President's weekly update
6 December 2018
I spent several days in London, in part to co-chair the Prime Minister’s Council for Science and Technology.
At a small meeting organised by the Russell Group with Philip Augar, who is reviewing the financing of post-18 education and funding, we raised major concerns about the impact of the ‘leaked’ proposals to significantly reduce the cap on home undergraduate fees. This would have significant detrimental effects on access since universities such as ours spend so much on widening participation, on student participation (research intensive universities will simply not be able to deliver some degree programmes at a greatly reduced cost) and on the UK’s ability to respond to Brexit and meet its Industrial Strategy challenge to improve economic growth, better wages and improved inclusivity across all parts of society. We understand that the Augar Review is due to report in February.
I attended a meeting of the Association of Commonwealth Universities where I led a discussion on equality, diversity and women in leadership. We were joined by the Duchess of Sussex who has a particular interest in women in leadership, promoting international links and higher education.
A dinner was held at the Bank of England for members of the new Industrial Strategy Council which I have just joined, chaired by Andy Haldane, Chief Economist at the Bank of England. We considered the remit of the Council, how we work and how we help to deliver the industrial strategy to all parts of the UK, particularly in a ‘post-Brexit’ era.
I also attended an event at 10 Downing Street for the second round of the Life Sciences Industrial Strategy, led by the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Greg Clark, and the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Matt Hancock. This latest round of announcements in the sector deal included commercial support for research at the Christie, major investments in genome sequencing and in digital pathology and early detection of diseases. I met the new head of Cancer Research UK (CRUK), Michelle Mitchell who is one of our alumni and several other major funders and industry leaders.
I gave the plenary lecture at the national Engage conference on universities and public engagement (PE) in Edinburgh. This celebrated ten years since the foundation of the government funded ‘Beacons for Public Engagement’. I led the Beacon for Greater Manchester. I was asked to speak about ‘Public Engagement in Sceptical Times’ and I said that it has never been more important for universities to communicate widely what they do. I joined a panel to take questions about valuing, supporting and embedding PE. It was at this conference that our Gold Watermark Award for public engagement was announced.
Our Financial Statements for 2017-18, together with an explanation of our various sources of income and how we spend this, are now available on StaffNet and our website. From this you can see that our cash surplus is very much lower last year than in the previous year. This is in the face of some significant potential challenges, including the outcome of the Augar Review described above, Brexit - which is likely to result in the loss of European students, pension costs and increasing competition for students. We also face increasing pressures on the costs of research which for government and charitable income is not fully funded - the sector on average recovers less than 75% of true research costs.
At a regular meeting with Sir Richard Leese, Leader of Manchester City Council, we were first joined by Diana Hampson, Director of Estates and Facilities, to update him on progress with plans for our North Campus. I was then joined by Professor Clive Agnew, Vice-President for Teaching, Learning and Students, and Alan Ferns, Associate Vice-President for External Relations and Reputation, to discuss how our University can best contribute to improving maths and digital skills in schools and colleges across the city.
Richard also joined a discussion about routes to commercialisation of the applications of graphene and other two-dimensional materials: ie how much we can and should do within the University and how much should be done independently.
Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor