President's Weekly Update
3 August 2017
It was a great pleasure to meet our current Equity and Merit scholars. These are outstanding students, from Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania and Bangladesh, who we support through University funds and generous donations, to study for a year with us on a master’s course. They wanted to know about my career and about what being a Vice-Chancellor entails and how our University is linking with those in their home countries.
I met the Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, to update him on our key strategic priorities and activities and, in particular, to discuss delivery of health education across Greater Manchester. We are both very concerned about the national decline in applications to study nursing and I updated him on progress for the Medical School that is being developed by Manchester Metropolitan University and the University of Salford, which we are supporting.
This was timely as the day before I had met Jon Rouse, Chief Officer of Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership, to consider the contributions of the University to what is known as ‘Devo Manc’ and the importance of this for our research and education. One of many key areas of collaboration is on health data.
I spoke to the new executive members of the Students' Union about the aspirations of the University, opportunities and challenges. We discussed some of their concerns about better engaging students from overseas, those who live at home and those with parenting or caring responsibilities or health problems. You may have noticed that there's major construction work taking place at the Steve Biko building (which houses the Students' Union). This will continue over the summer, so if you need to access the Students’ Union make sure you factor this in.
Senior colleagues and I were photographed with members of our large LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans) group to launch their participation in Manchester Pride on Saturday, 26 August. This year colleagues will be able to cheer the University’s parade float on at two cheering points:
I gave two presentations – one was to the final session of students on the Manchester International Summer School, about the University, the City and the region. The second was a longer talk to a conference for early career scientists on my career and experiences, including what I had learnt about progressing a career in science and from my mistakes.
I spent a few days in the USA, partly to meet alumni of the University. While there I also visited the Spaceship Company at the Mojave airbase, with Professor Sir Andre Geim, to consider the possible applications of graphene and other two dimensional materials.
You may have seen the updated information on the proposed staffing changes in parts of the University:
I visited the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health (BMH) to talk to Heads of Schools and Divisions with Professor Ian Greer, Vice-President and Dean of BMH, to discuss progress with the changes, with consultations with the Trade Unions and answer their questions.
I visited the GEIC (Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre) on our North campus. It is very impressive and progressing rapidly. I was lifted up to the top of the ‘high bay’ on a machine called a MEWP (a mobile elevating work platform) which was quite fun.
It was a pleasure to meet with the academic staff in BMH who I collaborate with (in fact I trained them all at various stages of their careers) to consider plans for our future research, graduate student recruitment, publications, grant applications, lab meetings and dissemination of our results. The next day I met our clinical collaborators to review the results of our most recent clinical trial in stroke and to discuss plans for the next larger trial in sub-arachnoid haemorrhage patients.
I will not be sending messages out now until September unless there is major news to report as I know that many people will be away on either much deserved holidays, research leave or preparing for the next academic year, though many will be involved in confirmation and clearing when we receive A level results and confirm student acceptances for study with us later in August.
Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor
Feedback
Please send comments to: