President's Weekly Update
5 June 2014
The Medal of Honour is the University’s highest medal award. It is often bestowed on staff or close collaborators who have made exceptional contributions to our University, the City or more widely.
At the most recent ceremony, Medals of Honour were awarded to the Rev Dr Richard Hills, a former honorary lecturer and founding curator of the Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI), and Professor Sir Netar Mallick, Emeritus Professor of Renal Medicine. Both Richard and Netar were not only eminent in their respective fields, but they also have made vast contributions outside of their professions to help enrich lives. You can find out more about them on StaffNet at:
I am pleased to announce that Professor James Thompson will take up the position of Associate Vice-President for Social Responsibility in the autumn. He will take over from Professors Aneez Esmail and Colin Hughes, who have both made fantastic contributions in this area. James is currently Associate Dean for Social Responsibility and External Affairs in the Faculty of Humanities and last year delivered our Cockcroft Rutherford Lecture on his work on drama and war.
I met with about 50 of our President’s Doctoral Scholars who are undertaking PhDs across all four Faculties. I answered a range of their questions including topics such as the future vision and direction of our University, support for PhD students, future careers, supervisor training (a few stories which suggested that this is badly needed in some areas), travel funds and teaching opportunities and remuneration.
It’s one year today since the results of the Staff Survey 2013 were published and to recognise this milestone, this week’s eUpdate features the progress being made to turn the views you gave in the survey into action. Work is progressing on the four University-level themes which are behaviours; performance and development review; reward and recognition and management and leadership development. You can also take part in a quick poll to let the Staff Survey Steering Group know how you feel actions are progressing in your own area. You can find out more at:
At the most recent Graphene Steering Group, which I chair, we heard that the National Graphene Institute (NGI) building is on time and on budget for opening in the first part of next year. We also discussed the huge and growing interest from companies and the press coverage which is being generated around graphene. We now have 20 patent ‘families’ (which means a range of patents covering a particular application) filed, in areas which we believe we can exploit in terms of potential commercialisation. The new graphene website has also just been launched which you can see at:
I filmed two messages for our students - one to congratulate our graduating students and to urge them to keep in touch, the other message to welcome our new students who will be arriving next academic year.
I called a small meeting to discuss how we progress equality and diversity in the University. We are increasing (albeit more slowly than I would like) the number of women in more senior positions, but our progress just isn’t good enough in ethnic diversity. Karen Heaton (Director of Human Resources), Patrick Johnson (Head of Equality and Diversity), Professor Aneez Esmail and Dr Erinma Ochu (Wellcome Trust Research Fellow and representing our Black and Minority Ethnic Network) talked about how we can not only improve, but also celebrate, ethnic diversity in the University. We are a global institution with nearly 10,000 students from across the world and are in one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the UK. So we will be seeking views and planning actions to improve diversity at all levels.
I know that many staff have been exceptionally busy marking exam papers, collating marks, undertaking vivas and participating in examiner’s meetings. This is incredibly important but also very time consuming. I hope for fine weather when the marking is over.
Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor
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