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President's Message

8 February

The second half of my visit to China with the delegation led by the Prime Minister proved to be just as busy as the first week which I reported on last week.

In Beijing I attended a session on Future Medicines, which was heavily dominated by digital health, and signed an agreement with Peking University for research collaboration, particularly in health sciences.  I also went to a session led by the British Embassy on the  handling of contracts and intellectual property with Chinese organisations. I met Lord David Willetts, former Minister for Universities and Science, who is establishing a major investment fund for the Eight Great Technologies that he established while a minister.  The flight to Shanghai that evening arrived very late allowing only a few hours’ sleep before an early morning start on Friday.

After a business breakfast, led by Dr Liam Fox, Secretary of State for International Trade, I attended a further business session with about 500 attendees, mostly from Chinese companies. Dr Fox gave the introduction, Professor Sir Kostya Novoselov, from our University spoke about graphene, I talked about ageing societies (greatly helped by advice from Professor Debora Price who, as the Director of the Manchester Institute for Collaborative Research on Ageing, is much more expert than me on this topic), Jack Ma and Li Shufu (two of China’s leading entrepreneurs) presented, then the Prime Minister gave a speech in which she mentioned me and the University!

Finally another speedy trip to the airport in convoy and a flight back to Heathrow, where fortunately I (just) made the last flight back to Manchester on Friday evening. There was extensive coverage of the visit, particularly in the Chinese press and social media

Back here on campus we have launched two significant strategic investments in our current and new staff. Investing In Success is a fantastic opportunity for colleagues to apply for up to £10,000 of funding to support their personal and professional development.  We’re also inviting the brightest new academic talent from across the world to apply for the prestigious University of Manchester Presidential Fellowships which will deliver 100 appointments across a range of disciplines and research areas in all Faculties. This investment in new talent will help to support our core goals of research and teaching excellence, as well as bringing the inspiring leaders of the future to our University.

Back here on campus, senior colleagues and I visited the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering where staff asked questions about web support for marketing, support from some central services, heating in parts of North campus and degree attainment. The students, many international, were very positive about their welcome and their experience, but said that they felt a bit isolated from the main campus and wanted further opportunity for study abroad. One of our Equity and Merit Scholars from Tanzania said that the programme was brilliant and that we were held up as the best university in his country!

We held a dinner for leading teachers in the University and key Professional Support Staff involved in all aspects of student recruitment, teaching, progression and support. We asked them to discuss what single change would most improve the experience of our students, the ever growing importance of digital approaches, what is or could be distinctive about learning at our University and how do we better recognise teaching excellence. The lively discussion produced many great ideas that we do our best to follow up on.

We were due to be visited by three leading universities in Paris which will soon merge, likely to become the Universite de Paris, but snow in Paris meant that instead we held teleconferences. They were keen to learn about our 'merger' in 2004 and to  discuss collaboration with The University of Manchester.

I met Rory Brooks, chair of our Global Leadership Board (GLB), which supports us in fundraising. We discussed the political climate and major challenges for universities, next activities for GLB and the great success of the major donations from Rory and his wife Elizabeth to global development and tackling poverty.

Sudarshan Suchi, who leads the Reliance Foundation in India, visited us. I met Sudarshan on a visit to Mumbai earlier last year and again at a conference in Melbourne.  The Reliance Foundation is the charitable arm of Reliance Industries, the largest private company in India. It supports many activities in poorer parts of India, particularly in rural areas, including providing water, power and education. We talked about the relationship to our own social responsibility activities and how we could partner with the Foundation on research projects, support for scholarships, student volunteering and links to our own Global Development Institute. Sudarshan also visited our Manchester Museum to hear about the South Asia Gallery and exhibitions, and then went on to Rochdale, where the co-operative movement started. He was interested in this because the Reliance Foundation is built on the same principles.

It was very pleasing to learn of our rise from 41st to 16th in Stonewall’s annual audit of work place culture for lesbian, gay, bi and trans staff – making us the joint highest ranking English university and top across all Greater Manchester employers. Our ranking in testament to the quality of the guidance, polices and support provided, but also to the efforts of many colleagues who, through staff networks and events, contribute constant feedback, support and awareness-raising activities.

Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor

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