President's Weekly Update
26 November 2015
The Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, has announced the results of the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR). Overall budget cuts were much less than expected and the outcome for universities was considerably better than had been feared, eg maintenance of funding for research at the current level, but increasing with inflation, a relatively modest cut to the HEFCE teaching budget and some benefits specifically for Greater Manchester. However, we await analysis of the detail and note that the threshold for repayment of student loans will be capped for several years. There will be many analyses over coming days. You can read a summary of the CSR at:
Last week also saw the publication of the Nurse Review of Government research funding. The review focussed mainly on the seven Research Councils, arguing for an overarching Research UK (RUK) to ensure integration of the Research Councils, closer links to Innovate UK, research in other government departments and external bodies, and a sharing of resource, but not full integration of the Research Councils as some had predicted. The Nurse report was fully supported in the CSR. You can find the full report at:
At our Board of Governors’ meeting this week the Board signed off our accounts for last year, approved the changes in our structure agreed by Senate, including the creation of a new Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health and the change of name of another to the Faculty of Science and Engineering, and heard reports from all Board committees. They also had an update on the changes to our IT services, followed by discussion. The Board endorsed both the need for the changes we are instigating and the way we are implementing them. They welcomed the progress that we are making on staffing changes in ITS.
I am delighted that the independent chair of the Sir Henry Royce Institute has been announced as Professor Dame Julia King. Julia is a remarkable individual - an accomplished engineer, who has worked for Rolls Royce for a number of years, has held positions at Cambridge and Imperial, and has been vice-chancellor of the University of Aston since 2006. Julia will stand down as VC of Aston next year and has just been appointed as a member of the House of Lords.
I hosted the annual lunch for our Emeritus professors in the Great Hall in Sackville Street Building, which was attended by about a hundred. I gave an update on the University and the many known and likely changes to the higher education sector, then took questions before lunch.
I attended an event in London run by the Russell Group on research impact. The main speaker was Sir Andrew Witty, CEO of GSK, who highlighted that we must pay attention to the real value of humanities in our universities, yet most ‘success stories’ focus on science and engineering.
At the Senior Leadership Team meeting this week, we discussed the Government’s ‘green paper’ on teaching and in particular on the Teaching Excellence Framework and the Nurse Review.
At Capital Planning Sub-Committee we reviewed progress in environmental sustainability, noting significant successes, areas where we need to do more, and the challenge of growth in research and some national facilities which will drive up energy use and our carbon footprint.
I and several colleagues met the executive members of the Students’ Union to discuss the Government’s Green paper, the CSR (though we didn’t know the outcome when we met), ensuring that all students from overseas (even if classed as Home or EU) get opportunities for full orientation and information during Welcome Week, relations with Trades Unions and Ethical Grand Challenges for students.
I am gathering the data to complete my input to the annual University Research Review Exercise - it is very important that all staff involved in research complete the request or information: see:
I met Dr Heui Pahk, who is one of our graduates and President of the Office of Strategic R&D Planning in the South Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, and his colleagues. I had met Heui on my visit to Seoul in September and he spent a day in the University visiting various research facilities. We discussed the close alignment between the research priorities for Korean science and technology and our own identified strengths.
I hosted a dinner with senior colleagues for Dr David Sweeney, who is Director of Research, Education and Knowledge exchange at Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE).
Last week it was a pleasure to travel to Garmisch in southern Germany to give a plenary lecture at a meeting organised by the European Stroke Organisation. I spoke about our research on the role of inflammation in the brain damage caused by a stroke and related conditions and the prospects for new treatments. It was great to meet fellow scientists from across Europe whom I haven’t seen for a while. An added bonus was that the scenery was spectacular so it was unfortunate that I could stay only for a very short time.
Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor
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