President's weekly update
10 September 2015
In the last academic session Senate approved proposals for changes to our Faculty structure. The key recommendation was that academic activity in the University should be reconstituted around three Faculties by moving different component parts of the current Faculty of Life Sciences (FLS) into a new Faculty of Medical, Biological and Human Sciences and the Faculty of Science and Engineering (current working titles).
Over the summer work has been ongoing to develop proposals for the principles of the proposed changes, which includes significant changes to the current Faculty of Medical and Human Sciences to establish a new Faculty, and small changes in the Faculty of Science and Engineering (current working title). See:
This work has been carried out by the two ‘implementation groups’ (comprising staff from FLS and FMHS, and FLS and the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences respectively and the Implementation Oversight Group which I chair.
We are opening a consultation and would welcome views from all staff in the University. You can submit your views before the closing date of Monday, 5 October using the form at:
Open meetings are also being held in the Faculties most affected by these changes.
Oxford Road has now re-opened following the demolition of the bridge near the Precinct Centre, making the view up and down Oxford Road much clearer and letting in more light. You can see some amazing pictures of the demolition at:
At the Greater Manchester (GM) Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) meeting, of which I am a member, we discussed the GM submission to the Comprehensive Spending Review (which included input from the University), a major review of Marketing Manchester, a survey of businesses from across the region, new applications for ‘Enterprise Zone’ status and a range of transport issues for GM and the North.
I have been meeting with many of the members of the University’s Senior Leadership Team to discuss progress and plans for our core activities over the next academic session and we have just finalised the ‘refresh’ of our strategic plan ‘Manchester 2020’, which will be published next month.
I am writing the last part of this message from Beijing in China, where I am spending a couple of days before travelling on to Hong Kong on Friday and back overnight on Sunday (I appreciated the direct Manchester to Hong Kong flight).
I have a packed agenda. Soon after landing, I travelled to the National Academy of Education Administration (NAEA) to meet senior staff of the NAEA and the British Council, then I gave a talk on ‘Universities in the 21st Century’. I had dinner with senior staff from the Peking University Health Science Centre with which we have a very successful collaboration in genomics and disease.
The next day I visited the China Scholarship Council and gave two interviews, one on women in leadership and the other, to China Daily, on our links with China. I had lunch with the Managing Director of the Manchester China Forum, then travelled to the National Natural Science Foundation to discuss UK-China collaborations. In the evening I hosted an alumni event.
Tomorrow morning I have a meeting with the British Ambassador to China and the Minister for Culture and Education and Director of the British Council.
Then back to Hong Kong for another series of meetings!
Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor
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