President's weekly update
19 December 2018
The Chinese Ambassador to the UK, His Excellency Mr Liu Xiaoming, visited the University with his wife, several senior staff from the Chinese Embassy, the Consul General Mr Zheng Xiyuan, and other staff from the Consulate in Manchester. The Ambassador has been to our University on other occasions, notably for the preparation and actual visit of President Xi Jinping in 2015 and I met him during our Prime Minister’s visit to China earlier this year.
I hosted a lunch for our guests which was attended by a number of University staff involved in our partnerships with China. The group then visited the Confucius Institute at our University, led by Drs Deljana Iossifova and Shuangxia Sheng, followed by our Manchester China Institute, led by Professor Pete Gries. The Ambassador gave a talk to students on ‘Higher Education, Innovation and Urban Renewal’. He described this in three parts linked to the words in our motto ‘Knowledge, Wisdom and Humanity’. In the evening I attended an event hosted by the Ambassador and the Consul General in Manchester where we discussed the many links between the city region and China.
I hosted a civic event attended by the Lord Lieutenant of Greater Manchester (GM), the High Sheriff, the Bishop of Manchester and several other leading individuals from the city region. We discussed how to improve skills, especially in maths and digital in our locality, we updated guests on graphene commercialisation and the role of the newly-opened Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre, our plans for the North Campus and talked about health innovation and the importance of creative industries and culture for GM.
Professor Andrew James, Associate Dean for business engagement and external relations for the Faculty of Humanities, and I met Miles Rothbury, who leads HSBC for the region, to discuss building our strengths in ‘fintech’ (digital finance) research and teaching.
At a meeting of senior staff with executive members of our Students’ Union we updated on progress with the 147 bus and the new dedicated student mental health service, heard about the creation of a new postgraduate officer role in the Students’ Union and plans for a GM Students’ Assembly to represent students from all higher education institutes in GM.
In a regular discussion with the elected mayor of GM Andy Burnham, we discussed a GM Students’ Assembly, skills and support for maths education in schools, the event we held on ‘anchor institutions’ and their contribution to health, wealth and well-being, and the potential impact of the Augar review of post-18 education and funding. At present it still appears that the review is likely to recommend a significant reduction in the fee cap for home students with major consequences for universities.
You may have seen that the Office for National Statistics has stated that the part of the student loan which is not likely to be repaid (currently estimated at 45%) will show as debt on the government’s public spending balance sheet. This is likely to strengthen the pressure to reduce the costs of higher education being considered by the Augar review. We are continuing to make the case very strongly to government for sustained funding for teaching and research while also considering the impact of a reduction in fee cap and how we would respond.
It is regrettable that we are going into Christmas with very little clarity on Brexit, although we are doing a great deal of work to consider all possible impacts and how we mitigate them. We hope to have more information in the New Year.
Please see a short message from the Senior Leadership Team thanking the huge numbers of staff for their contribution to discussions about ‘Our Future’. With more than 4,000 people taking part and 700 ideas being put forward it’s clear that colleagues have valued getting involved in sharing their thoughts and ideas and SLT is committing to keep this conversation going throughout 2019 as we develop our vision and strategic plan. We have put all of the feedback from Our Future on StaffNet – please do take a look.
There will be no message now until January when our University reopens after the Christmas break. Whilst most of us will have the opportunity to take a restful and enjoyable break, special thanks must go to those colleagues from across the University who continue to work over this period carrying out essential jobs and maintaining specialist facilities.
Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor