President's Weekly Update
18 May
Following the announcement last week about proposals to achieve our ambitions which focus on excellence, efficiency and financial sustainability, meetings have been held for staff in affected areas. Slides and further information have been sent by email to those who were unable to attend, and answers to frequently asked questions are also available for staff on StaffNet. We have sent a message to all students and are in consultation with the Trade Unions.
As you may have seen, some of the media coverage has focussed on the suggestion that these proposed changes are due to Brexit – they are not. We are taking action now to achieve our Manchester 2020 ambition. In this context, we highlighted a number of potential future challenges including the pension deficit, global competition, international student recruitment, inflation and fluctuations in exchange rates and new providers, as well as Brexit. We don’t know the impact of these challenges yet, but they provide an important backdrop. We have also stated that the proposed changes are not primarily driven by financial issues – in fact a significant number of the proposed reductions in staff will deliver no net savings and we are also proposing further investments in our staff. If you wish to review our financial statements they can be found here.
At the Greater Manchester (GM) Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) we were joined for the first time by the newly elected mayor, Andy Burnham, and discussed strategic planning for GM, areas of focus for the region and actions immediately after the election. After the LEP meeting I met with Juergen Maier, Chief Executive of Siemens UK and a fellow member of the LEP, and the Northern Powerhouse Partnership (NPP) to discuss our own relationship with Siemens, key activities of the LEP and NPP and the role of digital technologies in the UK’s future industrial strategy.
Senior colleagues and I spent several hours going through the costs for the Manchester Engineering Campus Development (MECD) which are being impacted by building cost inflation. The most important drivers for MECD are co-location of our staff and students onto the main campus, providing improved facilities, reducing our carbon footprint and running costs and realising the potential of the North Campus. The costs of MECD are very much lower than the costs of remaining on North Campus for even ten years.
I chaired the University’s EU Group, which was established to consider how we respond to the challenges of Brexit. As yet, we are not aware of impacts on grant income (our European funding is increased) and while applications from non-UK EU students are down by about 5% on last year, they are about the same as the previous year. The government has now provided assurances that EU students starting their studies in 2018/19 will be treated as UK students which is very welcome, though this is likely to change in the year after. We heard that many staff had taken advantage of the specialist advice we are offering to EU (and other) staff on UK residency and citizenship. If you wish to find out more about this please visit: EU/International staff and International applicants
We had one of our regular visits from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and discussed student recruitment, the Teaching Excellence Framework and the National Student Survey (NSS) of satisfaction, the Research Excellence Framework, the potential new Medical School with Manchester Metropolitan University and Salford University which is under discussion, capital plans, devolution and the role and responsibility of the newly elected mayor for Greater Manchester.
We do not yet know if we have achieved the required 50% return of students to the NSS to warrant publication of our data, but whether we do or not there must be major questions about our NSS results despite over 3,500 students having completed the survey because of the hugely varied response rates we have seen across the University.
I gave out the awards for ‘Volunteer of the Year’ and heard remarkable stories of volunteering amongst our staff, students and alumni and our partnerships on volunteering with our Students’ Union (UMSU) and other external organisations.
We were visited by senior staff from AB-Inbev, the largest brewing company in the world with 200,000 employees, to discuss training, executive education and research in chemistry, biology, biotechnology and engineering and their strong interest in social responsibility, particularly in the developing world.
Senior colleagues and I had one of our regular meetings with executive members of UMSU and discussed the NSS, our revised Socially Responsible Investment Policy, proposed staffing changes, student safety and the general election and encouraging students to register to vote.
Good progress is being made on the relocation of staff and activities that were in the Paterson Building on The Christie site which was badly damaged by fire a few weeks ago. Some have been relocated on campus (and we are very grateful to those who have helped in making space available) and we are planning for many to relocate to the Alderley Park site while we consider longer term plans for the Paterson Building and wider developments for cancer.
I met Lemn Sissay, our Chancellor, to update him on events in the University. He then went on to present the ‘Making a Difference Awards’ to staff, students and alumni for their contributions to social responsibility. Lemn read out a poem on: ‘Making a Difference’ at the end and received a standing ovation which you can see at: Making A Difference
Professor Sir Andre Geim is guest editor of the 500th edition of Research Fortnight. This issue is open access and you can read Andre’s interview with former Chancellor George Osborne at: Politicians should look beyond GDP and Q&A with George Osbourne
Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor
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