President's weekly update
31 October 2019
I visited the Go Abroad Fair for students in University Place with Dr Simon Merrywest, Director for the Student Experience, and Dr Caroline Whitehand, Manager, International Programmes Office. The aim of this Fair is to demonstrate to students the many opportunities there are to spend time (usually a year) studying with one of our partner universities overseas. About 1,350 of our students spend time studying abroad each year, a number which is growing, and many more spend shorter periods of time abroad studying, working or volunteering. This is something that we aim to grow even further given the many benefits for our students to their academic outcomes, employability and their wider experience. I met three students who had spent time in Hong Kong, Singapore and Canada respectively and one who has come from the University of California to study with us - all spoke about their fantastic experience and how this has shaped their future career plans. My visit was timely as we are just considering a new international advisory group to support our global activities, and global influence is one of the key themes of our new Vision and Strategic Plan.
Professor April McMahon officially starts as Vice-President for Teaching, Learning and Students tomorrow after ‘shadowing’ Professor Clive Agnew for the past month. Clive will remain in the University on a part-time basis when he steps down as a Vice-President.
I travelled to Churchill College at the University of Cambridge for an ‘In Conversation’ led by Professor Athene Donald as part of their ‘Give me Inspiration! The Paradigm Shift’ series, which was attended by many young female scientists. There were some great questions, such as dealing with failure, balancing time and overcoming resistance.
I also went to London to interview for new members of the Council for Science and Technology and to discuss future plans for the Council. We hope to meet the Prime Minister in the near future but, depending on timing, there is clearly some uncertainty about this.
We have just completed the Annual Performance Reviews for each of the three Faculties and these, along with the performance reviews of the other parts of the University, will eventually be reported on as part of our annual Stocktake Report. There were areas of strength and success in all three, but also areas of concern, most notably some disciplines in each Faculty where student satisfaction is below where we would want it to be. In all the reviews concerns were expressed about external pressures such as the impact of Brexit and potential pressures on research grant income and student recruitment - though we have done well in both these areas this year. We discussed the Staff Survey and concerns about managing change, communications and balancing staff workloads, particularly where we face ever greater demand on reporting, most notably from the Office for Students.
Dr Chris Molloy, who leads the Medicines Discovery Catapult (MDC) at Alderley Park, visited to discuss collaborations and common interests. MDC is a partner in the expression of interest bid we have submitted under the Strength in Places Fund (SiPF) and Chris also chairs the industry advisory panel for Health Innovation Manchester.
We held our annual meeting to discuss the salaries of senior staff in Professional Services. As has been the case for many years, the total awards made were significantly less (about two thirds) of the average increases across the rest of the University and many are non-consolidated: ie a one-off award to recognise strong performance in year rather than an ongoing increase.
I am pleased to say that Luke Georghiou is making progress but is still very poorly and likely to be away from the University for some time.
Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor