President's weekly update
6 June 2019
The speaker at our annual Cockroft Rutherford lecture, Dorothy Byrne, was brilliant. Dorothy is an alumna (in philosophy) and Head of Channel 4 news and current affairs. Her lecture ‘Trust me: I’m not a politician’ was watched by over 600 in the audience. You can view the lecture online.
You may have seen that the long-awaited Augar Review of post-18 education and funding in England has been published. There are some helpful recommendations, including support for further education, reintroducing the maintenance grant and reducing interest repayments on loans while students are studying. As expected, it recommends a reduction in the cap on home undergraduate fees to £7,500, but also says that government should make up the difference for high cost subjects and degrees to reflect the subject’s cost and its social and economic value, though little detail is given on this. It is uncertain as to when, if ever, the recommendations will be implemented. You can read more from Professor Clive Agnew our Vice-President for Teaching, Learning and Students at Viewpoint.
Senior colleagues and I held an open meeting for over 400 staff. I spoke about the challenges (including Augar) and opportunities that we face. I also gave a summary of the headline results of our 2019 Staff Survey. We took questions for about 45 minutes on a whole range of topics. You can watch the full meeting on StaffNet.
At a meeting for new professors (recruited and promoted) with senior colleagues, we covered many topics. Ones that came up commonly were local vs central PS support, the need to be more agile and responsive to change, managing work-loads, real pride in the University and the importance of our reputation. The changes to the campus, with more green spaces, were loved.
Professors Graham Lord, Vice-President and Dean of the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, and Luke Georghiou, Deputy President and Deputy Vice-Chancellor, and I went to The Christie to meet Roger Spencer, the Chief Executive, and senior staff to discuss our current and planned collaborations in cancer research and education.
Graham and I, together with Professor James Thompson, Vice-President for Social Responsibility, visited Manchester Institute for Health and Performance (MIHP) at Manchester City Football Club. Their facilities are incredible for elite sportspeople from many fields and also for patients. We heard about the amazing work that two of our plastic surgeons, Adam Reid and Jason Wong, have been doing with MIHP to facilitate the recovery of people seriously injured in the Manchester bomb.
Colleagues and I met Raj Jain, the Chief Executive, and other senior staff at Salford Royal Foundation Trust/Northern Care Alliance to discuss shared plans for the development of basic, applied and clinical neuroscience research.
I was interviewed by the student newspaper The Mancunion. I was asked about a whole range of topics including the University’s finances, the Augar Review, support for student mental health, our investment policy, student facilities including sports, library and other study spaces and questions about my research.
We were visited by senior staff from Research England who had a private meeting with me, where we discussed the Augar Review, and our research priorities, then they met with senior staff to discuss digital health and hear about our plans for ID Manchester (our North Campus).
Paul Kett, Director General for Higher and Further Education at the Department for Education, visited us to hear about our teaching, student support and facilities and met me, senior staff and the General Secretary of our Students’ Union.
At the Manchester-China Forum board meeting, we heard about growing business and transport links with China and I talked about the major growth in applications from students from China to study with us.
I spoke at the opening of the Virtual Reality Research facility in the Division of Neuroscience and Experimental Psychology. The facility will be used to study cognitive function, movements and behaviours in health and disease. Then I tested some of the VR - it felt incredibly real and immersive. My favourite was ‘driving’ the car round a race track.
Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor