President's Weekly Update

21 April 2016

Over the past week I have visited three of our Schools to hold open meetings with staff and students.

At the Alliance Manchester Business School, in MBS West, the scale of the building works was clear. Staff in Alliance MBS will soon be distributed over seven sites, which is a major challenge over the next few years. The very positive students we met didn’t raise this but asked for more practical experience with companies and wanted a way of recognising those staff who were always there to help them.

By coincidence, earlier the same day I visited the Dover Street Building as part of a programme of wider visits across all parts of the University and saw first-hand the ‘makeover’ that has taken place to house a number of staff who have been and will be re-located from Alliance MBS during the extensive refurbishment. Dover Street is very impressive - light and bright with a nice mixture of old design (high ceilings and lovely period features) and modern facilities, as you can see from these photos (click on the image to see the full set):

In the School of Social Sciences, students made some great suggestions about promoting diversity and we heard from one who is leading on a local ‘Toastmasters’ organisation - if you haven’t heard of them, they support people who want to improve their public speaking skills. Staff raised issues about how we balance our social responsibility goal against other actions and how we better recognise leadership at ‘discipline level activity’.

During my visit to the School of Physics and Astronomy, students said that the great research reputation of physics and astronomy in Manchester was a key driver in the decision to study with us and praised the staff and facilities. Staff discussed the Teaching Excellence Framework, student exams and the new extension to Schuster Building.

We held a meeting of Heads of Schools, Directorates and other major parts of the University. I presented on the key topics discussed at the Planning and Accountability Conference and we then discussed the main questions that the Board had addressed about creating time and financial headroom to realise our 2020 ambitions. Professor James Thompson, Associate Vice-President for Social Responsibility, presented our plans for community engagement and sought input and ideas on priorities and delivery. The meeting was held in the seminar room on the third floor of NGI, so we managed to have lunch on the roof garden in glorious sunshine!

We held three Board Committees which I attended. At these we reviewed the Campus Masterplan and our Financial Regulations, discussed our debtors and future financial planning, and reviewed ongoing internal audits across the University, the plans for our external audit and our risk maps – and, of course, ‘Brexit’.

Senate this week had a presentation from Diana Hampson, Director of Estates and Facilities, on progress with our Campus Masterplan, which included images of how some of the new and refurbished buildings do and will look.

I met the Hungarian Ambassador to the UK to talk about student exchanges and research links with Hungary - in my own area they are very strong. Interestingly, we have very close links with most of the top ten companies that invest In Hungary. The Ambassador then went on to meet our Hungarian students (nearly 40 and we hope for more).

I was interviewed by two students for the relatively new student publication ‘Manchester Magazine’. They asked a whole range of questions, including my choices of subjects as a child, the differences between students today and when I was a student, how I became President and Vice-Chancellor, women in senior roles, student fees and our Campus Masterplan. It will be interesting to see what they write!

Senior staff visited us from the company Unilever, with which we have significant and growing collaborations and which is also a major supporter of ESOF. We discussed future collaborations and the fundamental question of matching industry challenges and questions with how we could help them to address these questions.

‘Innovation Forum’ was held at the Manchester Conference Centre to engage local entrepreneurs and supporters of innovative businesses - it was extremely well attended. I gave the opening address on the importance of supporting entrepreneurs and innovators and the value, not only of funding, but also of support, mentors and great spaces - which we now have.

I’ve previously highlighted the Group convened by Professor James Thompson, Associate Vice-President for Social Responsibility, which is considering the topic of investment in fossil fuels. The consultation is under way and will close on 2 May 2016. Please could I encourage interested parties and groups to participate in this important exercise – see: