President's Weekly Update
12 January 2017
I hope that you all managed to have a break over Christmas and the New Year.
This week we held a meeting for Heads of Schools, Directors of the Professional Support Services, Library and Public Institutions and other senior officers, including Associate Vice-Presidents and Associate Deans, to discuss our progress. Achievements against each of the goals set out in Manchester 2020 will be published in our annual ‘Stock Take Report’ shortly and discussed at the Board of Governors’ Accountability and Planning Conference in March.
We heard about progress in our three key areas of research and innovation, teaching, learning and the student experience and social responsibility and the challenges of the forthcoming Teaching Excellence Frameworth (TEF) and likely new format of the Research Excellence Framework (REF). I summarised our overall success in many areas, but noted the major challenge we face in meeting our ambitions for 2020 and catching up to key global competitors (who are also making progress). In order to do this, we need to improve our performance and make significant investment while addressing financial constraints and many uncertainties, such as the impact of Brexit. We also heard about the importance of encouraging all staff to participate in the forthcoming Staff Survey which will be open from 6 March to 17 April and Jonathan Winter (Head of Staff Learning and Development) spoke about plans to develop leadership skills more widely across our University.
I hosted a lunch for several of our local MPs to tell them about recent activities and successes in the University and our future plans, particularly in relation to Greater Manchester. We discussed current uncertainties which, of course, included Brexit and the proposed changes to University governance as a result of the government’s Higher Education and Research Bill, which is currently under debate in the House of Lords. We also discussed some of the changes suggested by government ministers, including possible restrictions on international student numbers and university sponsorship or ownership of a local school.
I had a regular one-to-one meeting with Edward Astle, Chair of our Board of Governors, to discuss many aspects of our ongoing activities, opportunities and concerns, recent changes to the operation of Board meetings and the programme for the forthcoming Accountability and Planning Conference.
Dr James Baker, Business Director for the National Graphene Institute, NGI, Bennie Li, Research Associate at the NGI, and I travelled to Speke to visit Briggs Automotive Company (BAC). BAC makes very specialised (and very fast) road cars, one of which has been enhanced by incorporating graphene into the front and rear diffusors. The company is owned and run by two brothers, one of whom (Neill Briggs) is a graduate of ours and is working with Professor Sir Kostya Novoselov, James and others in the NGI to use graphene and related materials to further enhance the performance of the cars. We borrowed one of the BAC Mono cars to display in the NGI during EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF) and again for the visit of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge - captured in this short film:
Aside from very productive discussions, they let me drive the graphene enhanced BAC Mono car – as you can see!
At a recent meeting of our EU Group, which I chair, we considered impacts of Brexit on current and potential future staff and students; discussed the many workshops we have held to advise staff on obtaining UK residency and citizenship; and reviewed our website presence on various EU issues. The group will continue to monitor impacts and agree actions to support our staff and students but agreed that we now need to focus on more proactive steps to influence Brexit and build on our European and other academic links.
I was interviewed and filmed for our new ‘major donors’ magazine about why philanthropy is so important to the University, the many activities it supports (students, research, social responsibility, art work, buildings, books etc), why I donate to the University and to thank the 5,000 plus current donors.
Dr Philip Bond, a fellow member of the Council for Science and Technology and an eminent scientist/engineer, visited the NGI and the Henry Moseley X-Ray Imaging Facility, and discussed potential collaborations with me and several senior colleagues.
I spent some time planning for two international trips later this month. First a short visit to Harvard with a number of Manchester colleagues to discuss collaboration on health and social care and the opportunities of devolution, then almost immediately after that I will be travelling to Delhi and Mumbai in India.
I am just about to review (and hopefully update) my own data for the Research Review Exercise (RRE) which is open for only a few weeks. Can I urge all academic colleagues to do the same - it should be quick and easy. Please read the email from Luke Georghiou which has been sent to those who are eligible, or visit:
Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor
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