President’s Weekly Update
29 September 2016
I spent a few days in Shanghai, as part of a ministerial visit with Jo Johnson, the Minister for Universities, Science, Research and Innovation. While I was there, I visited the UK-China Innovation and GREAT, and the Pujiang Innovation Forum. The Pujiang Innovation Forum has a ‘country of honour’ each year and this year it was the UK, so there were a number of UK speakers including the Minister, Sir Mark Walport who is the UK’s Chief Scientific Advisor, and our own Professor Sir Kostya Novoselov. The purpose of the visit was to build links between the UK and China - an area of significant current interest to us.
I spent part of the time in individual meetings with Chinese alumni and also attended the renaming ceremony of our very successful Manchester Business School - The China International Centre office in Shanghai, which is led by Sherry Fu. This will now be named The University of Manchester China Centre, reflecting its broader role in University activities. It will be used to host events and support teaching and research links with China in all disciplines. I spoke about the importance of our links with China and Professor Fiona Devine, Head of AMBS, talked about the new Centre. The Area Director for East China at the British Council/British Consulate also spoke about the value of UK-China links. If you wish to hold University business meetings in Shanghai, please contact the Centre email:
I went on to host a large alumni event, where we launched the ‘refreshed’ Shanghai University alumni group and welcomed new board members of the group. As usual, lots of photos were taken!
In last week’s message, I mentioned the Sustainability Challenge which I’m delighted to report 5,000 of our first year undergraduates took part in during Welcome Week. For a great (independent) write-up, visit:
In participating, our students have taken the first step along the way to completing the new Manchester Leadership Award. This is aimed at encouraging students to develop the qualities and values of strong ethical leadership by taking part in a range of extra and co-curricular activities. To mark this new and distinctive approach, we’ve launched a campaign called Stellify and I’d encourage everyone who works with our undergraduates to help them to find out more and get involved. Visit:
The 2017 call for nominations for the Distinguished Achievement Awards has now opened. The Faculties will be co-ordinating the Researcher, Teacher, Undergraduate and Postgraduate Research student categories, but nominations for the Professional Support Services, Library and Cultural Institutions and General Distinguished Achievement awards can be submitted directly to my office. For more information, please visit:
I attended a small dinner in Manchester hosted by Sir Howard Bernstein, Chief Executive of Manchester City Council, and Chris Oglesby, Chief Executive of Bruntwood, to discuss the implications of Brexit for Manchester and any potential actions we could take. It was attended by a number of local business leaders, all of whom shared exactly the same concerns as us. We agreed that our region needs to take the initiative to identify the actions we would wish to be taken in relation to Brexit and to develop our strategy for future change.
I also met with Sir Howard to tell him about our recent successes, future plans and inevitable challenges. Of course, a significant part of the discussion was about the great importance of our recent award of £28.5 million for a Biomedical Research Centre, in which Sir Howard played a major role as Chair of Manchester Academic Health Science Centre and as the lead on devolution of the health budget to Greater Manchester.
I was filmed for activities that will take place under our Race Equality Charter Mark for Black History Month to stress just how important it is that we have a diverse community of staff and students and that there is equality for all staff and students.
I was also filmed about our '10,000 actions’ campaign which aims to get all of our staff and students to take at least one action each to contribute to energy saving and environmental sustainability. I am proud that my office has won two Green Impact awards but it is clear that we can all do much more. For further details, visit:
I gave the opening address of ‘Venturefest’ in Manchester. This annual conference is about starting up companies and supporting entrepreneurs. It attracted about 1,000 attendees from across the country. I spoke about the importance of entrepreneurs to the University and the region and highlighted a forthcoming event on 1 and 2 November in Manchester called ‘Silicon Valley Comes to the UK’ (SVC2UK). The event brings successful entrepreneurs from California to give advice and support for those wishing to follow a similar path. I will be hosting the dinner. Visit:
Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor
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