President's weekly update
9 January 2020
I hope that you all had a restful and enjoyable break over Christmas. In the period just before and since Christmas I have had many meetings with small groups of staff, particularly groups who are currently taking part in the Inspiring Leaders Programme. We discussed many topics but a recurring concern was staff (as well as student) well-being and workloads. These topics have also come up in conversations which senior colleagues have had, and in the Staff Survey 2019 results where academic staff particularly reported on concerns of workloads and work-life balance.
Addressing these concerns has to be a priority for 2020. We will shortly be launching our University’s new strategic plan ‘Our future’ which has the theme of ‘Our People, Our Values’ at its heart. This theme is being led by Patrick Hackett, Registrar, Secretary and Chief Operating Officer and one of the aspects it will focus on is well-being. Plans are also currently being developed in response to the Staff Survey 2019 results which will identify actions we can take to address workloads. This is not just about reducing workloads (although that must be a goal), but also about fairer distribution of work and creating time for more focus on our core activities, which in turn we believe will lead to improved well-being. Some core activities inevitably create pressures, for example submitting a grant application, preparing teaching or assessing work for deadlines or dealing with students who are having difficulties, though even in these cases more support can be beneficial.
We need to identify and address those activities that we could stop doing, do less of, or do more efficiently. There will be other areas that we can examine, including how we support staff who are experiencing stress. We are inviting staff to feed in suggestions on areas that would help to enhance staff well-being and workloads. Please forward all suggestions to patrick.hackett-registrar@manchester.ac.uk.
I raised well-being and workloads as a key goal at a recent Heads’ meeting – this is a meeting attended by around 60 senior University leaders. I invited them to bring forward suggestions from their staff on how best to improve this. Engagement and communication also came up as significant topics in the discussion.
At the Heads’ meeting I also reported on our achievements over the past academic year and areas where we have fallen short of our goals. Matt Atkin, Director of Planning, opened a discussion on the implementation of our new strategic plan ‘Our future’ which will be launched to staff shortly. It was commented that given the wide engagement and involvement of staff, students and stakeholders in developing ‘Our future’ that leaders felt a real sense of involvement and ownership in it. It was noted that this level of engagement and involvement should continue as we launch ‘Our future’ and develop more detailed operational plans. Heads also received an update on the Student Experience Programme.
David Soutter, Interim Director of Finance, described future financial scenarios (including potential threats to our financial position) and explained the need to create funds for investment in our core activities including our people (staff and students) and in our working environment and resources eg; IT, equipment, routine maintenance and the steps we must take to reduce our carbon footprint. We discussed areas of income generation and potential savings including philanthropy, business engagement, international students, online and blended learning and more efficient and agile processes.
Professor April McMahon, Vice-President for Teaching Learning and Students, and I met Kwame Kwarteng, General Secretary of the Students’ Union. Kwame raised a number of topics for international students around entrepreneur training, helping students to start their own companies and seeking employment in their home countries.
You will have seen the shocking news about the conviction of a multiple rapist who was previously a student at the University. We have been working closely with Greater Manchester Police and support agencies for those who have been affected and we have in place a dedicated, confidential telephone line and have increased the support available to staff and students who may have been affected, directly or indirectly by this very distressing news.
Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor