President's weekly update
7 November 2019
On Monday, 4 November I wrote on StaffNet about the outcome of ballots by the campus trade unions on pay and the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS). A message has also been sent to students. We have now been notified by the University and College Union (UCU) that their members will take strike action on 25-29 November and on 2- 4 December 2019 and that this will be combined with continuous action short of a strike from 25 November 2019. This is most regrettable and while we recognise that pension and pay are incredibly important to our staff, there is no easy solution to these issues as all have adverse impacts. Added to this, while we fully recognise the right of our staff who are UCU members to take industrial action, we will seek to ensure that disruption, especially to our students, is kept to a minimum and we will be advising them to work on the basis that their studies will continue as normal unless they are told otherwise. This means that they should attend scheduled teaching, complete and submit assessments by the relevant deadlines, and continue to plan for any examinations. The University will not benefit from strike pay deducted from staff and will use it to the benefit of students. Information about the industrial action for staff and students will be made available and will be regularly updated.
You will be aware that a general election has been called for 12 December. I am sure that all our staff will make sure they are registered to vote but please encourage students to do so too as the election date is just a few days before the end of our semester. During the election period some of our staff will be called on to offer expert advice on a range of policy issues as well as on the election process and this is fitting given our role in supporting civil society. However as an apolitical body we need to take care to avoid our campus or our facilities being used for party political or partisan purposes during the campaign.
I attended the Russell Group Vice-Chancellors’ meeting last week. Nicola Dandridge, Chief Executive of the Office for Students (OfS), joined us for the first part of the meeting and spoke about the work of the OfS and the fact that it will take three years from establishment (1 January 2018) for the organisation to be fully delivering on its mission. There were a number of concerns expressed about the increasing demands on universities to provide the OfS with ever more complex and stringent data, and an increase in regulation, which are significantly adding to the burden and costs for universities. Nicola noted that the independent review of the Teaching Excellence Framework by Dame Shirley Pearce are both now likely to be delayed until the New Year, as are many other government activities. The review of international funding in the event of a no-deal Brexit by Sir Adrian Smith and Professor Graeme Reid has been published today and is now being considered by government.
At the main Russell Group meeting we discussed the growing impact of export controls, whereby collaboration with certain overseas countries on specific projects that could potentially have military applications (note these are quite wide ranging and not always obvious), must gain government approval before proceeding. We also discussed the current position on the EU; the possibility of a reduction in undergraduate fees by a new government and industrial action linked to the trade unions ballots. Importantly we talked about research funding, which for all research intensive universities has to be subsidised from other income sources, some of which are diminishing very quickly as costs increase and income remains at best static for all UK universities.
Back here in Manchester, senior colleagues held one of our regular joint meetings with leaders from the Greater Manchester (GM) Combined Authority where we discussed various ongoing collaborations, including delivering the GM Local Industrial strategy, Innovation District Manchester, commercialisation of two dimensional materials, wellbeing in schools, business skills (which I lead on for the GM Local Enterprise Partnership working with Professor Fiona Devine, Head of the Alliance Manchester Business School), our Pankhurst Institute (which has received funding from the Local Growth Fund) and the national picture on Brexit and the general election.
You may have seen the announcement of £16.5m of funding for research on radiation treatment for cancer. I made an extremely small contribution to this great bid which was led by our colleagues in the Manchester Cancer Research Centre and has the potential to transform radiation treatment, especially through the new proton beam therapy unit at The Christie.
At the Annual Performance Review for our Professional Services (PS) we discussed how the PS can best support our core goals of research and discovery, teaching and learning and social responsibility and also contribute to our main themes in our new strategic plan: our people, our values, innovation, civic engagement and global influence and the ongoing need to adapt to significant external change.
Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor