President's Weekly Update
20 November 2014
Last week I spent a couple of days in Delhi as part of a delegation with Greg Clark, Minister for Universities, Science and Cities. The group included four other Vice-Chancellors; the heads of several research councils and Innovate UK (formerly TSB); senior staff from the Royal Society, the British Academy, the British Council, the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Foreign Office, the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), UK Trade and Industry (UKTI), the Department for International Development and representatives of colleges of further education. The first day was spent discussing plans for the new Newton-Bhabha research fund between the UK and India:
We also discussed the third phase of UKIERI (UK India, Education and Research Initiative) and likely areas of collaboration. There will be significant new funding in the UK for collaborations with India, including staff and students travelling to India. We followed this up in a session that was co-chaired by our Minister and the Indian Minister for Science.
The second day focussed very much on education, with the Indian Minister for Human Resources and Development. There was discussion on visas and incentives for Indian students to come to the UK, and opportunities for UK students to spend short visits or up to a year in India. As a fascinating country with perhaps the highest economic growth rate in the world, it is essential for us to focus attention on India, and my trip follows a large and very successful visit by over 20 of our staff to India in September, led by Professor Steve Flint from the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences. It is estimated that by 2030, one in four university students globally will graduate from an Indian university. I hope to be going back to India soon.
You will probably have heard the welcome news that the Universities and Colleges Union and Universities UK have agreed the suspension of the current industrial action while negotiations on how we deal with the expected deficit in the USS pension fund are ongoing. As I have said previously, this is a real problem but one that is shared by the employers and employees, and to which we must find an agreed solution.
I read at the memorial service at Manchester Cathedral for Dame Kathleen Ollerenshaw. It was a lovely event for a remarkable woman who died aged 101. Kathleen had been closely linked with our University and the City throughout her life and her achievements were enormous - made all the more worthy of admiration since she had been profoundly deaf since childhood. Our University gave her an honorary degree a couple of years ago, a fact noted in his tribute by John Timpson (who has led the Timpson shoe repair company), a relative of Dame Kathleen who also received an honour at the same ceremony. John said they were told not to make any speeches, however Kathleen somehow managed to speak twice during the service!
I attended a meeting hosted by Peter Salmon, Head of BBC North at the BBC in Media City to welcome the incoming chair of the BBC Trust, Rona Fairhead. The discussion was around the remarkable regeneration and growth of Manchester over the last 20 years or so.
I attended a lecture by Alex Aitken, Executive Director of Government Communications and Head of the Communications Profession, who leads the Downing Street Press Office and communications for the Deputy Prime Minister. This was set up by our Careers Service to inform students about a career in the Civil Service - many attended the very engaging lecture called ‘Behind the Black Door’ (referring to 10, Downing Street).
The School visits have begun for this academic year, involving meeting with senior staff in each School and open meetings with staff and with students. I attended the School of Environment, Education and Development (SEED) and the School of Law. In SEED I was fascinated by their amazing models of buildings structures and cities, many built by students and now on display in the Humanities Bridgeford Street Building. I really want a model of the University campus! In Law we met with a small group of very happy students who were full of praise for the support from their staff and the supportive environment.
I spoke at an event to discuss ‘learning through research’ organised by Professor Kersti Borjars, Associate Vice-President for Teaching, Learning and Students. I talked about some of my own experiences of how research teaches a range of skills that are valuable in just about every walk of life. Grants are available for research led teaching projects: teaching.excellence@manchester.ac.uk and you can read more about some of our students who have taken part in this project in November’s UniLife at:
At our Board Finance and Audit committees, we ‘signed off’ the final accounts for 2013-14, which will be published soon and show a positive picture. This is important to allow us to invest in staff, students and infrastructure. We also heard that the external audit of the University raised no significant issues of concern - a remarkable tribute to many staff!
From my previous messages, you will know that I am concerned that we must improve ethnic diversity in our University, since our aim is to build a diverse and inclusive institution. Our staff and students do not match the ethnic diversity of the UK, and certainly not of our City. We have very few professors and senior leaders from black and minority ethnic backgrounds - something that we need to address – along with issues around promotion amongst PSS staff. Professor James Thompson (Associate Vice-President for Social Responsibility) and Patrick Johnson (Head of Equality and Diversity) are taking work in this area forward. One part of our efforts is to achieve the ‘Race Charter Mark’ and academic and PSS staff of all grades from black and minority ethnic backgrounds are being asked to take part in a short survey to help inform this work at:
The film ‘The Imitation Game’ has had great reviews. I haven’t seen it yet, but I gather that it rather skips over the fact that Alan Turing was a member of staff at The University of Manchester - and of course he is played by one of our graduates, Benedict Cumberbatch.
Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor
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