President's weekly update
12 December 2019
This week we have held the winter degree ceremonies welcoming many visitors to join us in the well-deserved celebration of our students’ achievements. Two ceremonies I presided over were very sad since the degrees were presented posthumously. On each occasion the mother of the student came up to accept the degree with great composure, thanked us for making it such an important occasion and the graduands attending responded with huge recognition. I was fortunate enough to be able to speak to both sets of parents afterwards.
I spoke at a Westminster Social Policy Forum in Manchester on the Northern Powerhouse. I was part of a panel and talked about the skills needs for research, innovation and economic growth. I focused on regional businesses as the skills gap has been identified by a majority of UK businesses as a key factor holding them back.
Productivity, economic growth and skills gaps were also topics of discussion at the Council for Science and Technology which I co-chair with Professor Sir Patrick Vallance, the Government’s Chief Scientific Advisor. The guest was Andy Haldane, Chief Economist of the Bank of England and Chair of the Industrial Strategy Group, which I am a member of.
In London I attended a meeting to review all of the Medical Research Council’s (MRC) research institutes, units and centres. This was a preliminary meeting and next year I will chair the main panel to provide oversight to the MRC. I also met with a number of alumni, including a group who graduated in 1986 and are still close friends.
At a separate event at Buckingham Palace, HM The Queen hosted a Reception for the Diplomatic Corps which was attended by a few senior scientists. HRH The Prince of Wales, the Duchess of Cornwall and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were also present.
Back here in Manchester, we held an event to thank Professor Clive Agnew for his numerous contributions to our University as a Head of School, Associate Vice-President and most recently as Vice-President for Teaching, Learning and Students. Clive will continue to work for the University on a part-time basis following his retirement.
I met a senior delegation from Southeastern University in China who visited to discuss research collaboration and teaching synergies and particularly driving innovation and application of research outcomes.
I attended one of the current Inspiring Leaders Programme cohorts. We discussed how to be more efficient and hence reduce staff workloads; our new and soon to be launched strategic plan; dealing with inappropriate and unacceptable student comments to staff; cross disciplinary research; wider engagement of senior staff across the University and the value of dogs to improve student and staff wellbeing - one person present has a therapeutic dog that helps patients.
At our Planning and Resources Committee we held the Annual Performance Reviews for The Manchester Museum, The Whitworth, Jodrell Bank Discovery Centre and Manchester University Press. All have many success stories to report. We also discussed future budgets, which are challenging for the whole University. Fees for undergraduate home and EU students have again remained flat and recovery of the true costs of research on grants if anything has fallen - as for all research intensive universities. At the same time our costs have increased. The largest proportion of our income is spent on staff (54%) and this increased by 6% over the past year. Hence we need to find further savings or additional sources of income if we are to continue to invest in our core activities and our staff and students. You can find a summary of our Financial Statements on StaffNet and an article explaining our finances.
Last week I wrote about our staff on fixed-term contracts. In response to feedback from some staff, I have published an additional statement.
By the time you read this message we may know the results of the General Election, although it could be some time before we understand the implications of this for the higher education sector and the country.
Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor