President's Weekly Update
5 March 2015
I am delighted that Professor Ian Greer has been appointed Vice-President and Dean of the Faculty of Medical and Human Sciences. Ian is a clinician scientist and currently Executive Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences and Provost (Research) at the University of Liverpool where he has served for five years. He is also chair of the Northern Health Science Alliance (NHSA: comprising the eight research intensive universities and their major hospitals.) Together with a number of senior staff, I have worked closely with Ian on several NHSA proposals over recent months and I am convinced that he will be an outstanding Vice-President and Dean.
It was a privilege to attend a remarkable event at Manchester Town Hall last week when a Memorandum of Understanding was signed for the devolution of the health care budget of about £6 billion per annum to Greater Manchester. The most important aspect of this is the potential to now join up health and social care activities across the Greater Manchester region. The proposals were presented by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne (a rather frequent visitor to Manchester), the Secretary for Health, Jeremy Hunt and the Chief Executive of the NHS, Simon Stevens, with many leaders from the Greater Manchester region, headed by the Leader of Manchester City Council, Sir Richard Leese.
The Staff Survey 2015 opens on Monday 9 March and runs until 20 April. In 2013, 71% of staff completed the survey and as a result of your feedback, action plans were put together at a University and local level to address the issues you raised. The 2015 survey is being run again by Capita to ensure anonymity and confidentiality. Please be sure to complete the survey – it only takes around 15 minutes - because your responses will be used to inform our action plans for the next two years. You can find out more about the Staff Survey 2015 at:
You may have seen the latest information on the review of Life Sciences and cognate disciplines. This includes details of the review group, remit and some aspects of the process for consultation. A web site has been established to provide information and an opportunity to submit feedback. You can find out more at:
At a recent visit to the School of Chemistry, I heard much praise from students - for their interactions with staff, their tutorials and excellent facilities. They wanted more recording of lectures - and ideally videos of lectures - and welcomed the social events that the School organised. With senior staff we discussed REF and the need for some refurbishment in the School and in the open meeting with staff we again discussed REF, student expectations and the review of Life Sciences and cognate disciplines.
In a visit to the School of Psychological Sciences with Professor Clive Agnew (Vice-President for Teaching, Learning and Students), students were very positive about their teachers and supervisors. Some wanted more feedback on their work, but the student reps who were present said that student comments always received positive responses. In the open staff meeting, discussion focussed on the REF results (in which Psychological Sciences showed a marked improvement since the RAE in 2008) and the election of our next Chancellor.
I also visited the Manchester Pharmacy School with Clive and Professor Colin Bailey (Deputy President and Deputy Vice-Chancellor). With staff we discussed academic promotions, REF outcomes, costing of research projects and the new Dean (though they didn’t know who it was!) Students felt they were in one of the best Pharmacy Schools in the country and praised the staff, careers advice and facilities - particularly the medicine dispensing facility. Notably all the final year students present already have good jobs.
I gave a talk in the Faculty of Life Sciences as part of International Women’s Day. I talked about my career, our research and about women in science and was then questioned on a whole range of topics from making career choices, managing time, tackling hurdles and my quote in our Alan Gilbert Learning Commons: “Listen to your head, but follow your heart.”
I took part in a regular Board meeting of the N8 – a collaboration between the eight northern research intensive universities (Durham, Lancaster, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, and York) mainly to consider proposals from the N8 for research funding and links with the Northern Health Science Alliance.
I had my annual Performance and Development Review with the chair of our Board of Governors, Anil Ruia. In addition to reviewing past performance and feedback from my senior colleagues to Anil, we talked about priorities for the next year and beyond.
Diana Hampson (Director of Estates and Facilities) and I attended a meeting to discuss progress on our ‘Resident Village’ - a major development of student residences and facilities in Fallowfield. Progress is good!
At Capital Planning sub-committee we considered annual proposals for equipment, reviewed the Estates Masterplan and progress on current projects and at Finance Sub-committee, we considered final ‘bench-marks’ against comparator universities and reviewed our current management accounts and projections for the full financial year.
Professor Colin Bailey (Deputy President and Deputy Vice-Chancellor) and I met with Professor Aneez Esmail from the Faculty of Medical and Human Sciences and Patrick Johnson (Head of Equality and Diversity) to discuss how we can improve the number and proportion of staff from ethnic minorities in senior positions in the University. Aneez and Patrick came forward with a number of proposals which we will now try to action across the University.
Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor
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