President's weekly update
20 June 2019
The Greater Manchester (GM) Local Industrial Strategy was launched in our Manchester Institute of Biotechnology (MIB) with about 200 guests. I hosted the event and we heard speeches from Greg Clark, the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Sir Richard Leese, Leader of Manchester City Council, Andy Burnham, elected Mayor of GM, and Mike Blackburn, Chair of GM Local Enterprise Partnership. The strategy has many areas of focus that play to our strengths, for example in advanced materials, health innovation, digital, creative, biotechnology and clean growth.
As you know, I am not a huge fan of league tables, but the QS World Rankings is one of those league tables arguably with a more transparent methodology. We have risen two places in the QS World Rankings from 29 to 27 whereas two thirds of UK institutions have dropped places, as global competition gets keener.
We are analysing the detailed qualitative and quantitative responses to the 2019 Staff Survey. I have just read all of the over 4,000 individual comments about things we need to improve and a similar number of comments on what is good about the University. There is considerable variation in the comments from different parts of the University. These appear to be related to the average scores on satisfaction, with more negative responses in areas undergoing or having had reorganisation, those where there have been reductions in staff numbers and/or experienced the most disruption during the strike over pensions. The comments will be subject to more rigorous analysis.
Of the many positive comments the most frequent included that the University is a great place to work, outstanding colleagues and brilliant students, a creative environment, excellent pay and benefits, great venues, the value of social responsibility and a recognition of real contribution to society through our research, teaching and social responsibility.
Staff in Schools most commonly expressed concern about workloads, while staff across the University said they wanted more face-to-face communication, more consistent processes, expressed difficulty managing change (some saying we do too much and some too little, but many said we need to do it better). There were some suggestions that decision making is too ‘top-down’ and centralised. Senior colleagues and I are working on how we respond to the areas of greatest concern and support those things that our staff value.
We have responded to a letter from the Universities and Colleges Union (UCU) about proposed changes to the USS pension which we have published.
I co-chaired the Council for Science and Technology in London. We were joined by Chris Skidmore, Minister of State for Universities, Science, Research and Innovation, Sir Mark Sedwill, Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Civil Service, and Paul Kett, Director General for higher and further education at the Department for Education. Prior to the main meeting we held a discussion on the government’s plans for dealing with climate change. It was reassuring to hear how detailed these are and the UK’s commitment to net zero carbon by 2050 since this is such a critical and urgent global issue. Environmental sustainability has emerged as a very important issue in the University consultations about ‘our future’ and this will feature prominently in our future plans, building further on the work we already do in research, teaching and policy development as well as our own activities. It will be a core part of our future vision and strategic plan
While in London I had several meetings with donors to the University, both individually and at a lunch. All were very positive about the University, wanted to know more about our plans, recent successes, opportunities and challenges and our new vision and strategic plan. Several suggested that they may offer further support to the University.
At our Board Audit Committee we received the annual report on research compliance and ethics, an update on the Student Lifecycle Programme and internal and external audit reports. We also considered the sector-wide risks such as Brexit, Augar and pensions, and some opportunities, notably a potential re-introduction of the post-study visa for international students and our very buoyant student applications, offers and acceptances for study in September from the UK/EU and internationally.
I attended the Great Science Share in our Whitworth gallery. It is overseen by Dr Lynne Bianchi, Director of the Primary Science Teaching Trust Research and Innovation Hub, and attracted 500 schoolchildren and their teachers to learn about and do hands-on science. The Great Science Share campaign involves over 60,000 participants across the UK and also internationally and includes hospital schools.
I met Alice Webb, Director of BBC Children’s and previously Chief Operating Officer for BBC North. Alice is a lay member of our Board of Governors and has been very helpful in our discussions about equality and diversity. She has just joined the national AI Council, so we talked about our Digital Futures and plans in AI.
Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor