Welcome from Head of School
27 Sep 2017
A warm welcome to all of you and especially to those of you who are joining the School staff at this time.
On your return, or arrival, you will have noticed the successful completion of the Samuel Alexander refurbishment, which includes a much improved South Entrance –now, with a dedicated School reception, the main access to SALC- and a magnificent North Foyer, restored to its former glory. A great many staff in the School and the University have worked hard over several years to deliver such an impressive result, and I would like to reiterate here my gratitude to all of them.
When I wrote my welcome message at the beginning of the last academic year I had met only a handful of you. A year on I count the opportunity to have been able to get to know many of you better among the most rewarding aspects of my job. I very much hope to see many more of you in the forthcoming months. I will continue to hold open office hours every Tuesday during term from 11 to 12, but I am of course available at other times as well. In order to increase the space for debate, meetings of the professoriate will now be held regularly, and I will also be hosting a series of informal gatherings with Colleagues who have recently or fairly recently joined the School, in order to get as broad a picture as possible of their aspirations and concerns. As ever, the School Board remains an important forum: I very much hope that many of you will find the time to attend.
The past few months have been unusually difficult, with Manchester 2020 creating anxiety and concerns across the whole School. We are close to being able to draw a line under that process, and whilst we must acknowledge how painful it has been, it is essential that we focus on the School’s strength and its future. All the numerous subjects taught in SALC are being maintained, which means that we will continue to be one of the largest and best Arts schools in the UK and internationally. Crucially, we will keep investing. This week will see the launch of a new scheme offering supplementary research leave to several Lecturers and Senior Lecturers across the School in the run-up to REF, and we expect to hear shortly about the outcome of our bid for strengthening the School’s engagement in the Creative Sector. The University’s Early Career Academics scheme will offer an opportunity for growth in strategic areas. Over the past academic year many of you have worked particularly hard on new projects, so it is very satisfying to take note of the results: Film Studies is now on stream, offering opportunities for combined degrees to all students, as part of our increasingly successful Flexible Honours; new programmes in Liberal Arts & Humanities and World Literatures have been approved for 2018-19, when we will also launch a new Digital Humanities Certificate.
The beginning of the academic year comes hot on the heels of admissions and clearing, a tense period when the impressive professonialism of our PSS and academic colleagues is particularly in evidence and the Head of School is more concerned with numbers than usual (which is saying something). Final figures are not entirely firm yet, but some trends are already clear. All going well we are looking at a considerable success in MA recruitment, all the more remarkable in the light of the facts that fees went up since last year. As you all know various factors -not least Brexit- have made competition among Universities to attract students very intense this time. In this context the School implemented the new recruitment strategy partially adopted last year, which will result in a significant rise of the average entry tariff coupled with a reduction in the overall size of the intake, grown in recent years to unsustainable levels. We trust that we will thus be able to offer our students a more focussed experience and ensure our staff manage a reasonable workload.
Workload does remain a complex issue. A few months ago I initiated a thorough review in order to understand what we can do differently, or more efficiently, or not at all. This term I hope to be able to outline some changes which will hopefully make life easier, although I am sure you have all realised by now that even if Harry Potter’s magic incantations are in Latin (well, almost), my Latin does not include any of the formulas I would need to guarantee instant miracles. Let me thank you for the input I have received in this connection from several Colleagues, and encourage all those of you who have further suggestions to come forward –just send me an email or come talk to me. We all agree that changes are needed, and that we groan under too heavy an administrative burden, but a shift in the right direction is possible only by adding up specific, often small, incremental steps. Much as I am endeavouring to reduce the amount of time we spend in Committee meetings, it seemed only right that the School should have an Equality and Diversity Committee to ensure that the valuable work down in preparation for the Athena Swan application under Anindita Ghosh’ guidance should form the platform for further improvements in the future.
There have been some changes in key roles. Maj-Britt Mosegaard-Hansen and Delia Bentley stepped down from Heads of Division in Linguistics and Language and Intercultural Studies, respectively, to be replaced by Andrew Koontz-Garboden and Karl Posso, who has also been appointed Deputy Head of School. Jerôme Brillaud’s role as Head of the Graduate School has been reconfigured, with responsibility for the Graduate School assigned to Vera Tolz as Director of PGR and that for PG training to Tine Breban, who will also be TA Coordinator. Responsibility for the web at School level has been devolved to Mark Woolstencroft, and Lynn Trillo takes over the Admissions portfolio, working in close connection with the admissions tutors, Karl Posso and myself. Liam Harte’s UG portfolio has been redefined as ‘Directorship for Teaching and Learning’, better to emphasize its priorities and to align his position with those at Faculty and University level. Cathy Gelbin will direct the Manchester Summer School at the end of Chris Godden’s term. Finally, Erica Baffelli is the new Director of the North West Consortium Doctoral Training Partnership, succeeding Stuart Jones who takes over as Associate Dean for Postgraduate Research in the Faculty. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the Colleagues who have given generously of their time to fulfill these important roles and those who have accepted to take their place.
Warmest thanks to each and all of our Academic and PSS staff, who work together in partnership to guarantee the continuing success of this School.
For those of us who have been in academia for some decades now it is easy to be nostalgic for a supposedly better and simpler times. There is a grain of truth in that, but on reflection the landscape was not as idyllic as it may appear in hindsight, and I readily admit that I find the vibrancy, richness and variety of research in Arts and Humanities today much more energising. We must continue in the effort to strike a reasonable balance between the many different demands that are placed on us today, without underestimating the great opportunities for social improvement and personal fulfillment that our work in Universities enables us to enjoy.
Professor Alessandro Schiesaro
Head of School