President's weekly update

16 March 2017

The Acting Ambassador at the US Embassy in the UK, Lewis (Lew) Lukens, visited the University. I hosted a dinner with about fifteen academic and Professional Support Services staff. The following day Professor Sir Andre Geim and I took him on a tour of the National Graphene Institute (NGI) and explained the properties and potential applications of graphene. He then saw some demonstrations of potential applications by Professor Vladimir Falko, Research Director, and James Baker, Business Director of the NGI. Professor Keith Brown, Vice-President and Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, chaired an event at which the acting Ambassador spoke to a group of our students and staff linked to American Studies, and took questions.
I visited another three Schools this week. In the School of Mathematics, students told us that ‘the School is doing pretty well!’ They asked about more training for industry, the value of ‘Stellify’, how we support students with mental health problems, and societies in the Students’ Union. Staff were very keen to develop interdisciplinary research with other schools and we talked about several current opportunities in health data science, risk, ‘Fin-tech’ and cybersecurity. As in most schools we discussed Brexit and possibility of Scotland leaving the UK.
Staff in the School of Materials are currently spread across a number of different buildings since the demolition of the Materials building. Students raised issues about the availability and training on advanced equipment, University residences for overseas students and support for travel to conferences. They were very positive about the training courses we offer in enterprise. Staff raised concerns about delays and costs of Home Office visas for work and UK residency and we discussed the plans for the new Manchester Engineering Campus Development.
Similarly, staff in the Alliance Manchester Business School are located across eight sites while their building is undergoing major refurbishment as part of the Campus Masterplan. Staff and students raised the Teaching Excellence Framework and whether it will be linked to increases in fees – which of course we don’t know since the House of Lords recently brought in major amendments to the Higher Education and Research Bill. Both groups also raised the importance of distance learning. Students asked why fees for international students are higher than for UK/EU and staff asked about how we are trying to increase diversity amongst the University’s most senior staff.
Dr Kieran Breen, Research Director of Brain Tumour Research, a charity that is seeking to fund a further research centre, visited our campus. I gave an overview of health research in Manchester and the likely impact of devolution of the health budget to Greater Manchester. Clinical staff and researchers from Salford Royal, The Christie and Central Manchester University NHS Foundation Trusts spoke about the enormous opportunities for research, clinical trials and treatments for brain tumours in Manchester.
I had a meeting with the Chair of our Board of Governors, Edward Astle, to update him on recent activities and the ever changing politics of the Higher Education and Research Bill. Edward conducted my Performance and Development Review (PDR) – thank you to members of our Board who provided feedback. We rolled out the revised PDR process last year and the current Staff Survey will indicate how widely this has been implemented – please take the time to complete the Staff Survey, you can find out more at:
Staff Survey 2017
Dr Vernon Gibson visited the University and discussed our plans for the Henry Royce Institute, graphene, devolution of the health budget and our BP Centre for Advanced Materials. Vernon is an internationally-renowned chemist who was Chief Chemist for BP, the Government Scientific Advisor for the Ministry of Defence and has recently spent several months learning about healthcare models and governance at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University which several of us visited recently.
I spent a day in London at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy interviewing candidates for membership of the Council for Science and Technology with Professor Sir Mark Walport, the Government’s Chief Scientific Advisor (GCSA), who will soon take up the position of Chief Executive of UK Research and Innovation. I am involved in the search for Mark’s successor as GCSA who will also co-chair the Council for Science and Technology with me.
It was such a pleasure to meet Jean Oglesby with my colleague and long-time collaborator Professor Pippa Tyrrell, to say thank you for the support the Oglesby Charitable Trust gave quite some years ago for our research on stroke. We explained that this has now led to a major grant to fund a large clinical trial of a potential new treatment, based in part on their very early support for a clinical research fellow. This is a great example of how our very generous donors can spark something that leads to so much more.
Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor
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