President's Weekly Update
10 May 2018
I hope that you all managed to enjoy a very sunny and warm May Bank Holiday.
We have had quite a large number of visitors to the University over the past few weeks and the last week has been no exception.
John Halligan TD, Irish Minister of State for Training, Skills, Innovation, Research and Development, met with Professor Luke Georghiou, Deputy President and Deputy Vice-Chancellor, and me to discuss collaborations between Manchester and Ireland. Mr Halligan’s visit was recommended by Professor Mark Ferguson, formerly a Dean of Biological Sciences at the University who now heads Science Foundation Ireland, the major funder in Southern Ireland. We already have strong collaborations with several universities in Eire and discussed collaborations ranging from health, business engagement and our John Rylands Library collections. Mr Halligan is a fan of astronomy and went on to visit Jodrell Bank Observatory (where he climbed into the telescope) and the Square Kilometre Array, for which we host the headquarters.
Professor Ian Greer, Vice-President and Dean of the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, and I met Baroness Dido Harding, who is Chair of NHS Improvement that oversees hospitals. I had met Dido previously when she was Chief Executive of Talk Talk and on this occasion she was accompanied by Neil McArthur, a member of our Board who was a founder of Talk Talk. We explained what was happening as a result of devolution of the health budget to Greater Manchester and also raised concerns about the sustainability of research funding, particularly in medical and health sciences which depends heavily on charity support.
I met Jo Kelley, who has just become a Board member of UMI3. I also met with a number of potential new members of our Board of Governors and several donors to the University. We discussed our aspirations for commercialisation of our discoveries, how we can best support our staff in commercialisation, but I also said the fundamental mission of universities is discovery of new knowledge, often without obvious application - at least at the outset.
In the School of Mathematics students asked questions about the Students’ Union, gender balance in Maths, recognition for student volunteering and outreach, support for international students, Brexit and mental health and wellbeing. Staff raised issues about the Teaching Excellence Framework, the role of School Boards (particularly in light of the restructuring in the Faculty of Science and Engineering) and seemingly ever-increasing demands on staff time. We noted major advances in student measures of success and that the School has an excess of REF impact cases.
At our External Relations Strategy Group, which I chair, we had an excellent presentation on strategies for international communications and engagement and also discussed engagement with our local communities, with our regional MPs and with local and central government.
I spoke at an event hosted by Artorius Wealth in our John Rylands Reading Room on my career, current role and duties and about women in senior positions. Artorius advises its clients on managing their funds and on philanthropy.
At the Inspiring Leaders Programme we discussed how to better communicate across such a large university and how we better empower staff to take responsibility and make decisions which in turn should allow us to become more agile.
A message is going to all students jointly from the University and our Students’ Union about how the pay deducted from staff taking industrial action will be used for new activities to benefit students.
At our Planning and Resources Committee we received the final version of our annual Stocktake Report, approved a revised Flexible Working Policy and discussed the need to ensure that all staff are compliant with the new General Data Protection Regulation requirements. This means that, amongst other things, all staff must complete the Data Protection course by Friday, 25 May. We also gave a short update on the budget setting process for next year which is extremely challenging given many external pressures, including additional pension costs.
Warmest congratulations go to Professor Richard Marais, Director of the Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute (which is part of the University), and Dame Angela Strank, Chief Scientist at BP and a member of our Board, who were both elected Fellows of the Royal Society. Also, Professor Jorgen Vestbo has been elected as a fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences. These are exceptional accolades.
Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor
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