Message from the Vice-President and Dean

06 Oct 2025

This week, Fiona reflects on the start of the new academic year, updates on Manchester 2035, and looks forward to working with our new Students’ Union Executive Officer.

Dear All

I am deeply saddened by the terrible attack at the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue. My thoughts are with everyone affected. I appreciate that many of you will be upset and worried, and the University offers a range of wellbeing services for anyone who needs them. The joint message from Duncan and Students’ Union Affairs Officer Lexie Baynes has further details of the support available.

The new academic year

As we enter the second week of teaching, I am again struck by how everywhere is suddenly bustling as new students find their feet and returning students reunite with friends. The recent good weather has meant our outdoor spaces have once more become places to meet up, and I look forward to the coming year in which colleagues and students can share in their successes and achievements.

Thank you again to all those who worked through the summer to prepare us for a smooth start. Many of our professional services and academic colleagues have devoted significant time to the move to our new central learning environment, Canvas. I look forward to students having a more consistent and user-friendly teaching and learning experience as a result. Our eLearning team will continue to provide Canvas support and training through Semester 1 via the Faculty’s Adopting Canvas SharePoint site.

New names for our leadership teams

To bring our Faculty and Schools in line with the renaming of the University’s Senior Leadership Team as the University Executive, our senior teams also have new titles. The Faculty Leadership Team (FLT) has become the Faculty Executive, while Schools’ Senior Leadership Teams/Groups are now School Executives. The new names emphasise the executives’ responsibilities and reflect the modernisation of the University’s wider leadership and decision-making approach.

Manchester 2035 launch

I hope many of you had the chance like me to attend Duncan’s town hall last month, when he gave a preview of our Manchester 2035 strategy ahead of its launch. Duncan outlined the core themes at the heart of the strategy, based on the foundations and leaps developed through extensive consultation with and feedback from our staff, students, alumni and wider stakeholders.

A full recording of the session is available on StaffNet, along with responses to key questions and areas of interest from colleagues. You can find out more about the official launch of Manchester 2035 from a StaffNet news story, including how to book a place to attend the launch event taking place from 4.30pm on Wednesday, 15 October.

Our new Faculty Students’ Union Executive Officer

Student experience has been an important focus for Duncan and us for some time and will of course be central to our work bringing Manchester 2035 alive. A productive relationship with the Students’ Union is critical in helping our students make the most of their time with us and to address their needs and concerns, and so it was good to meet Alec Severs, our new Faculty Executive Officer, last month to start the conversation on how we can work together.

Alec graduated with BA Honours degree in History in July this year, and as Faculty Executive Officer he has already got involved with a number of important Faculty activities and projects, including attending the first Teaching Sustainability project taskforce meeting of the academic year. He has some great work to build on from our previous Faculty Officer, Katie Jackson, and I am very much looking forward to further discussing with him his priorities for the coming year.

Next step for Bank of England economics A-level teaching partnership

I was pleased to join colleagues at the Booth Street East building two weeks ago for the marking of an important milestone in our partnership with the Bank of England to improve access to A-level economics in schools, targeting under-represented groups. The three-year programme being piloted in the north-west of England sees secondary school teachers being trained to deliver A-level economics alongside their core subject, and the event welcomed the first cohort of teachers who will receive training.

While A-level economics entries grew by more than 5% in 2025, only 30% of students were female, and access is limited in the state sector, with 53% of state secondaries offering the subject compared with 82% of private schools. It was encouraging to meet teachers who are dedicating themselves to giving students in their schools the chance to study and succeed in economics education, which is increasingly important in shaping future leaders and policymakers in many fields.

Extinction in the Museum

Experiencing the breadth and depth of expertise and passion for research in our Faculty and University is just one of the things which make my job so rewarding. I was lucky recently to attend a fascinating evening at Manchester Museum as Professor Sadiah Qureshi (SALC) and Rachel Webster, Curator of Botany at the Museum, discussed how species loss has become a major cultural as well as a scientific and environmental concern.

At the ‘Extinction in the Museum’ event, issues including the balance of displaying well-known animals against raising awareness of ‘lowly’ but equally important species, and how museums can energise a change in people’s attitudes, were thoughtfully explored. Intriguing objects from the Museum’s collection brought additional colour to the occasion, and visitors asked some searching questions.

Outstanding Staff Awards

On Wednesday last week I joined colleagues at the Faculty’s Outstanding Staff Awards ceremony to celebrate just some of our PS and academic staff who make a positive difference to our students’ experience during their time at Manchester. What makes these awards so important is that nominations are made by students themselves, so they are a direct reflection of how colleagues’ efforts to support students have such an important impact.

Winners and highly commended nominees across seven categories were presented with certificates by Fiona Smyth, our Vice-Dean for Teaching, Learning and Students. There are too many winners and nominees to include here, but you can see the full list and more details of the Awards in a StaffNet news story.

Research success

We continue to see strong success in securing research funding. Dr Siobhan Hearne (SALC) has been awarded £1,260,754 from the ERC for her project ‘Laboratories of Humanitarianism’. This examines how humanitarian crises influenced the collapse of the Soviet Union and reshaped the post-Soviet world, using case studies from across the former USSR.

In SoSS, Dr Fae Garland has been awarded £729,907 by the ESRC for a project considering the lessons the UK government can learn from the European experience of introducing legislation designed to improve the healthcare experiences of intersex people.

Dr Lianping Ding (AMBS) has received a UKRI Metascience AI Fellowship worth £298,749 for a project looking at how AI is shaping the behaviours, outputs and career paths of researchers. As part of this Fellowship, Lianping will work with a cohort of other Metascience AI Fellows funded by the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology.

Dr Rose Pritchard and Dr Polyanna da Conceição Bispo (both SEED) have been awarded £462,370 from the Gates Foundation for a project on irrigated area mapping tool development and deployment. This will use Earth Observation (EO) imagery and AI to allow high-resolution mapping of irrigated croplands in three sub-Sharan African countries.

Regards Fiona

Professor Fiona Devine, Vice-President and Dean, Faculty of Humanities