President's Weekly Update
8 September 2016
I hope you have all managed to have a break over the summer, though I know that many staff have been busy during August around the time of A level results with confirmation and clearing of students who have applied to the University for study.
We believe that we have recruited very close to our overall target for Home/EU students to study at undergraduate (UG) level, with no apparent decline in the number of students coming from the European Union. Some degree programmes are below target particularly where we have maintained required entry standards, while others have slightly over-recruited. The date at which final numbers are ‘reported’ to HEFCE is not until 1December when we hope to be very close to target. It looks likely that we will achieve our target for international UG students. Recruitment of postgraduate taught students is currently behind target for Home/EU students but this is likely to be offset by exceeding our target for international students.
As usual over the summer we received external indications of our performance through a number of indicators. It was pleasing to see that in the Academic Ranking of World Universities (also known as the Shanghai Jiao Tong index), we rose from 41st to 35th position - the highest ranking we have ever achieved. In the QS World University Rankings, we also rose from 33rd position last year to 29th. The science journal Nature published a league table of 'rising stars'. It measures the contribution of more than 8,000 global institutions to a selection of top science journals. It shows this university as 18th in the world and 2nd in Western Europe (behind only Oxford) for ‘growth in high–quality research publications, using the power of the Nature Index, which tracks the research of more than 8,000 global institutions’.
An analysis of the percentage of graduates from each Russell Group institution that are in a positive employment 6 months after graduating shows that from 2013/14 to 2014/15 the University has moved from 79 to 82% graduate employment. This means that we have moved from ranking 17th in the Russell Group to 11th, and means that graduate employment has improved steadily over the past five years.
However, it was disappointing to see that in the National Student Survey (NSS) of satisfaction we have dropped from an overall score of 86% in 2015 to 85% in 2016. This is after a period of steady improvement. Some areas of the University achieved high scores and/or improved significantly, but in quite a number of subject areas satisfaction dropped markedly and in all questions in the NSS decreased. These areas are under review by the DSE in collaboration with Faculties and Schools.
Lord Stern reported on his Review of the Research Excellence Framework (REF). He recommended broadly similar means of assessing research outputs and impact but suggested that all academic staff involved in research should be submitted but that an average of two, rather than the current four, research outputs would be expected, with the number of outputs for each individual member of staff ranging from zero to six. He also recommended that research outputs would not be ‘portable’, ie they would remain with the institution at which they were demonstrably generated when staff transferred to another university.
Over the summer news of ‘Brexit’ has subsided somewhat but the Europe Group of staff which I chair continues to meet to monitor issues relating to staff, students and funding, and we continue to participate in urging the Government to take steps to provide assurance on important issues. The Government has indicated that it would guarantee any research funding won through EU Horizon 2020 schemes until 2020, irrespective of whether the UK has left the EU by then. This is certainly welcome news and reassuringly to date we are not aware of any removal of staff at the University from partnerships to seek funding.
I recently travelled to Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur where I hosted a total of four alumni events (with numerous photos taken). I also hosted a dinner with members of our Hong Kong Foundation with major supporters and held private meeting with a number of significant or potential donors.
In Kuala Lumpur I visited the International Medical University to discuss partnership in medical education, the British Council, the British High Commission (for which higher education is their top priority) and the Academy of Malaysian Science (which is modelled on the Royal Society). We had a very busy and lively alumni reception at the British High Commission and I met several senior alumni separately. We have over 5,000 alumni in Malaysia and are aiming to set up an alumni association.
On the day I landed back, I did an induction for new members of the Students’ Union Executive, met with the group working on our Science and Innovation audit of regional assets for Government and put the final touches on my presentation to the British Science Association.
Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor
Feedback
Please send comments to: president@manchester.ac.uk