business as usual.” 

I was fortunate to attend, for a number of years, every Joint Codes Conference, where UUK and ANUK colleagues met to exchange ideas and good practice and by virtue of my position within our code sit on the ANUK/Unipol Committee of Management. In 2015, alongside colleagues at Manchester, I co-founded and hosted The Code’s Practitioners’ Conference. Before COVID, we welcomed delegates to Manchester in person; since then, the event has thrived in an online format – and it’s been wonderful to see it go from strength to strength. 

In recent years, I’ve joined both the Governance Board and the CAS Board – and I’m honoured to now serve as Chair of the latter. 

On the personal side: I grew up in Manchester, spent my teenage years in Cardiff, studied law in Aberystwyth, and ran a legal education consultancy in Leicester before moving to Japan for most of the 1990s. Today, I’m married to a Sardinian, raising two teenage children, and following an eclectic set of passions: Cats, Dad jokes, Family, Guinness, Italy, Japan, Lou Reed, Manchester City Football Club, Ultra-running, and the Velvet Underground … and Yes, alphabetised lists.