President's weekly update
27 February 2020
Several colleagues, PhD students and I went to Buckingham Palace to receive a Queen’s Anniversary Prize for our research on industrial biotechnology, led by the Manchester Institute for Biotechnology (MIB). Professor Nigel Scrutton (former director of MIB) and I received the award from HRH The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall. The chair of our Board, Edward Astle, later introduced our staff and students from MIB to the Prince and the Duchess.
Industrial action continues, with members of the University and College Union (UCU) on strike over several concerns. As indicated previously, there are a number of aspects of the dispute where senior colleagues and I share the concerns of UCU, particularly on workload and wellbeing, fixed term contracts, gender and ethnicity pay gaps. We look forward to continuing to work with our local UCU branch on these important issues. The other major issues at the heart of the dispute, notably pay and pensions, are negotiated nationally. We have been in very regular contact with Universities UK (which is leading on discussions on the Universities Superannuation Scheme) and Universities and Colleges Employers Association (which is leading on pay negotiations).
I was very concerned to hear last week of verbal abuse from a picket official against one of our staff. I am sure that this is a rare and isolated incident, and we are taking action to address this matter. Other picketers have behaved respectfully and politely.
There are some unfortunate errors which are being disseminated on a number of aspects of the industrial action, which we have sought to correct. Senior colleagues and I met with executive members of our Students’ Union and student representatives to discuss the reasons behind the UCU industrial action, to explain where we share UCU’s concerns (and what we are trying to do about these) and areas where the information is not being presented correctly.
They were also reassured to have confirmation of our plans for major change in our investment policy with early disinvestment from oil and gas and our plans to go beyond this by decarbonising our whole investment portfolio - you can read a blog about this from Professor Nalin Thakker, our Vice-President for Social Responsibility on Viewpoint. The consultation is open until 23 March and we have recently published FAQs to help you with your response. I would urge everyone to take part.
Senior colleagues and I travelled to London for an interview to consider renewal of our Academic Health Science Centre (AHSC). We are currently the only accredited AHSC outside the South-East of England. The interview was very wide ranging but we certainly did our best to give robust answers. Fingers crossed now.
I spoke at an event organised by the Foundation for Science and Technology on international research collaboration post-Brexit. The event was chaired by Lord David Willetts and other speakers were our recent Universities Minister, Chris Skidmore, Sir Adrian Smith and Professor Graeme Reid who wrote a recent report on future frameworks on international collaboration on research and innovation. I highlighted the fact that most research is international and the value of collaborations. For some research it is necessary to share major facilities, such as the Large Hadron Collider and the Square Kilometre Array (SKA which is hosted at Jodrell Bank). I also mentioned research that is inherently international such as our FutureDAMS project and ‘research diplomacy’ where research can span political and other divides.
Many research programmes can be delivered only through international collaborations, such as clinical trials, major academic/industry partnerships like the EU Flagship programmes and research on climate change, environment and local challenges.
International exchanges are highly valuable in training, skills and shared experience across multiple nations. I also talked about how international partnerships can span cultural and political divides, citing the SESAME project in Jordan, which includes Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Israel, Pakistan, Palestine and Turkey.
The Cabinet re-shuffle has resulted in a number of new ministers with universities now split between two ministers. Gavin Willamson remains as Secretary of State for Education, but Chris Skidmore has been replaced by Michelle Donelan as Minister for Universities. In the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, the new Secretary of State is Alok Sharma and the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Science is Amanda Solloway.
Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor