President's Weekly Update
18 January 2018
At General Assembly this week I gave an update on progress, challenges and opportunities for the University. Steve Dauncey, Director of Finance, talked about the past year’s financial performance and future concerns, and Dr James Hopkins, the University Historian and Heritage Manager, gave some fascinating insights into our rich heritage and why it is so important to us today. There was a long question and answer session with many positive comments about the University.
At Capital Planning Sub-Committee we discussed the position with Carillion, which was the principal contractor on the University's Fallowfield student accommodation development. At this stage the University is considering its options and will provide updates when a new contractor has been appointed for the scheme. We also noted that our spending on major capital as a percentage of our total turnover is lower than many competitor universities.
We launched our new Inspiring Leaders Programme (ILP) in the Whitworth. About 130 participants are taking part in the first cohort. This includes members of the Senior Leadership Team, Heads of Schools and Professional Support Services Directorates and leaders of discipline areas, teaching, research and social responsibility, who heard from me about why this programme is important. I spoke about the aim for wider engagement of staff across the University, mutual exchange of ideas and sharing of problems and solutions. Professor Stephanie Marshall, from the University and the Higher Education Academy, who has led our Headstart programmes for many years, gave some examples of leadership in higher education and Dr Simon Hayward, who heads Cirrus (our partner in ILP), talked about the aims and content of the programme which will span over several months.
I spoke at an event to celebrate the achievements of our ‘Give it, don’t bin it’ campaign, which collects the goods that our students leave behind in our halls of residence when they finish their studies. It is a partnership with Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester Student Homes and Manchester City Council. To date it has raised £1.3 million which has been donated to the British Heart Foundation (BHF). This is a great example of our staff, our student volunteers and our partners working together to avoid waste going to landfill, to save money for us and the City and to make a major donation to the BHF which supports our research. A senior member of staff from BHF and from the Council were there to thank the participants and Bernard Keavney, one of our BHF professors, spoke about research on heart and circulatory disease in Manchester.
I attended the annual event for the School of Biological Sciences in University Place. Professor Jane Worthington, Head of the School, took me around a number of the fascinating PhD student posters. We also listened to some of the ‘lightning talks’- three minute presentations for a public audience on research by staff and PhD students and I learnt about the many activities in equality and diversity and social responsibility in the School.
I chaired the Board of the Oxford Road Corridor at which we discussed future priorities and finances. We also said farewell to Claire Lowe as Chief Executive of the Corridor and thanked her for her outstanding contributions at an event which took place in Christie’s Bistro.
We hosted a number of ‘future leaders’ from across the world. At a dinner in our Manchester Museum, I spoke about the strong international links of the City and the University and about our own leadership programmes, including those in the Alliance Manchester Business School, the Manchester Leadership Programme for our students and the recently launched ILP. The following day they visited the National Graphene Institute.
At the University’s External Relations Group, which I chair, we discussed an action plan in response to our External Stakeholders' Review, which is conducted every two years. The review was very positive, but highlighted that we need to be better at promoting some of our achievements and distinctive programmes for students and our many great activities in Humanities.
Amongst a number of external visitors to the University, I met Kent Mackenzie, who is a Director from Deloitte’s, to discuss our activities in Fintech, Steve Marshall, one of our US-based alumni, and Jason Stockwood, who has just joined our UMI3 board. Professor Luke Georghiou, Deputy President and Deputy Vice-Chancellor, and I talked to Professor Steve Caddick, from the Wellcome Trust, and Dr Hermann Hauser (entrepreneur) to discuss innovation and support for the application and commercialisation of our discoveries.
At Finance Sub-Committee we considered the costs of our major activities (TRAC data) which showed that the full cost of home undergraduate education is almost exactly the same as the fee income we receive and that we do not recover the full cost of research delivery from any of our funders. We are undertaking a major project to rigorously implement our research costing and pricing policies as part of our wider strategic aim to increase income generation and improve efficiency and effectiveness across the University. You might be interested to read a great article about our City and University:
Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor
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