President's Weekly Update
17 March 2016
This week we held our annual planning and accountability conference with members of our Board of Governors and our Planning and Resources Committee. It took place over two days at Chancellors conference centre.
The purpose of this event is to review progress against targets in each of the main areas of activity, though since this is described in some detail in our forthcoming annual Stocktake Report, the focus was more on future opportunities, challenges and plans across all areas of the University.
I spoke initially about the step-change required to achieve our ambitions and the need for rigorous external benchmarking. In addition, there were extensive discussions this year of international issues. Professor Colin Bailey, Deputy President and Deputy Vice-Chancellor, led a discussion on our international goals, activities and league tables and Vivienne Stern, Director of the UK Higher Education International Unit, spoke about the trends of international student applications, markets presenting new opportunities and concerns about a potential ‘Brexit’.
Senior staff presented on progress in each of their areas and future plans and we had an extended discussion on the challenge of making changes in universities. We had a poster session on social responsibility with presentations on research with impact, socially responsible graduates, engaging our communities, responsible processes and environmental responsibility. Professor James Nazroo from the Faculty of Humanities gave a talk at dinner on ‘the enduring significance of ethnic inequalities’.
You may have seen some press reports about commercialisation of graphene. We have published a robust response to those reports at:
Professor Ian Greer, Vice-President and Dean of the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, and I met with the Vice-Chancellor and Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Manchester Metropolitan University to consider our complementary activities in health research and teaching, potential collaborations and the opportunities presented by ‘health devolution' to Greater Manchester-now less than two weeks away. We agreed to follow up by exploring some specific areas.
I spent some time in London at the Council for Science and Technology (of which I am co-chair) after a horrible train journey due to flooding at Rugby. We considered areas for future work for the Council based on topical and pressing issues, met with senior staff from the government and civil service and leading academics.
I hosted a dinner in the Living Worlds gallery of our Museum for senior representatives from Laixi in China, who were here to discuss opportunities for research and business collaborations and learn about the City and the University.
You may be aware that a group convened by Professor James Thompson, Associate Vic-President for Social Responsibility, is considering the topic of investment in fossil fuels. A debate on this was held recently:
The group is now undertaking a University-wide consultation and would like you all to participate - see:
Congratulations to all those elected recently to the Executive of Manchester Students’ Union. I welcome the opportunity to work with all members and to continue working with Naa Acquah, who was re-elected as General Secretary, and Michael Spence, who was re-elected as Education Officer.
Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor
Feedback
Please send comments to: president@manchester.ac.uk