President's weekly update

30 November

Discussions about the USS pension scheme have been ongoing for many months with numerous meetings taking place through the Joint Negotiating Committee which is made up of five representatives of Universities UK, five of UCU and an independent chair. In spite of a significant increase in employers’ and employees’ contributions in 2014, valuations indicate that the current benefit structure is unsustainable because of the very significant increase in costs of future service. This is an incredibly important matter for all staff in the USS pension scheme and for The University of Manchester more widely. We recognise that pensions are a major factor in attracting and retaining excellent staff to UK universities and provide our staff with peace of mind.  We are determined to continue discussions with staff, trade unions and other universities in the scheme to find an agreed and sustainable way forward. We understand that, whilst the Joint Negotiating Committee gave undertakings to make decisions by 30 November, no such decisions have been made at today’s meeting. The JNC have agreed that they are willing to continue negotiations up to and including their next meeting on 18 December.

This week saw the publication of the Government’s Industrial Strategy white paper, which includes much that is relevant to our University. 

This coincided with an announcement of our discussions about a major partnership between Manchester (including the University) and the significant diagnostics company Qiagen, which is headquartered in Dusseldorf. While the partnership is not yet finalised, we are working on a plan that would see a large number of new jobs in Manchester and research with the University into new diagnostic tools for major disease.

This week we held a large event to celebrate the ‘Ig Nobel prizes’. These awards, which have been running for over 25 years, celebrate scientific discoveries that ‘first make us laugh then make us think’. Professor Sir Andre Geim is the only person to have won both an Ig Nobel (for levitating frogs) and a Nobel prize (of course for demonstrating the remarkable properties of graphene, with Professor Sir Kostya Novoselov).  Andre spoke at the event along with three other Ig Nobel winners, which was attended by about 600 staff, students, alumni and guests. The event was a huge success with brilliant speakers and a great audience.

The University’s Medal of Honour is given only to individuals who have made an outstanding contribution to the University and beyond. This week such an honour was bestowed on Professor Nic Jones for his outstanding science and developing the Manchester Cancer Research Centre , which brings together the University, The Christie and Cancer Research UK, with its ambitious vision for cancer in Manchester. We celebrated with an event in the Christie Bistro, though Nic was disappointed that one of his guests was not available to attend - Sir Alex Ferguson.

I visited the My Learning Essentials team in the Library and heard about their impressive work on widening participation with our widening access team which has led to a major, international Catalyst Award for Community Engagement from Blackboard.

At one of our regular meetings with members of the Students’ Union Executive team, we discussed issues including students’ safety; the Living Wage Foundation’s real living wage (which the Union and the University both pay to their staff); International Students’ Day; Diversity, Inclusion and Wellbeing ambassadors; working with the City and region; our Socially Responsible Investment Policy; our joint campaign on harassment and bullying; student accommodation and research involving animals.

I visited the School of Computer Science, where we heard about successes in student recruitment and attainment, research grant income and industrial collaboration. Students raised points about booking events through the Students’ Union, social events and the cost of food on campus. They asked about the Faculty review and praised recent curriculum changes. Staff expressed concern about ‘centralisation’ and the service provided in some areas, which we are following up on. I told them that the areas of their expertise featured very strongly in the Industrial Strategy white paper and in many new funding streams.

At Capital Planning Sub-Committee we reviewed progress in environmental sustainability. The team, led by Dr Emma Gardner and working in partnership with a number of different parts of the University, has won many awards for their achievements. Recent examples include the ‘10,000 actions’ campaign, sustainable procurement and carbon literacy standards.

I had a tour of the new executive education suite and hotel adjacent to the Alliance Manchester Business School which will open at the end of March. In addition to 212 standard rooms, there will be 116 Staybridge apartments for longer stays and large and small conference facilities in the University’s adjoining executive education suite, which all look very impressive.

We held the first meeting of our External Relations Strategy Group, which I chair, to agree the membership and terms of reference, hear about the external stakeholders’ review - which was generally very positive - and agree actions resulting from the review, the Staff Survey and other inputs on how we can better engage external (as well as internal) stakeholders.

We signed a contract to establish the Thomas Ashton Institute of Risk and Regulatory Science which is a partnership with the Health and Safety Executive and Laboratories, with its first external funding coming from Lloyds Foundation.

Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor