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President's Weekly Update

24 September 2015

Aside from the thousands of students you will have seen on campus for Welcome Week and Orientation Week for international students, many academic activities have begun even before we start teaching for the new academic year.

I spoke at meetings for the induction of new and returning members of Senate and our Board of Governors to describe the remit of both bodies and the responsibilities of members.

It was a pleasure to welcome this year’s new President’s Doctoral Scholars (PDS) who join us from all over the world to study for PhDs across almost all disciplines. This is the fourth cohort of PDS students and we now have over 400 on campus. I told them a little about the University and spoke on the importance of PhD students to our research, education and social responsibility goals.

I also attended two of the Board of Governors committees. At Finance Committee, we reviewed the unaudited end of year accounts and heard an update on our Campus Master Plan. At Audit Committee, we reviewed the initial report of our external auditors and considered the findings and recommendations of the many projects that our internal auditors have undertaken. We also considered the potentially major risks that we may face from the Comprehensive Spending Review in November.

Sir James Dyson, the well-known inventor and industrial designer, visited the University. I had a private meeting with him to discuss collaborations and the importance of encouraging more young people (especially girls) into engineering. He then he visited the School of Mathematics and the National Graphene Institute, and had a round table discussion with senior staff in the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences.

At the Royal Society Council meeting, of which I am a member, we welcomed the President-Elect, Professor Sir Venki Ramakrishnan, who will take over from Sir Paul Nurse in November, and we spent some time reviewing the investments of the Society.

Professor Clive Agnew (Vice-President for Teaching Learning and Students) and I met Professor Di Yerbury, who served for many years as Vice-Chancellor of Macquarie University in Australia and was the country’s first female Vice-Chancellor, to discuss opportunities for collaboration in higher education in China and, of course, to chat about global higher education issues.

I was interviewed for a documentary about higher education in Europe. The production team asked me about issues facing our University, those in the UK and internationally. They spent several days on campus filming events during Welcome Week and talking to our students, particularly those from overseas.

Professor Andre Geim and I were interviewed in front of an audience of over 100 local business leaders and entrepreneurs (and a few younger aspiring scientists and entrepreneurs) for an event known as ‘Future Everything’. The event was billed as a ‘fireside chat’ (but without a fire!) and focussed mainly on graphene - its discovery, implications and likely applications. This was followed by many questions from the audience about the potential of graphene and related materials, patents, start-ups and how we build on our discoveries. The key focus of the discussion was that most of all we need people who can lead innovative, entrepreneurial and often risky companies to take forward ‘disruptive’ but potentially transformational new discoveries.

Professor Clive Agnew and I had the first of what will become regular meetings with Naa Acquah, the new General Secretary of our Students’ Union. These meetings cover a range of topics from Students’ Union activities to the wider issues of funding to universities and planning for the joint meeting between our senior staff and the full Executive of the Union.

We recently announced the creation of the Global Development Institute (GDI) which will be at the heart of our Research Beacon work on global inequalities. See:

I am delighted that Rory and Elizabeth Brooks are continuing their generous and far-sighted support for our work against poverty by providing founding support for this new Institute. So it was a pleasure to talk to Rory this week about the GDI, his philanthropy and our Global Leadership Board (which he chairs) meeting next month.

Later in the week I am travelling again, this time to Seoul in South Korea then on to Sydney, Australia where I am speaking at the ‘World 100 Annual Conference’, followed by a rather daunting trip back of over 30 hours!

    

Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor

Feedback

Please send comments to president@manchester.ac.uk

        

President's Weekly Update

24 September 2015

Aside from the thousands of students you will have seen on campus for Welcome Week and Orientation Week for international students, many academic activities have begun even before we start teaching for the new academic year.

I spoke at meetings for the induction of new and returning members of Senate and our Board of Governors to describe the remit of both bodies and the responsibilities of members.

It was a pleasure to welcome this year’s new President’s Doctoral Scholars (PDS) who join us from all over the world to study for PhDs across almost all disciplines. This is the fourth cohort of PDS students and we now have over 400 on campus. I told them a little about the University and spoke on the importance of PhD students to our research, education and social responsibility goals.

I also attended two of the Board of Governors committees. At Finance Committee, we reviewed the unaudited end of year accounts and heard an update on our Campus Master Plan. At Audit Committee, we reviewed the initial report of our external auditors and considered the findings and recommendations of the many projects that our internal auditors have undertaken. We also considered the potentially major risks that we may face from the Comprehensive Spending Review in November.

Sir James Dyson, the well-known inventor and industrial designer, visited the University. I had a private meeting with him to discuss collaborations and the importance of encouraging more young people (especially girls) into engineering. He then he visited the School of Mathematics and the National Graphene Institute, and had a round table discussion with senior staff in the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences.

At the Royal Society Council meeting, of which I am a member, we welcomed the President-Elect, Professor Sir Venki Ramakrishnan, who will take over from Sir Paul Nurse in November, and we spent some time reviewing the investments of the Society.

Professor Clive Agnew (Vice-President for Teaching Learning and Students) and I met Professor Di Yerbury, who served for many years as Vice-Chancellor of Macquarie University in Australia and was the country’s first female Vice-Chancellor, to discuss opportunities for collaboration in higher education in China and, of course, to chat about global higher education issues.

I was interviewed for a documentary about higher education in Europe. The production team asked me about issues facing our University, those in the UK and internationally. They spent several days on campus filming events during Welcome Week and talking to our students, particularly those from overseas.

Professor Andre Geim and I were interviewed in front of an audience of over 100 local business leaders and entrepreneurs (and a few younger aspiring scientists and entrepreneurs) for an event known as ‘Future Everything’. The event was billed as a ‘fireside chat’ (but without a fire!) and focussed mainly on graphene - its discovery, implications and likely applications. This was followed by many questions from the audience about the potential of graphene and related materials, patents, start-ups and how we build on our discoveries. The key focus of the discussion was that most of all we need people who can lead innovative, entrepreneurial and often risky companies to take forward ‘disruptive’ but potentially transformational new discoveries.

Professor Clive Agnew and I had the first of what will become regular meetings with Naa Acquah, the new General Secretary of our Students’ Union. These meetings cover a range of topics from Students’ Union activities to the wider issues of funding to universities and planning for the joint meeting between our senior staff and the full Executive of the Union.

We recently announced the creation of the Global Development Institute (GDI) which will be at the heart of our Research Beacon work on global inequalities. See:

I am delighted that Rory and Elizabeth Brooks are continuing their generous and far-sighted support for our work against poverty by providing founding support for this new Institute. So it was a pleasure to talk to Rory this week about the GDI, his philanthropy and our Global Leadership Board (which he chairs) meeting next month.

Later in the week I am travelling again, this time to Seoul in South Korea then on to Sydney, Australia where I am speaking at the ‘World 100 Annual Conference’, followed by a rather daunting trip back of over 30 hours!

    

Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor

Feedback

Please send comments to president@manchester.ac.uk