President's weekly update
22 November 2018
There were various Board committee meetings this week. At the invitation of the Chair, I attended the Remuneration Committee that considers the salaries of staff below Senior Leadership Team level. I do not attend the separate meeting that considers my salary. Another was Staffing Committee, which in addition to routine business, considered organisational changes and a new leadership model in the Professional Services arising from the Student Lifecycle Project (SLP) and the restructure of the Faculty of Science and Engineering [FSE), aligning with the other Faculties and SLP.
The main Board of Governors meeting received a number of regular reports, reviewed the financial statements for the past year and the external auditors report, and discussed data on our performance over the past year. It also received an update on the restructuring of FSE from the Vice-President and Dean, Professor Martin Schröder. Inevitably there was significant discussion about the implications of Brexit and the impact of the proposed withdrawal agreement if it is approved by the summit of EU leaders and the UK parliament, or a ‘no deal’ Brexit next March. Indeed this has been a key part of most of the meetings I have attended over past weeks.
We had two informal Board briefings. The first was on ‘academic culture’ where Professor Luke Georghiou, Deputy President and Deputy Vice-Chancellor, chaired a session with the Heads of the Schools of Arts, Languages and Cultures, Health Sciences and Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering. The second session was about philanthropy and was attended by Kate White, Director of Development and Alumni Relations; the chair of our Global Leadership Board (GLB) Rory Brooks; Professor Stuart Allan, Professor of Neuroscience and Domain Director for Neuroscience and Mental Health who has benefitted from philanthropic support for his research; and Dr Luke Hakes, a member of GLB who is also chair of UMI3.
I’m pleased that our University will apply to be accredited with the Living Wage Foundation (LWF) which is a forum for leading employers committed to fair pay. We have paid all our staff more than the LWF minimum hourly rate for some time, and also offer a range of additional benefits, like family friendly-policies, generous pensions, sick pay and annual leave allowances. LWF accreditation is important to our staff and students so we are now seeking to become accredited.
I attended part of the Confederation of British Industries (CBI) annual conference in London where the Prime Minister gave the plenary speech, obviously on Brexit. The CBI has stated that it is supportive of the proposed withdrawal agreement for the UK to leave the EU.
I also attended a separate meeting with Carolyn Fairbairn, Director General of the CBI, with a small number of Russell Group Vice-Chancellors. The CBI recognises the great value of universities to society and is keen to provide support, particularly on difficult issues such as fees and Brexit.
Undergraduate fees were discussed at a small meeting with Damian Hinds, the Secretary of State for Education that I took part in. We also discussed ‘grade inflation’, unconditional offers and widening participation - which would be seriously threatened by a cut in fees without a corresponding increase in funding from another source, as would many of our other key activities.
Eamonn Boylan, Chief Executive Officer of Greater Manchester Combined Authority, and I co-hosted an event to discuss how ‘anchor institutions’ such as ours can better work together for the benefit of our city region. Professor James Thompson, Vice-President for Social Responsibility, led the discussions and Professor Ruth Lupton, who leads our Inclusive Growth Analysis Unit, spoke of the work of anchor institutions in other cities. The main subjects were skills, both in school and throughout life and improving the overall health of citizens of our region as their health outcomes are much worse than in other parts of the country, infrastructure and support for small businesses.
We held an event to officially name our Manchester Cancer Research Building the Oglesby Cancer Research Building. Michael Oglesby has chaired our Manchester Cancer Research Centre for over ten years, has been a generous donor of his time and his money to many activities in the University and the city, so it seemed most appropriate that this building should bear his name. Michael attended with many of his family and our cancer researchers and I paid tribute to his huge contributions.
You may have seen the story and pictures of how our amazing imaging facilities in the Henry Royce Institute for Advanced Materials allowed visualisations for the first time of the interior of an original Enigma code-breaking machine - the imaging was, appropriately, done in our Alan Turing building.
Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor