President's Weekly Message
21 January 2016
Our General Assembly meets twice a year and includes many important stakeholders. I highlighted our achievements, areas where we need to do better and future opportunities and challenges. Steve Mole, Director of Finance, summarised our financial position for the past year (which is reasonably strong but with the need for further funding for investment in infrastructure and people). Julian Skyrme, Director for Social Responsibility, described our signature programmes in this area, some recent achievements and the next areas of activity. Then Elaine, a local resident and volunteer researcher on ageing, Becky, also local who was unemployed and found a long term job (and promotion) in the University through ‘The Works’, and Gulwali, a final year student and former refugee who came to the University through our Manchester Access programme, gave inspirational talks about their experiences of the University.
I was at Jodrell Bank last week for Stargazing Live, transmitted on BBC 2. It was a beautifully clear night and a pleasure to chat to Dara O’Briain and Ben Miller-who both featured in the show. I also spoke to Andrew Cohen, Head of BBC Science, who is one of our graduates - I taught him and he now has an honorary position with us!
I was also delighted to talk to Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell, whom I know well and whom we have honoured with a doctorate. Jocelyn discovered the very first pulsar, so it was fantastic that she was on the Stargazing programme about pulsars. Jocelyn and I were also given great ‘pulsar necklaces’ by Dr Teresa Anderson who leads our very successful Discovery Centre at Jodrell. If you missed Stargazing Live, which included Tim Peake’s links to Jodrell and his space-walk as the first British astronaut, see:
Another one of our staff is on television this week. Michael Wood, who is our Professor of Public History, presents a landmark new series on ‘The Story of China’. The first episode of six is on BBC2 at 9pm on 21 January.
The press recognised the significance of the visit of Eli Harari - one of our graduates and the founder of Sandisk, a very successful company. Eli spoke to our students and supports a prize for young entrepreneurs in graphene. When we met, he talked about entrepreneurs as the future of the University. You can see a great article on his visit in the MEN:
I met Sir Adrian Montague, Chair of Manchester Airport Group, to discuss the importance of the airport to the University and the City. With so many international students and staff who frequently use the airport, ever increasing connectivity and new routes are of great interest to us. It was good to hear of many planned new routes and we discussed research links, Airport City and EurosScience Open Forum, where we hope the airport will play a major role.
I had dinner with Professors Malcom Press and Helen Marshall, the vice-chancellors of Manchester Metropolitan University and the University of Salford respectively. These are now regular meetings when we share intelligence and plans and consider where we can add mutual benefit including areas such as apprenticeships, entrepreneurs, schools engagement, some undergraduate training, facilities and interactions with local communities.
I chaired the Board meeting of Corridor Manchester where we considered the spatial framework for the region, the ‘Internet of Things’ project (known as ‘CityVerve’) which Manchester won for the Oxford Road region (£10m), health developments, including some very strong company partnerships, and enhancing the brand and identity of Manchester Corridor.
Paul Ramsbottom, Chief Executive of the Wolfson Foundation, visited to see some of the capital projects that they have supported, including The Whitworth and a new lab in the cancer building on The Christie site. I met Paul in our fabulous new cancer building where we discussed past and potential future investments from Wolfson. Paul also visited our National Graphene Institute and The Whitworth.
I met Jess Lishak, Women’s Officer from the University’s Students’ Union, to discuss a proposal to reduce sexual violence against students across universities which Jess is developing with our staff and a number of partner universities across the UK.
I visited the Wellbeing Rooms which are now in a new home in the Simon Building. They are used mainly by staff and students who take part in SPORT Manchester’s 'Be Active' programme and 'Wellbeing' courses run by the Counselling Service. The University of Manchester Staff Association (UMSA) also has its base there. For details of activities in the Wellbeing Rooms, see:
At the Greater Manchester (GM) Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) meeting this week we had updates on most aspects of the devolution of powers and budgets to GM, particularly for health where the £6 billion annual budget is transferred to GM in April this year, on transport links and on communication strategies with people living in GM and further afield.
I filmed a greeting message for our Chinese students and scholars for their forthcoming celebration of the Chinese New Year. We now have over 4,000 Chinese students who will be welcoming the Year of the Monkey.
We held our Senior Leadership meeting at the Central Library and were given a tour of the remarkable renovation of what is a beautiful building, including the Reading Room, Chief Librarian’s Office (with a fabulous view right down Oxford Road), the archives (with a description of Manchester from 1301) and the excellent digitalisation projects. There are many links with the University, particularly with John Rylands and our other cultural activities and the University’s Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Relations Resource Centre which is based in the Library.
Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor
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