President's weekly update
25 April 2024
Visit of the President of Ireland
We were honoured to host a visit of the President of Ireland, Michael D Higgins, who is a highly respected politician, scholar and humanitarian, and who spent time studying at our University in the late 1960s.
We presented the President with an honorary doctorate in the Whitworth Gallery, presided over by our Chancellor, Nazir Afzal. Professor John McAuliffe, who leads our Centre for New Writing delivered a great citation and I gave a welcome address. This was followed by a dinner in the President’s honour. The President was lovely and happy to speak to and be photographed by the many people who wanted to meet him. There was a lot of green amongst the usual purple colour in the audience.
The next day he gave a lecture entitled ‘Of the consciousness our times need in responding to interacting crises, and the role of universities as spaces of discourse in facilitating it’. The President touched on themes including the migratory experience, the importance of food security, and how universities provide grounds for thinking freely, and empower students to think freely for the betterment of society – especially their own societies.
Educate North award for ‘University of the Year’
It was fantastic that in our bicentenary year we were awarded ‘University of the Year’ by Educate North.
Regular meeting with our Students’ Union
We discussed the National Union of Students’ annual conference which our Students’ Union attended, the Greater Manchester Students manifesto for the mayoral election, ongoing concerns about the cost of living for students and their contributions to the bicentenary events.
Leaders meeting with focus on ID Manchester & Creative Manchester
At a meeting with about 40 leaders in the University, following my general update, we had fantastic presentations on Innovation District Manchester and Creative Manchester which highlighted incredible opportunities and great initiatives across all parts of the University and some exciting plans for the future.
Emeritus Professors meeting
This is an annual event, which I have spoken at every year since I became Vice-Chancellor. Many of the nearly 60 attending continue to contribute to the University. They heard an excellent presentation from Jemma Roper Gurr on plans for our fundraising campaign. I then gave an update on the challenges we face, the many achievements over the past year and the very positive response to the appointment of my successor, Professor Duncan Ivison. A significant part of the discussion was on the apparent demise of humanities and arts in the university sector. I was very robust in my response, as I often am publicly, about the critical importance of arts and humanities to society and the great strengths of these subjects in Manchester.
Board Finance Committee
At the meeting we reviewed our financial position and future forecasts for the year, but again discussed concerns about the financial sustainability of universities, not least given the worries around international student recruitment. We also reviewed the plans for our student residences and discussed our major change projects with some detail on our IT plans which are progressing well. It was good to see Hannah Mortimer, our Students’ Union Academic Affairs Officer reporting a significant reduction in student complaints about IT and particularly about computer clusters.
Important surveys
Please urge all our students to complete the National Student Survey (NSS) which closes on 30 April, and please all complete the wellbeing survey.
Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor