President's weekly update
8 November 2018
I attended the inaugural meeting of the Industrial Strategy Council. The Council has a very diverse membership from across the UK and from varied fields and is chaired by Andy Haldane, Chief Economist at the Bank of England. It has an important role to play in holding the Government to account on our progress in delivering on the ambition set out in the Industrial Strategy. The first meeting was attended by the Prime Minister, Theresa May, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond, and the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Greg Clark.
Andy Haldane was also part of a Council for Science and Technology meeting which I attended, where we considered how to improve productivity in the UK. Productivity is much lower in the UK than in other comparable countries. There are a number of contributory factors, including the need for wider skills, re-skilling of employees, new technologies and innovation in some sectors.
I am pleased to report that the University has been selected to be part of a Home Office pilot scheme to allow EU citizens and their family members to apply to continue to live, work and study here in the UK after June 2021. The Home Office has stipulated a £65 fee for each application which we have decided to refund to staff who take part. The scheme, which is very much welcome, officially opens on 15 November.
Alan Ferns, Associate Vice-President for External Relations and Reputation, and I met Angela Rayner, Labour MP for Ashton-under-Lyne and Shadow Secretary of State for Education, including universities. We told her about our many contributions to Greater Manchester, particularly through our social responsibility actions, the new dedicated mental health service for students that will be launched next year and the success of our Manchester Access Programme.
We discussed speculation, which you may have seen in the press, which suggested that the Augar review of post-18 education and funding in England could recommend a cap of only £6,500 for some subjects and which has led to rumours about the financial sustainability of the sector. In the newly published foreword to the University Magazine, Steve Dauncey, Director of Finance, and I have set out some of the ways in which our finances work. We welcome feedback on whether this explanation is valuable and what further information you may find helpful.
Our Board Finance and Audit Committees both met this week and had a joint meeting to agree the University’s financial accounts for the past financial year. These were approved, with no issues reported, by the external auditors and will be published soon. Finance Committee also reviewed our Campus Masterplan and also considered the financial impact of various possible scenarios such as a reduction in the maximum fee cap for home undergraduate students, loss of EU students after Brexit and increased pension costs, and actions that might mitigate these.
Audit Committee considered all the internal audits that had taken place, our statements on ‘value for money’ and the annual Audit Committee report to the Board of Governors.
There has also been some press about the ‘Living Wage’. We recognise that the work of the Living Wage Foundation (LWF) is a means of encouraging employers to pay a minimum hourly rate of pay at the LWF rate. This has just gone up to £9 per hour; we pay £9.04 per hour (this is under review) and in addition have an excellent package of terms and conditions such as pensions (for which we pay an additional 19.75% of pay), generous annual leave, sickness pay and family friendly policies.
At the first meeting of our new Board of Governors’ group to consider the future of our North Campus, we heard of progress in legal, financial and planning issues around vacating and developing the North Campus and work that we are undertaking to launch the process to appoint a joint venture partner in Spring 2019.
I travelled to Edinburgh for a Board meeting of the Dementia Research Institute (DRI). We heard about progress in the Edinburgh part of the DRI and wider plans for future initiatives across the DRI, including a new ‘Care and Technology Centre’.
We held a Medal of Honour ceremony to mark the amazing contributions of Professor Tony Redmond to the University. Professor Peter Clayton (interim Vice-President and Dean of the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health) spoke of Tony’s incredible career in emergency medicine, working across the world in areas of natural disasters and epidemics, and training many of those involved in UK medical and nursing relief teams. Tony spoke of his passion for his University and its three core goals of research, teaching, learning and students, and social responsibility. He has made huge contributions to all three and continues to do so (though officially retired).
Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor