President's Weekly Update

21 March 2014

I am delighted to announce that Professor Colin Bailey has been appointed Deputy President and Deputy Vice-Chancellor to succeed Professor Rod Coombs.  For more details please visit StaffNet News.

This week we held our annual Planning and Accountability Conference with our Board of Governors. This is the time when we review progress against our targets in all major areas of the University, which is documented in the Annual Stock-take Report, to be published after the conference. All University senior staff present not only on progress, achievements and weaknesses, but also on future priorities, challenges and opportunities.
This year we were joined by Tim Melville-Ross, who is chair of the board of the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). He gave a talk on the future role of HEFCE, priorities, investment and regulation of the Higher Education Sector, which was very well received and attracted significant discussion. He and other attendees visited the poster presentations by Professors Dame Tina Lavender, Ian Cotton and Yaron Matras and Dr Sheena Cruickshank on research into global challenges as part of our social responsibility goal. He also attended the dinner which was preceded by a talk from Dr Nick Merriman, Director of the Manchester Museum, who spoke about the contribution of our Cultural Assets to the University and to community engagement.

Last Friday I travelled to our Dalton Cumbrian Facility (DCF), close to Whitehaven on the Cumbrian coast, where we undertake research on nuclear energy and decommissioning of nuclear facilities and materials. The visit was hosted by Professor Simon Pimblott and attended by Professor Andrew Sherry, Director of out Dalton Nuclear Research Institute, academic and technical staff at DCF, staff based in Manchester who work at times at DCF and many post docs and PhD students.

The DCF building is spectacular, set against a beautiful backdrop of the Cumbrian hills - though with a few dents where local sheep head butt their reflections on the metal walls! The facilities are very impressive, particularly the pelletron - a very large accelerator - which I managed to see the workings of as it is just being serviced. DCF and other staff in the Institute who work in Manchester, collaborate closely with staff at the National Nuclear Laboratory and use the facilities close by at Sellafield. I talked to PhD students about their work and heard about the very impressive outreach work being undertaken by students and staff at DCF.

We had our annual visit from staff at HEFCE to discuss the current and future overall position of the University. Obviously HEFCE funding featured quite heavily. Our visitors met with me and a number of staff and students.
I visited the School of Physics and Astronomy with Professors Rod Coombs (Deputy President and Deputy Vice-Chancellor), Kersti Borjars (Associate Vice-President for Teaching, Learning and Students) and Grace Skelton (General Secretary of the Students’ Union), where we heard that their great successes in so many areas are putting pressure on space and staff. The students we met wanted more teaching if possible, commented on the transition from school to university and the increasingly demanding aspects of their degree. They greatly valued the facilities and reputation of the School - and as one put it ‘it’s all just cool!’ in the staff meeting we talked about the agreed major investment in the workshops in the Faculty, the need to ensure appropriate recovery of costs on grant applications and increasing degree attainment levels, as we are recruiting students into physics and astronomy with ever higher A level grades.

At the Greater Manchester Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), we talked about the plans for investment in the region and noted generally good news on business activity, but ongoing concerns about skills, education and health - particularly in some of the least advantaged areas of Greater Manchester.

At one of my regular lunches for staff from across the University we talked about mentoring and supporting staff to achieve their full potential, the continual challenges of IT, the Campus Masterplan and making the University distinctive.

With Jonathan Winter (Head of HR for the Faculty of Life Sciences) and I gave another welcome talk to new staff who have taken up positions in all areas of the University. We discussed at some length the University’s support for cyclists and the changes that will soon take place on Oxford Road - cycling routes will be widened when as part of the bus priority scheme which is being developed.

I met laboratory and mechanical apprentices in the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences in the James Chadwick (Chemical Engineering) Building. The apprentice programme is led by Colin Baines in EPS and the 11 apprentices are studying part-time at college and gaining work experience in different parts of the Faculty over a period of four years.

I was filmed about an event that will launch Science Stroke Art 2014, a series of events which will take place during Action on Stroke month during May. The event will be held at Manchester Town Hall and will include presentations by myself, a leading stroke clinician and stroke sufferers and their relatives. Details about Science Stroke Art 2014 will be made available on StaffNet.

Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor

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