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Stock Take summary 2013

15 May 2014

Read about the University's progress against its Strategic Plan

University campus

The 2012/13 Stock Take Report provides a detailed appraisal of progress against the goals and key performance indicators of the University’s Strategic Plan, Manchester 2020, and is a key component of the University’s Planning and Accountability Cycle.

President and Vice-Chancellor Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell comments: “During 2012/13, the University continued to maintain a strong financial performance and achieved some notable successes. We made significant progress towards many of our strategic goals, but still face significant challenges in some areas to achieve the ‘step change’ that will be required to meet our ambitions.”

Our notable awards and successes during this period include funding from the Higher Education Funding Council (HEFCE) to support a new facility for advanced materials and manufacturing (£18 million) and our new cancer building (£13 million). Our bid to the European Regional Development Fund for £23 million for our National Graphene Institute was supported in full.

In addition our research grant and contract income increased by 6.2%, reflecting growth from previous awards starting to flow through, while there was encouraging signs for the future with a dramatic 37% increase in research awards.

Our submission for the Research Excellence Framework (REF) culminated in 35 submissions to 30 different units of assessment, clearly demonstrating the volume and range of internationally-leading research going on here.

Meanwhile the results of the 2013 National Student Survey (NSS) of undergraduate students show that we increased our overall level of student satisfaction by two percent to reach 85%.

And in early July 2013, the University raised a public bond to enable our Estate Masterplan. Rating agency Moody’s issued a rating of Aa1 Stable for the University. The bond issue was nearly four times oversubscribed and raised £300 million on a 40 year basis at 4.25% annual interest.

The fact that we have generated a surplus and secured substantial funding to commence work on an ambitious capital programme in an uncertain economic climate is a valuable signal to the wider world that we are a confident and well-run institution with an ambitious vision for the future.