President's Weekly Update
30 April 2015
I attended a dinner for supporters of the Manchester International Festival (MIF) with Professor Colin Bailey, Deputy President and Deputy Vice-Chancellor. I am on the Board of MIF, the University is a sponsor and many of our staff and students volunteer to help the Festival which now has a major international standing and is a fantastic attraction for our City.
MIF began ten years ago and the fifth Festival will be held from 2-19 July 2015 with an exciting range of newly commissioned events. For details of events and booking, see:
Earlier this week we heard that our Jodrell Bank Observatory will be the permanent home of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), the world's largest radio telescope. Thank you to all those staff who worked on the proposal. You can find out more at:
Thank you also to everyone who took part in this year’s Staff Survey – the completion rate was a fantastic 70%, which means that 7,177 of you completed the survey. When Capita (who ran the survey on our behalf) present the results to us in early June, we will have a comprehensive picture of how people feel about working at our University. We’ll then use the results to create action plans to address the issues you raised.
Over the last week I made three visits to different parts of the University. In the Faculty of Life Sciences, Professor Clive Agnew (Vice-President for Teaching, Learning and Students), Professor Colin Bailey and I met a very lively and extremely positive group of students. We couldn’t find anything they didn’t like. The open staff meeting was very full and the discussion focussed on the review of Life Sciences and cognate disciplines. At this stage the review group is still considering evidence and opinions from within and outside the University.
During a visit to the Institute of Population Studies in the Faculty of Medical and Human Sciences (MHS), PhD students praised their supervisory teams (they said these were much better than individual supervisors) and wanted more exposure to teaching. In the staff meeting we had discussions about the opportunities around ‘Health North’ and the devolution of the health budget to Greater Manchester (‘Devo Health’).
However, many in the Institute and much more widely were very saddened to hear of the unexpected death of Professor Aidan Halligan - the leader of ‘Well North’ (a major public health initiative) and a truly inspirational clinician.
Then I visited the Institute of Cancer Sciences, also in MHS, which includes the Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute, with Professor Luke Georghiou (Vice-President for Research and Innovation). PhD students welcomed the support they received from the MHS fellowship Academy but wanted to do more teaching. In another very packed staff meeting we talked about many recent successes in cancer and opportunities around ‘Devo Health’.
At Senate this week we discussed the interim report from the group reviewing Life Sciences and cognate disciplines, as well as a number of policy changes for teaching and learning and an update on research activities and successes.
A few weeks ago I met Geoff Thompson at a dinner to discuss volunteering. He is five times world champion at karate and now devotes much of his time to supporting and encouraging young people through sport and arts with his Manchester based charity ‘Youth Charter’. He came to the University to talk to me and Dr Julian Skyrme (Director for Social Responsibility) and we found many areas of common interest and opportunity.
I had a private meeting with Professor Patrick Vallance, head of research for GlaxoSmithKline, to talk about relevant strengths in the University. He was here on a visit with six of his colleagues to talk about progress with our Manchester Collaborative Centre for Inflammation Research, led by Professor Tracey Hussell. I joined the full group at lunch to discuss models for future industry-academic collaborations.
I took part in another round of budget meetings this week, though we are now getting to the final stages on the budget and on our operational priorities for the next academic year.
I attended my final meeting of the AstraZeneca Board. It is normal practise in the UK for non-executive directors of UK based boards to serve for a maximum of nine years. It’s hard to believe that the nine years have already passed: I have seen many changes over that period and learnt a great deal.
You may have seen that consultations are taking place about changing the University’s practice in dealing with staff placed on the Redeployment Register indefinitely. You can see more detail at:
Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor
Feedback
Please send comments to president@manchester.ac.uk
President's Weekly Update
30 April 2015
I attended a dinner for supporters of the Manchester International Festival (MIF) with Professor Colin Bailey, Deputy President and Deputy Vice-Chancellor. I am on the Board of MIF, the University is a sponsor and many of our staff and students volunteer to help the Festival which now has a major international standing and is a fantastic attraction for our City.
MIF began ten years ago and the fifth Festival will be held from 2-19 July 2015 with an exciting range of newly commissioned events. For details of events and booking, see:
Earlier this week we heard that our Jodrell Bank Observatory will be the permanent home of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), the world's largest radio telescope. Thank you to all those staff who worked on the proposal. You can find out more at:
Thank you also to everyone who took part in this year’s Staff Survey – the completion rate was a fantastic 70%, which means that 7,177 of you completed the survey. When Capita (who ran the survey on our behalf) present the results to us in early June, we will have a comprehensive picture of how people feel about working at our University. We’ll then use the results to create action plans to address the issues you raised.
Over the last week I made three visits to different parts of the University. In the Faculty of Life Sciences, Professor Clive Agnew (Vice-President for Teaching, Learning and Students), Professor Colin Bailey and I met a very lively and extremely positive group of students. We couldn’t find anything they didn’t like. The open staff meeting was very full and the discussion focussed on the review of Life Sciences and cognate disciplines. At this stage the review group is still considering evidence and opinions from within and outside the University.
During a visit to the Institute of Population Studies in the Faculty of Medical and Human Sciences (MHS), PhD students praised their supervisory teams (they said these were much better than individual supervisors) and wanted more exposure to teaching. In the staff meeting we had discussions about the opportunities around ‘Health North’ and the devolution of the health budget to Greater Manchester (‘Devo Health’).
However, many in the Institute and much more widely were very saddened to hear of the unexpected death of Professor Aidan Halligan - the leader of ‘Well North’ (a major public health initiative) and a truly inspirational clinician.
Then I visited the Institute of Cancer Sciences, also in MHS, which includes the Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute, with Professor Luke Georghiou (Vice-President for Research and Innovation). PhD students welcomed the support they received from the MHS fellowship Academy but wanted to do more teaching. In another very packed staff meeting we talked about many recent successes in cancer and opportunities around ‘Devo Health’.
At Senate this week we discussed the interim report from the group reviewing Life Sciences and cognate disciplines, as well as a number of policy changes for teaching and learning and an update on research activities and successes.
A few weeks ago I met Geoff Thompson at a dinner to discuss volunteering. He is five times world champion at karate and now devotes much of his time to supporting and encouraging young people through sport and arts with his Manchester based charity ‘Youth Charter’. He came to the University to talk to me and Dr Julian Skyrme (Director for Social Responsibility) and we found many areas of common interest and opportunity.
I had a private meeting with Professor Patrick Vallance, head of research for GlaxoSmithKline, to talk about relevant strengths in the University. He was here on a visit with six of his colleagues to talk about progress with our Manchester Collaborative Centre for Inflammation Research, led by Professor Tracey Hussell. I joined the full group at lunch to discuss models for future industry-academic collaborations.
I took part in another round of budget meetings this week, though we are now getting to the final stages on the budget and on our operational priorities for the next academic year.
I attended my final meeting of the AstraZeneca Board. It is normal practise in the UK for non-executive directors of UK based boards to serve for a maximum of nine years. It’s hard to believe that the nine years have already passed: I have seen many changes over that period and learnt a great deal.
You may have seen that consultations are taking place about changing the University’s practice in dealing with staff placed on the Redeployment Register indefinitely. You can see more detail at:
Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor
Feedback
Please send comments to president@manchester.ac.uk