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President's weekly update

21 February 2020

Disappointingly, members of the University and College Union (UCU) have begun a further 14 days of strike action. This is in spite of ongoing discussions and progress on discussions about the Universities Superannuation Scheme and pay and conditions. An update on these issues can be found on StaffNet.

We share many of the concerns expressed by the UCU on working conditions and are taking steps to address these, as I have reported previously. A key area is gender pay gaps which we, like all organisations with over 250 staff, report on each year. Our latest average gender pay gap (for all staff in the University) is a difference of 17% (improvement from 18.4% last year) and median of 12% (the same as last year) with women earning less than men. Men and women are paid the same for the equivalent roles, but we have more women in junior and part-time positions and fewer in the most senior roles. We do not yet have the latest gender pay gap data for the sector, but last year our University had one of the smaller gaps. Nevertheless we aim to close this.

The UCU has issued a statement claiming that ‘the University profits from funds obtained from funding bodies intended to pay our salaries while we are on strike’. This is incorrect. As recognised in the UCU letter, the costs for fixed term contract staff working on funded research projects typically fall into the ‘directly incurred costs’ category and funders are not charged for days when these staff are on strike. For those staff whose costs are ‘directly allocated’ the University is obliged, irrespective of the impact of any strike action, to ensure that projects continue to involve the total amount of research activity agreed with the funder, as stipulated in their award notification. In fact the University has not and will not ‘profit’ from any pay deducted due to strike action. This will be used to benefit students.

Last week I made a short visit to India which was complicated by a delayed flight, hence missing the connection to Kolkata. So after over 7 hours at Doha, the only option was to go straight on to Delhi. In Delhi I had meetings with the Principal Scientific Advisor to the Indian government, who is the equivalent of our Chief Scientific Advisor Sir Patrick Vallance; representatives of the British Council in India and the Chief Executive of SOS Children’s Villages of India.

The latter supports looked after children across India and is keen to collaborate with us on looked after children in Manchester and their access to higher education. In Mumbai, I visited the Tata Memorial Hospital which admits 6,000 new cancer patients each year. I met senior members of the Hinduja Foundation and heard about its charitable work which closely aligns with ours. I hosted a lunch for alumni and an evening event for alumni and students holding offers to study with us. 

It was an honour to meet Ratan Tata, the Emeritus Chair of the Tata Group and a hugely respected figure in India, and to confer on him an honorary Doctorate of Enterprise. The doctorate had been approved, offered and accepted several years ago, but we had never found a time for formal conferment. We were joined for part of the meeting by his dog Goa, who had been picked up as a stray. We discussed our research on electric vehicles with staff at Tata.

We have collaborations with Reliance Industries so it was a pleasure to meet Mukesh Ambani, owner and chairman of Reliance, and his colleagues. They are particularly interested in advanced materials for many applications and are establishing a new, not-for-profit research university in Mumbai. At all meetings we spoke about the value of our many Indian partnerships, the importance of Indian students and the development of our South Asia Gallery in our Manchester Museum.

Back in Manchester, we held the annual Board of Governors’ Accountability Review at which our Board considers performance in each of our core areas and discusses in detail reasons for achievements and successes and areas where we have not met targets, with actions to remedy. The Board was very positive about our performance on many of our activities and our plans to address areas where we need to do better. We discussed the serious and likely growing financial challenges and risks, particularly as a result of likely increases in the costs of pensions and the negative impact of industrial action. We also considered the potential impact of coronavirus for example on international student recruitment.

We are now seeking feedback on the more detailed plans as part of Our Future, our new strategic plan. Some of these are already available for consultation.

The consultation continues on the planned changes to how we invest (which includes early disinvestment in carbon intensive industries by 2022 or earlier, but also goes much further than this). FAQs will be added to the consultation pages next week. 

I was alerted to a landmark case involving a US university's intellectual property (IP) and briefed on progress with our IP Policy developments which have been approved by Senate.

The Home Office has released further advice on coronavirus, importantly indicating that staff and students who are concerned about their visas which may expire will have their visas automatically extend to 31 March 2020 and giving details of a helpline.

Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor

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