President's Weekly Update

18 September 2014

I left Manchester on Saturday evening and arrived in Melbourne on Monday morning so I was quite confused about when to sleep and when to eat. I suspect I did too little of both!

The main purpose of my trip to Melbourne was to deliver the University of Melbourne’s annual ‘Menzies Oration’ named after Sir Robert Menzies, Australia’s distinguished and longest serving Prime Minister.  This event was a very grand affair, with a formal procession in academic robes accompanied by the University choir and including major awards to staff and students. My talk was called ‘A Life in Science (and Art)’, partly about our research group's work  on stroke, but also about what I think are important similarities between science and arts. I talked a little about my career and career choices, leading up to being a Vice-Chancellor, including comments on my views and experiences in higher education and the importance of public communication - all in 30 minutes! This was followed by a dinner at which members of the audience questioned me about many topics including the importance of humanities, how we attract so many students from less well-off backgrounds, interaction with industry, the level of student fees and government support for universities.

While in Melbourne I also met our long standing collaborator Professor David Howells and colleagues at the Melbourne Brain Centre (part of the Florey Institute). I had meetings with members of the Menzies Foundation which supports the Menzies Oration I had given, with senior members of staff at the University of Melbourne and leading researchers in stroke in Melbourne. I met University of Melbourne staff who are holders of the joint fund between our two universities (the Manchester-Melbourne Mobility Fund). They were all very positive about their collaborations with us, on research, education and measuring research impact.  The similarities between Manchester and Melbourne are striking, they are also abbreviated to UoM, and - as I walked cross their campus I saw their students’ union was called UMSU!

My nine hour flight to Hong Kong was delayed by three hours by typhoon Kalmaegi in Hong Kong, but I just made it in time for dinner with eminent figures in higher education in Hong Kong at the Races at the Sha Tin race course, which had been arranged by Dr Eric Li, the chair of our Hong Kong Foundation. Eric is a Steward at the race course which means he is part of the group which runs the very important Jockey Club of Hong Kong. All of the profits from racing in Hong Kong go to charity (so I didn’t mind losing a bit of money). It supports many areas where we have a strong interest such as widening participation and responses to major human disasters. We discussed potential collaboration in these and other areas. Tomorrow I have a packed programme of further visits before taking the midnight flight back to Manchester.

I am indebted to the brilliant staff in the Division of Development and Alumni Relations and our International Office - particularly Tanya Luff (Head of International Relations and Deputy Director International Development) for their fantastic organisation of my visit to Australia and Hong Kong. In their preparation notes they even warned me about typhoon Kalmaegi in Hong Kong.

Before I left on my travels, I welcomed delegates to the International Society of Engineering Educators conference, organised by Professor Danielle George from the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering. The conference included themes such as educating the educators, the role of alumni, classrooms of the future (the role of distance learning) and attracting more young people into engineering.

It was good to catch up with Dr Phil Campbell, the editor of the journal Nature, who has joined the Steering Committee of the EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF) which Manchester will host in 2016. Phil has served on previous ESOF committees so will bring invaluable advice and expertise.

I attended a fascinating dinner in London organised by a company called Pi Capital. It mainly involved leading people from the financial sector. The guest speaker was the Chair of BP and I was sitting next to the Russian ambassador, so many interesting discussions.

Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor

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