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President's Weekly Update

8 June 2017

We held a briefing for our Board of Governors on our internationalisation activities, led by Deputy President and Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Colin Bailey and Professor Steve Flint, Associate Vice-President for Internationalisation.  We also discussed  the Student Lifecycle Project, which aims to bring together all aspects of our students’ involvement with the University,  with  Dr Tim Westlake, Director for the Student Experience, and Malcolm Whitehouse, Director of IT Services.

I also updated Board members on Manchester 2020 and our proposals for staffing changes. Further information in the form of FAQs has been posted, see Updated FAQs s and consultation continues with the Trade Unions.

At the Board Finance Committee, we discussed our biggest capital project, the Manchester Engineering Campus Development (MECD). This is the largest and most important part of our Campus Masterplan. It will co-locate our staff and students on the Main campus, will reduce running costs and help us to achieve our carbon footprint targets. Our estimate is that the cost of these activities remaining on the North Campus for the next ten years would be more than twice the costs of MECD.

I am delighted to announce that Professor Luke Georghiou, currently Vice-President for Research and Innovation, will become Deputy President and Deputy Vice-Chancellor from August, a little before Professor Colin Bailey formally leaves us to take up his role as President and Principal of Queen Mary University of London. Luke will retain responsibility for business engagement.

As a consequence of Luke’s appointment, we have looked at the portfolio of senior leadership roles and will be advertising internally two senior positions: Vice-President for Research and Vice-President for Social Responsibility. The latter role will include responsibility for our cultural institutions (Manchester Museum, The Whitworth and Jodrell Bank Discovery Centre) and strategic oversight of our cultural portfolio. For details of these roles and how to apply, please see:

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HEFCE has informed the University that our final National Student Survey (NSS) response rate for 2017 is 47.2%. This is below the 50% threshold for automatic publication of results. HEFCE is considering how to respond for both institutions and subjects that are below the publication threshold and the guidance for those constructing league tables. An announcement is expected from HEFCE after Friday, 23 June.

The results of the Staff Survey have been published and show some encouraging results, with 93% of respondents saying that the University is a good place to work and 91% saying they are proud to work here.  Along with the rest of the Senior Leadership Team, I appreciate that the Staff Survey took place before the recent M2020 announcement proposing changes in staffing.   As you will see from the results, one area which we need to focus on is helping staff to prepare for and cope with change.  This will be particularly important as our University aims to meet its ambitious Manchester 2020 goals.  Staff Survey Action Plans will be formulated over the summer with actions beginning in October. 

We held a joint dinner between our senior staff and members of the Greater Manchester Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), of which I am a member. We discussed the key activities of the University, where we can contribute to the aims of Greater Manchester, the opportunities as well as challenges of Brexit and potential impacts of the outcome of the general election.

I gave a lecture to MBA students on the role of a non-executive director (NED) of a major company. I was an NED of AstraZeneca for nine years. The role has some differences but many similarities to our own Board of Governors.  My key messages were that Boards govern organisations, while executives run them. Boards must hold the executive to account, and can question and challenge their activities, can request any information they wish and carry significant responsibilities. The students were particularly interested in the attempted (failed) take-over of AstraZeneca by Pfizer while I was on the AstraZeneca Board.

I spoke at the launch of our Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) and Clinical Research Facility (CRF) -both are major achievements bringing about £40 million to Manchester. The BRC is the first comprehensive centre outside the South East of England and includes seven themes across the University and our major hospital partners. The event was attended by many involved in the BRC and CRF, external funders, companies and charities.

Professor Clive Agnew, Vice-President for Teaching, Learning and Students, and I met Dame Minouche Shafik, who will become the Director of the London School of Economics, to discuss with her the issues, opportunities and challenges facing UK universities.

I met Alex Taylor, who will be the next General Secretary of our Students’ Union, with Naa Acquah, who is coming to the end of her term of office. I told Alex about the importance of the role, the support he will get, but also that while we will probably not agree on everything I attach a high importance to us working closely together, as I have done with Naa.

I met Louise Simpson, from The Knowledge Partnership, who will shortly conduct our survey of key external stakeholders which we undertake every two years to gain an external view of our University.

Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor

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