President's Weekly Message

19 June 2014

At General Assembly, attended by about 100 ‘friends’ of the University and representatives of our staff, governors, alumni and many partner organisations, I gave a general update about the University, successes, challenges and future plans. There were questions about student employability, student enterprise and start-up companies (with an offer of support from our representative from the Institute of Directors). Other topics included Manchester Science Park (in which the University has a 12% share) and its purchase of Alderley Park from AstraZeneca and general enquiries about our future plans as a University.

We also heard presentations from our Division of Development and Alumni Relations. Lesley Dowdall, Deputy Director (Development), and Claire Kilner, Deputy Director (Alumni Relations), reported on some great success in philanthropy and the huge range of activities and communication with our alumni. We currently have contact with almost 300,000 alumni, but estimate that we have almost 400,000 alumni in total, spread across more than 200 countries.

Several colleagues from the University and I attended a dinner in Manchester hosted by Professor Jackie Hunter, Chief Executive of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), with BBSRC Council members and senior staff. We were asked to consider the top three messages (in a short ‘elevator pitch’) that we would give to Ministers about what they could do to support the BBSRC to deliver its objectives - and how this would add to health and wealth. I can’t give you the summaries because it was ‘Chatham House rules’, but a good exercise for all of our activities.

I spoke at an event organised by Professor Colette Fagan (Deputy Dean and Associate Dean for Research in Humanities) in Christies Bistro, attended by about 50 of our female professors. Colette told us first about success in increasing the percentage of women at senior lecturer, reader and professor level in all parts of the University. I spoke about the importance of increasing diversity in our staff and particularly increasing the number of women in leadership roles. Emerita Professor Katharine Perera spoke about the ‘Women in Leadership’ programme that she has led for ten years. Many of the women present had benefited from the programme. Patrick Johnson (Head of Equality and Diversity) said it felt a little unusual to be the only man at an event.

I gave the opening speech at the EU conference on Science Technology and Innovation Policy, which is being held in Manchester and was organised by Professor Jakob Edler from Manchester Business School. I talked about the University’s strong and growing activities in science policy and innovation. I also highlighted what I think are key issues around assessing research quality, facilitating collaboration rather than just competition in research and some specific areas of challenge such as ‘big data’, public engagement in science and the topics for the current Longitude Prize Delegates had attended events the previous evening at our John Rylands Library and were having dinner at the Old Trafford home of Manchester United - rather contrasting venues.

This week we agreed the final budget for 2014-15 and revisions to the Engineering and Biomedical Sciences aspects of our Campus Masterplan, to be recommended to our Board of Governors next month.

Senior staff and I held the last meeting with members of the current University of Manchester Students’ Union (UMSU) Executive, before they hand over to the new officers. The major topic for discussion was how we best deal with anti-social behaviour by students in local communities. Then I met with Grace Skelton, outgoing General Secretary of UMSU, and Charlie Cook, who will take over from Grace.

I spoke at a meeting of the Faculty Management Team in Medical and Human Sciences about successes to date, our continued trajectory and the search for a new Vice-President and Dean of the Faculty when Professor Ian Jacobs leaves early next year. We talked about how we maintain the current momentum, build on the many successes of the past three years and how we are working quickly to identify outstanding candidates to replace Ian - at the same time as seeking a new Vice-President and Dean in the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences.

I gave the opening address at an event to celebrate our partnership with Johnson and Johnson. The company is developing a small number of ‘Innovation Centres’, in places like London, Shanghai, Boston and here in Manchester. Their senior staff were highly complimentary about the depth and breadth of our research and the ease of establishing collaborations in Manchester. The two speakers from Johnson and Johnson were both Belgian, so quite interested in the World Cup match. I explained that I had drawn Belgium in a sweepstake so also had an interest - they won 2-1 so, a good result all round.

Professor Luke Georghiou (Vice-President for Research and Innovation) and I met with Professor Janet Finch, who holds a part time position with us in the School of Social Sciences. Janet has held, and still does hold, a number of major roles. She is currently a main panel chair of the Research Excellence Framework and has a key role in open access publishing, but we talked mainly about her new role as a Council member of the Medical Research Council.

I was interviewed for an article in the Sunday Times - reading the draft did make me cringe because in addition to my role in the University and our research on stroke, there is also some comment on what I eat!

Next week I will be travelling a lot, but I’ll send a short update in the middle of my travels.

Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor

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