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President's weekly update

25 January 2018

This week the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) Joint Negotiating Committee (JNC) agreed a Universities UK proposal to address recent deficits and future costs in the USS pension scheme. The proposals would offer defined contribution pension benefits (and retain other important benefits such as death in service and incapacity benefits) for members at all salary levels from 1 April 2019, with an option to discuss a reintroduction of defined benefit accrual in the future should funding conditions improve. The deficit in the USS pension fund has risen to around £7.5 billion and the future cost of providing the current level of benefits has risen by over a third to around 37.4% of salary. All pension schemes with defined benefit provision are experiencing similar challenges. If future benefits remain unchanged, the USS Trustee Board has concluded that total contributions to USS would need to rise by around £1 billion per annum. All USS employers are required to undertake a formal consultation process with their own affected employees and their elected representatives and this will commence on the Monday, 19 March.

You will be aware that UCU members have just voted to take industrial action if the proposed actions to deal with the USS issue are deemed unacceptable to the Union. The result of the ballot at The University of Manchester was a turnout of 54.6% (of the 2,024 entitled to vote) and a vote for strike action of 88%, and 93% voting for action short of a strike. This result was similar to the average of other universities which balloted. Pensions are incredibly important to all our staff and the major funding gap (which has grown considerably) is a very serious concern, with no easy solution since all options have adverse impacts. We fully recognise the right of our staff who are UCU members to take industrial action, but will seek to ensure that disruption, especially to our students, is kept to a minimum.

I spoke at an event at Alderley Park to launch the Medicines Discovery Catapult (MDC). Professor Sir Mark Walport, Chief Executive of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), spoke about UKRI and the increased funding for research which has been agreed by government over the next few years.  I talked about the importance of the Catapult to the region and the relevant strengths in health research in Manchester.  Chris Molloy, Chief Executive of MDC, gave more details of the Catapult and Chris Doherty who runs the Alderley Park site for the Manchester Science Partnership (in which we are a stakeholder) described the growth in activities on the site since they purchased it. Having been on the Alderley Park Taskforce after AstraZeneca decided to relocate its research to Cambridge, it was pleasing to see such a vibrant site with many growing companies. Many colleagues from the University attended.

Mark and I were taken on a tour of the MDC, to some of the start-up companies, as well as the labs where many of our staff from the Paterson building have been relocated. Professor Caroline Dive, Deputy Director of the Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute, showed us the facilities her biomarker discovery group now occupy.

I attended the UKRI launch of the major facilities review (of which I am a board member) at the Royal Society in London. In addition to a speech from Mark Walport, we heard from our new Minister, Sam Gyimah, who gave an encouraging speech about the importance of international links, including with the EU and the great value of creativity, serendipity and curiosity driven research. I was disappointed to hear him say that in a third of universities, the percentage of female professors has declined - this is quite different to the annual increases we have seen at our University. I met the Minister and he said he wants to visit us very soon.

While in London, Kate White, Director of Development and Alumni Relations and I met Lord David Alliance and Lord Jacob Rothschild, who are both generous supporters of our University. We updated them on progress with our Alliance Manchester Business School building and the increase in global rankings of the School. We also discussed our very valuable and extensive Persian and Hebrew collections in our John Rylands Library, which both are supporting.

At a regular meeting with executive members of our Students’ Union and my senior colleagues we discussed how the collapse of Carillion might affect the University; freedom of speech; participation in the National Student Survey (NSS) of satisfaction; student safety; the Students’ Union campaign on Brexit; support for international students and a report of the key activities of each Students’ Union Executive member over the last semester.

The Students’ Union informed us of its intention to boycott the National Student Survey (NSS) again, this year citing the link to TEF. We discussed the fact that student fees are now fixed and the weighting of the NSS contribution to the TEF has been halved.  Most importantly, the NSS is a key way in which we receive feedback from our students on their experience, where we’re doing well and where we need to do better.

I took part in a question and answer session with our staff who have graduated from, or are currently taking, the Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education, led by Dr Steve Jones from the School of Environment, Education and Development. The discussion covered a range of important topics, including: student expectations and debt; students as ‘consumers’; how research impact and community engagement could be better recognised; the importance of research-led teaching and the pressures on academics' time; University governance and Vice-Chancellors’ pay; the role of technology in our teaching; and the broad issue of staff morale, especially with external factors such as Brexit and the pension deficit, and with our own staffing reductions last year. It was a frank and open exchange of views, and it was very interesting to engage with colleagues who are researching the Higher Education policy environment as part of their postgraduate qualification.

Last week we communicated that Will Spinks is retiring as Registrar, Secretary and Chief Operating Officer. This week, we are announcing that Professor Ian Greer, Vice-President and Dean of the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health will be leaving us to become President and Vice-Chancellor of Queen’s University, Belfast. Will and Ian have both made amazing contributions to our University and we will be very sad to say goodbye, but wish them the very best for the future. We are already actively searching for their replacements.

Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor

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