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President's weekly update

5 September 2019

Like all universities, we continue to experience great uncertainty over Brexit which as you know is currently scheduled for 31 October. The possibility of leaving the EU without an agreement is a major concern, particularly so to our many, greatly valued European staff and students.  Our priority is to remain a global university which embraces staff and students, and values academic and business partnerships across the world.  We continue to support our staff, students and collaborators who are affected in different ways by the referendum outcome.  Communications have been issued to staff and students as and when new advice has been made available with links to the relevant Government guidance – you can find out more on StaffNet. The Government has now released a statement confirming its plans for EU immigration from 31 October in the event of a no-deal Brexit.  This continues to be an unsettling time with ongoing political turbulence and I appreciate that many of you will have questions and concerns.  I wish that I could bring you better news on this critical issue, and I can give you my assurance that I continue to work with other senior figures to urge the Government to seek an agreement over withdrawal. 

On a more positive note, I hope that you all managed to take a break over the summer, though I know that many staff were very busy with research, conferences and preparing teaching for the new academic year. Some colleagues worked extremely hard during the latter part of August as A-level results came in. This year the confirmation, clearing and adjustment period was busier than ever with many thousands of contacts from those already holding offers with us and others seeking a place. We will not know the final registration numbers until later this month and will not have confirmed numbers until 1 December, but at the moment it appears that overall we met our target and whilst we are slightly short for home/EU undergraduate students this is more than compensated for by the number of international undergraduates.  Our new students will be arriving in just over a week’s time for Welcome Week although many students are already on campus for pre-sessional English language courses. It is a little early to assess acceptances for postgraduate students although numbers currently look to be well on target.

We heard that we have risen one place in the Academic Ranking of World Universities (also known as the Shanghai Jiao Tong ranking) to reach our highest position of joint 33rd.  In the Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings we remained ranked 51-60 in the world and eighth in the UK.

Professor Nalin Thakkar, Vice-President for Social Responsibility , Dr Julian Skyrme, Director for Social Responsibility, and I met Lizzy Haughton, Campaigns and Activities Officer and Adam Haigh, Welfare and Community Officer for the Students’ Union, to discuss activities around climate change and particularly events planned on 20 September and the different ways in which individuals might support this. You may have seen our statement in support of the Government’s declaration of a climate change emergency.

We have implemented the pay award for 2019-20 which was agreed by the Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) which represents employers such as ourselves. Additional payments, effective from 1 August 2019, will be made at the end of September. Staff pay is obviously very important and is one part of the attractive package that we offer to staff. 

Over the summer I met with Pam Smith, Chief Executive of Stockport Council, Warren Smith, Lord Lieutenant for Greater Manchester, Joanne Roney, Chief Executive of Manchester City Council and Eamonn Boylan, Chief Executive of Greater Manchester (GM) Combined Authority to discuss our partnerships across GM, particularly in skills and education, the regional industrial strategy, transport and infrastructure and international partners. 

Professor Clive Agnew, Vice-President for Teaching, Learning and Students, and I also met Lesley Davies, Principal of the Trafford College Group, to consider how we can work together more closely. I also attended one of the regular meetings with the Vice-Chancellor of Manchester Metropolitan University, Professor Malcom Press, and the University of Salford’s Professor Helen Marshall.

There has been further work on ‘Our Future’, our next Vision and Strategic Plan, including a workshop attended by about 60 staff from all parts of the University to consider Our Values. The next version of the Strategic Plan document is currently being circulated to Senate members and to our Board of Governors for comment and feedback. 

Professor Nalin Thakkar took up his role as Vice-President for Social Responsibility on 1 September. Professor April McMahon will join us on 1 October and shadow Clive Agnew for a month before she becomes Vice-President for Teaching, Learning and Students on 1 November.  There is more information on Nalin and April’s appointment on StaffNet. David Soutter has joined us as interim Director of Finance to work with Steve Dauncey up to his retirement at the end of October and we are searching for a full-time replacement for Steve.

Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor

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