President's weekly update
16 May 2019
The Greater Manchester Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) board, of which I am a member, held an informal meeting in our newly refurbished Alliance Manchester Business School (AMBS) to discuss achievements of the LEP over the last year and forthcoming plans. They had a tour of the building then we were joined by senior University staff to discuss the University’s new vision and strategic plan, health innovation, advanced materials and manufacturing, creative, digital and AI, and student recruitment and retention in the region after graduation.
The incoming High Commissioner to Singapore visited us. We have many teaching and research links with Singapore which we aim to strengthen, an office of the University of Manchester Worldwide (UMW) is based there and there is a very strong alumni community which will be celebrating its fifteenth anniversary in September - I will attend.
I also met the new High Commissioner of India who visited Manchester and said she looks forward to stronger interactions. Both raised the issue of post-study work visas which the UK abolished several years ago. This was probably instrumental in the big (more than 50%) decline in talented Indian students coming to study in the UK and a reduction in students from a number of other countries - though this year applications from international students are up by 20%, including an increase from India.
Former Minister for Universities, Science, Research and Innovation, Jo Johnson, is proposing a cross-party amendment to the immigration bill which would lead to a reinstatement of the two year post study work visas to attract the most talented international students. Our competitor countries already have such visas or even more generous offers.
I had a tour of our Manchester Engineering Campus Development (MECD) which is really taking shape now. There are currently about 600 people working on site and this will increase to 800-900 later this year. The project is running on time and some parts are looking not far off completion, while for other parts there is a lot still to do. I was particularly impressed by the refurbishment of Oddfellows Hall, which is a listed building.
In an open meeting, students in the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures were incredibly positive. As always I ask them to speak about the good things and the not so good which we need to fix or do better. The first student said everything was positive and struggled to think of any negatives! Others offered similar comments. The staff meeting was held earlier and is covered in my message on 2 May.
The University hosted a meeting of the ‘Medical Pilgrims’- a group of very senior medical scientists, which includes the chairs of Cancer Research UK and UKRI amongst others. They heard presentations about basic and clinical research in Manchester and I spoke to them about the role of universities, including the core mission of universities and the opportunities and challenges we face. They held their dinners in our Manchester Museum and in The Whitworth.
Our meeting with the University Students’ Union executive considered student mental health, how we recognise the climate change emergency, prayer spaces and timetabling for students who want to attend prayers, access to the AMBS library for students who need to use the books held there, hate crime survey, food on campus, advice to EU students and the hand over to the new Students’ Union executive.
At a meeting with staff from different parts of the University they said how they valued our social responsibility activities and cultural institutions, suggested ways we could improve on managing change and communication and raised the importance of our activities (research, teaching and operations in light of the massive challenge of climate change).
Our External Relations Strategy Group, which I chair, considered the next external stakeholders review which will take place over the next few months. We also discussed how we best enhance and measure our global reputation and meeting the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
I gave the first presentation on science as part of the House of Commons Speakers series, held in the amazing rooms of the Speaker of the House, John Bercow. It was attended by about 130 scientists and politicians. I talked about ‘Communicating Science’, why it is important and how we as scientists can do it better. Questions lasted for about 30 minutes. The event was recorded and will be shown at 8pm on Sunday on BBC Parliament and on iPlayer shortly after broadcast.
A suggestion was made to me that it may be helpful for my senior colleagues and me to hold informal drop in sessions (for example in Christie’s Bistro and other venues). I’d welcome views on this. Senior colleagues and I are holding an open staff meeting in Lecture Theatre B in University Place on 4 June at 1.15pm which you can register to attend. After a short presentation we will invite questions from the audience.
Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor