President's weekly update
28 November 2019
Senior colleagues and I had a productive meeting with the executive officers of our Students’ Union (UMSU). The first topic was the industrial action by members of the University and College Union (UCU) which has been taking place this week. We agreed that our shared highest priority is to limit any adverse impact on our students and have issued a joint statement to this effect. We disagreed on the grounds for the strike. We explained that we recognise the great importance of pay and pensions to our staff and explained that these are negotiated nationally and we are in frequent contact with Universities UK and the Universities and Colleges Employers Association on these issues. The increase in staff payments for the Universities Superannuation Scheme pension is an extra 0.8% p.a. of salary. Employers are paying the majority of the extra cost which for us is about £4.6m per annum. We share the UCU’s concern about differential pay for women and minority ethnic groups, but explained that this is not pay differences for doing the same job, rather there are fewer women and ethnic minority staff in senior roles; though that in itself is a cause for concern which we are working to address.
We then went on to discuss student concerns about climate change and the occupation of part of the John Owens building by students representing People and Planet, which has now ended. We explained that we welcome peaceful protest and share the concerns expressed by students about climate change but cannot condone unlawful occupations which are very disruptive to our core activities. We also explained that the University’s Investments Sub-Committee had already begun discussing potential new approaches to the management of our investment portfolio. Following these and other discussions, we subsequently agreed to bring the planned full review of our Socially Responsible Investment Policy (SRIP) forward.
I met with a large group of Presidential Doctoral Scholars to answer their questions on a range of topics, including my experiences when I was a PhD student and as a supervisor of more than 50 PhD students, advice for future careers, expectations of an academic career, the basis of the current industrial action (including discussion of pensions), our policy on investments and supporting the mental health of PhD students. They asked me what a normal day was like for me - I said there were very few of those but explained roughly how I spend my time.
It was fantastic to meet some of the winners of the Royal Society of Biology (RSB) ‘Nancy Rothwell Science and Art’ competition for schoolchildren. The RSB initiated the prize when I completed my term as the first president of the Society, since they knew that at one time I had considered a career in art - though I have to say that the winners of the competition were much better artists than me!
I spoke at a Science Live event in our Whitworth Hall to around 300 A-level students about our research on stroke, my career and the University (it’s likely that some will have applied to study here).
At a small meeting with PhD students from across the University Professor Colette Fagan, Vice-President for Research, and I discussed managing workloads, teaching and training undergraduates, the pressure to complete a PhD in three years, the value of being part of a doctoral training programme and future careers. It was fascinating to hear the different approaches and activities between those doing a PhD in mental health, history, graphene, chemistry, engineering and creative writing.
I spoke with several potential candidates to join our Board of Governors as lay members and met individuals who are interested in our Director of Finance position to succeed Steve Dauncey. In the meantime, David Soutter is Interim Finance Director.
We discussed the next steps for Our Future – our new vision and strategic plan - which the Board of Governors approved last week and will be launched early in 2020. The next stage involves developing more detailed underpinning plans for the core goal and themes and there will be opportunities for colleagues to comment on these in the coming months.
It was great to attend a meeting to discuss our future research and to congratulate Professor Dave Brough on the recent award of his Medical Research Council programme grant. Dave did his PhD with me some time ago in Manchester. He went to work in Cambridge for several years but then decided to come back!
I am delighted to say that Professor Luke Georghiou has been discharged from hospital and is recovering well.
Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor