President's Weekly Update
27 March 2014
At this week’s regular meeting of about 90 senior members of staff in the University, we reviewed the discussions and outcomes from the Board of Governors’ annual Planning and Accountability Conference which took place last week. Key topics we discussed were our levels of ambition and risk; what is distinctive about the University and how do we promote that; how do we improve our performance across all areas; financial challenges - most notably pay and pension costs; and possible further reductions in government spending and developing the means to generate further income.
Professor Clive Agnew (Vice-President for Teaching, Learning and Students) then presented on how we will deal with marking student exam papers; carry out viva voce exams; the collation of marks; holding exam boards and engaging with external examiners, so that we will be able to ensure that all students are able to graduate. We very much hope that these measures will not be necessary and that the potential boycott of marking by the Universities and Colleges Union will not take place.
I presented to about 450 business leaders at the annual Greater Manchester Business Conference at Lancashire Cricket Club. It was quite a grand affair. I spoke about the University, its contribution to the regional economy, the value it brings to local communities and how we hope to engage further with local smaller companies. I was then interviewed by John Ashcroft, Chief Executive of Pro-Manchester about student fees, visas, graphene and our Campus Masterplan.
In London I spoke to about 150 Royal Society research fellows as the closing speaker at their conference at the Royal Society. I talked about my career and research, public engagement, working with industry and what it is like to be a Vice-Chancellor.
Congratulations to Dr Curtis Dobson in the Faculty of Life Sciences who won the BBSRC national Innovator of the Year award.
I visited the School of Environment, Education and Development (SEED) with Professors Rod Coombs and Clive Agnew. Since our last visit, the School of Education has become part of SEED. We heard that the integration has gone very well and we certainly found a collegiate and collaborative attitude amongst the staff. We met a group of undergraduate, Masters and PhD students which had a few comments which we need to follow up, but also had many positive things to say - notably about our Careers Service and a particular member of Professional Support Staff in the School who had been ‘truly fantastic’.
We held one of our regular meetings with the executive members of the Students’ Union and discussed recent elections of the next executive team - congratulations to all those elected, particularly Charlie Cook who will succeed Grace Skelton as the next General Secretary. We also talked about the proposed boycott of marking, how we recycle waste food on campus and computer programmes that may help staff and students with dyslexia.
I went back to London for a meeting of the Council for Science and Technology which I co-chair with Professor Sir Mark Walport, the government’s Chief Scientific Advisor. We welcomed five new members - four of them women! See:
At the meeting we discussed recent budget announcements on major science funding - some of which had been recommended by CST, our letter on genetically modified organisms and ongoing projects on education and energy, as well as new areas for discussion and potential reports.
Next Tuesday, 1 April I will be taking part in the first President’s Question Time event along with colleagues from the Senior Leadership Team. We will be answering questions from an audience of around 50 members of staff on the topics which staff have said they want to hear about – the University’s financial position, progress on Staff Survey actions and career development opportunities. You can watch this live on Tuesday between 12.30pm and 1pm on StaffNet at:
I spent last weekend in Sweden where it was clear and sunny but spring is well behind England - the crocuses are blooming.
Don’t forget that the clocks go forward this weekend.
Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor
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