President's Weekly Update
19 January 2017
At the meeting of our General Assembly (comprised mainly of representatives of external stakeholders), Steve Dauncey, Director of Finance, reported on our financial performance for the last academic year. I gave a general update on the performance of the University, plans for the future and the uncertainties we face, and Professor Clive Agnew, Vice-President for Teaching, Learning and Students, Jane Ratchford, Director of Student Development and Community Engagement, and one of our students reported on Stellify - our programme for students to gain further skills and address global challenges.
There were so many questions that we overran, then had a reception at which we were joined by the Lord Mayor and High Sheriff for Greater Manchester.
I gave a presentation on ‘Women in Leadership’ to an audience of about 80 people at the KPMG (a professional services company) offices in Manchester as part of their Senior Women Group. I explained what my current role entails, how I got here, the choices I made, the opportunities and challenges I faced along the way and some of my personal thoughts on leadership. They asked many questions about my successes, failures, mentors and coaches, ‘saying no’ (which sadly I have to do a lot of the time) and career plans (to which I said I am not the person to advise because I hadn’t really had any).
I attended a dinner in Manchester with the trustees of the Stroke Association, a charity that funds research (including some of our own) into the prevention and treatment of stroke and provides support for stroke survivors. I talked about the work we are doing - research, public engagement and work with stroke survivors, about the many partnerships across Greater Manchester and the opportunities offered by ‘Devo Manc’, especially as the National Health Service is facing difficulties.
In preparation for my trip to India next week, I spoke to Lord Karan Bilimoria (the founder of Cobra Beer), who chairs the UK-India trade group, and to Alan Gemmell, who is the Director of the British Council in India, and I got the necessary jabs from Occupational Health. I was delighted to hear that I will be given a Dhirubhai Ambani Life Time Award by the Alumni Association of the lnstitute of Chemical Technology in Mumbai which has been sponsored by Reliance lndustries Ltd for 2017.
The Award was instituted by Reliance lndustries Ltd in the name of its founder Chairman, Mr Ambani (the company is still largely owned by the Ambani family). Hence I will give a public lecture at the Institute for Chemical Technology when I'm in Mumbai on ‘Universities in the 21st century’ - which I now have to write (as well as one for the trip to Boston, two days before!).
Several senior staff and I had a regular meeting with executive members of the University of Manchester Students’ Union (UMSU) where we discussed submission to the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), to which UMSU and the National Union of Students are opposed because they believe it is flawed and will lead to increased fees; the student satisfaction survey (NSS); improving student safety and wellbeing; and elections for the next UMSU Executive.
I had a meeting with Graham Stringer, one of our local MPs, who was unable to attend the meeting with other local MPs the week before. We discussed the possible implications of Brexit for universities - Graham is very positive that the UK will reach a good agreement on exiting the EU and had campaigned for Brexit. We also discussed the Higher Education and Research Bill which is proceeding through the House of Lords, where about 500 amendments have been put forward.
Professors Luke Georghiou, Vice-President for Research and Innovation, Andy Westwood, Associate Vice-President for Public Affairs, and I discussed how we can bring together research which is relevant to Brexit from across the University and hence provide policy advice and briefings. We will establish a new ‘Europe Group’, to be chaired by Luke as part of our international strategy, and Policy@manchester, which Andy co-directs, will consider our research that could inform government policy on Brexit.
At the Greater Manchester Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) meeting, we heard a summary of EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF) held in July 2016 which Professor Luke Georghiou and I chaired. Vicky Rosin, who was the programme director for ESOF, reported on how we had done against the key performance indicators. This was considered to be a great success by LEP members and we considered how we build the legacy of ESOF and Manchester as ‘European City of Science’.
At Finance Sub-Committee we reviewed pressures on our future budgets and likely major additional costs and reduced income, reviewed our ‘TRAC’ return (which measures the incomes and costs of our core activities) and considered the plans for our imminent budget setting process.
Professor James Thompson, Associate Vice-President for Social Responsibility, and I considered plans for the ‘Goal 3’ activities and, in particular, our planned work with local communities. We also discussed how we improve dissemination of the impact of our research and ‘Stellify’ (see above).
Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor
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