President's Weekly Update
15 June 2017
As you will know there is much uncertainty after the general election outcome last week. This, together with other factors, makes the future of universities hard to predict or define. Because a new government has not yet been formed, this means that some government announcements cannot be made. For example the results of the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) which were due out this week have been postponed. We now know that Greg Clark will remain as Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Justine Greening will continue as Minister for Education and Jo Johnson will still be Minister for Universities, Science, Research and Innovation.
I made a very short (one night stay), but important, visit to Beijing with Professor Sir Kostya Novoselov, Professor Ian Greer (Vice-President and Dean of the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health) and Professor Martin Schroder (Vice-President and Dean of the Faculty of Science and Engineering). The key aim of the visit was to build links with Peking University (PKU) in Beijing, which by many measures is one of the top universities in China.
We already have a strong collaboration with PKU on genomics and visited their Health Science Centre. We also met the President of PKU and many of his senior staff, and met senior colleagues from the Beijing Graphene Institute, where we aim to develop a strong collaboration with our own National Graphene Institute. The meetings were very positive and we have much to follow up.
Martin, Kostya and I met the UK Ambassador to China, Barbara Woodward, who I got to know quite well through the visit to Manchester by the President of China, and Holly White, Head of the UK Science and Innovation network in China, who is one of our graduates. They gave excellent advice on new funding mechanisms. Martin, Ian, Kostya and I also held an alumni event for about 200 people, at which Kostya and I spoke and many, many photographs were taken - I don’t think Kostya managed to get any food at all and one alumnus persuaded Kostya to autograph his white shirt!
When back in Manchester we hosted an event to welcome the new Chinese Consul General, Dr Sun Dali, to Manchester where he met many senior staff from across the University. The event was opened by our new Director of Student Recruitment and Outreach, Richard Cotton, who started with us last week and began his address in Mandarin! I spoke about our strong and growing links with China and Dr Sun spoke about the importance of the University. We then had a beautiful musical presentation from a staff member from the Confucius Institute on a Chinese zither, donated to us by the Consulate.
Congratulations to Professor Nalin Thakker who was included in a list of the top 50 most influential Black Asian Minority Ethnic (BAME) leaders in the public sector. This was launched at City Hall in London and hosted by Mayor of London. You can find out more at:
Lord Peter Mandelson, who is Chancellor of Manchester Metropolitan University and holds an honorary professorship with us, visited the National Graphene Institute (NGI). Professor Sir Andre Geim explained the properties and potential of graphene and the ongoing commercial opportunities and we discussed how to facilitate commercialisation, then Andre took him on a tour of the NGI.
Professor Clive Agnew (Vice-President for Teaching, Learning and Students) and I had our last meeting with Naa Acqua, the outgoing General Secretary of our Students’ Union. Naa has done a fantastic job and, while we sometimes have had to ‘agree to disagree’, it has been a real pleasure to work with her. We look forward to working with her successor, Alex Taylor, who Clive has taught.
Paul Rennie (Deputy High Commissioner, Malaysia) visited. I had met Paul when I visited Kuala Lumpur last year. Malaysia is an important country for us for students and collaborations and Paul leads for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on higher education across South East Asia.
I spoke at the opening of the fantastic new imaging facility in the Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. This multi-million pound PET-MRI facility, funded by the Medical Research Council, will transform our ability to understand diseases such as dementia. Our Chancellor, Lemn Sissay, attended the event as he had composed a poem that is now displayed on the wall of the waiting room where patients and their families and research volunteers await their scans. You can find out more at:
Eamonn Boylan, Chief Executive of Greater Manchester Combined Authority, visited the University to meet me and a number of senior staff and had a tour of the University campus including the Alan Gilbert Learning Commons.
I visited the remarkable ‘Maggie’s Centre’ at The Christie. This is one of a number of centres that aim to support cancer sufferers and their families. The building was designed by Lord Norman Foster (one of our graduates) and is spectacular. It feels like walking into a wonderful and welcoming home. I was hosted by Janine Watson, who is chair of our Alumni Association and on the board of Maggie’s. The centre offers not only a fabulous place but also counselling and support.
Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor
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