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President's weekly update

31 January 2019

Professor James Thompson, Vice-President for Social Responsibility (SR), and I hosted an event for nearly 50 staff from across our University who are engaged in SR activities. I spoke about the inputs from discussions about Our Future which strongly endorsed the importance of SR. Then James asked colleagues to consider our current activities on campus, in our local communities and globally.  This was followed by a fascinating discussion of our existing strengths and future focus on engagement including the geographical reach of our SR activity and four potential areas of action: creating opportunities, better health and well-being, environmental sustainability and cultural engagement. The very lively discussion across all tables included agreements, disagreements and many new ideas which we will summarise and share with colleagues.

On a related topic, I met Dr Julian Skyrme, Director for SR and Rosie Haynes (International Project Officer in the Faculty of Humanities) to consider plans for the Global University Engagement Summit at our University in September. This is a follow-up to an event hosted by the University of Melbourne in 2017 and is bringing together university leaders from around the world to consider ways in which they can advance ways to engage society with their work. The summit will include sessions led by Lord Kerslake (Chair of Civic University Commission) and Professor Brian Cox.

I travelled to Exeter University for a small discussion event with their senior staff and lay board members which was hosted by their Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sir Steve Smith. Sir Michael Barber, the Chair of the Office for Students (OfS), also attended. We covered a huge range of topics including:  government funding of universities, press coverage of what universities do, international students and campuses, REF, TEF and KEF, pensions, the diversity of the UK university sector and Brexit. Most discussion was about the ongoing Augar review of the funding of post-18 education.

Unfortunately my return travel was thwarted by the snow at Manchester Airport so my 06.40 flight was cancelled and I ended up on a much longer train journey and seven hours late. I was disappointed to miss a visit to the new proton beam therapy centre at The Christie and a visit to one of the Inspiring Leaders cohorts amongst other things. The Confederation of British Industries (CBI) event that I was due to speak at the Alliance Manchester Business School was cancelled as well.

At the Steering Board meeting that oversees the development of the new Paterson building for cancer research on The Christie site we considered cost and space options. These will depend on how much funding is available and can be raised, planning permission, design and fund-raising plans with The Christie and Cancer Research UK.

I co-hosted an event in London with Lord Jim O’Neill, who holds an honorary professorship with us, with senior alumni and friends of the University. I updated the group on our recent successes, plans and external challenges, and we had an open discussion about fundraising. Several of those present are already significant donors to our University and a number generously give their time. One of the attendees Ahmed El-Mokadem, who completed a PhD with us, then went on to supervise Jim’s PhD at Surrey University. He told a lovely story of how he met his wife of 52 years at our University – she was a librarian – and how his time with us transformed his life in both a professional and personal sense.

I attended yet another cohort of our Inspiring Leaders Programme (I think I may have attended almost all cohorts now), where staff asked about plans for the North Campus, distribution of workloads, ‘connected leadership’, our international profile and our regional and national influence on governments.

Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor

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