President's weekly update
30 April 2020
Inevitably the major topic at Senate was the impact of COVID-19 on the University. There have been many analyses and predictions of the impact of the pandemic on international student recruitment and the consequent financial loss of income to UK universities with some predictions of almost £7 billion next year. The University and College Union (UCU) has commissioned analysis by London Economics suggesting a more modest loss of about £2.5 billion but this covers only undergraduate students (many of our international students are postgraduate) and assumes that universities will be fully open and travel will be possible, so the impacts could be much greater. The Guardian reported that many universities are modelling between 80% and 100% loss of international students. We are modelling two scenarios: one a 50% loss of international students and the other towards the upper end, though not as great as some predictions. We discussed at Senate how we preserve our core missions of research, teaching and learning and social responsibility and the next steps in trying to optimise student recruitment, generate further income and make savings.
We also discussed the importance of ensuring that our online learning is of high quality and attractive to students. Our staff have done an amazing job of adapting very quickly to online teaching and we now need to consider how we further enhance this. We are planning additional meetings of Senate throughout the summer to discuss how we respond to the impacts of the pandemic.
We are planning for when the Government indicates the basis on which we can begin to return to campus. We are receiving feedback from colleagues on the positive aspects of working from home that we might wish to hold on to following the current situation.
The same topic of COVID-19 was prominent in an informal meeting with our trade unions where we described the predicted financial impacts and discussed the range of actions we could take to limit the effect of these, and in meetings with about 80 academic and Professional Services leaders from across the University where we considered how to optimise student recruitment, sustain and strengthen our research base and maintain financial sustainability.
Around 1,400 staff have so far been placed on furlough leave as part of the Government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. Only roles which are not supported by public funds can be considered and those on furlough leave cannot carry out any work for the University.
I had a video meeting with Andy Burnham, the elected mayor of Greater Manchester. I highlighted the importance of international students to our University, the work we are doing on COVID-19 and the many volunteers and supporters who are providing everything from PPE to shopping for those self-isolating.
Alan Ferns, Associate Vice-President for External Relations and Reputation, and I had a virtual meeting with Afzal Khan, one of our local MPs and a former member of our Board of Governors. Many of our students live in Afzal’s constituency and he was pleased to hear of the support we have been offering them.
I also had weekly calls with Edward Astle, Chair of our Board, and with the Vice-Chancellors of the Greater Manchester universities where we shared actions and concerns, and I joined a briefing for Vice-Chancellors by Universities UK Chief Executive, Alistair Jarvis. Alistair outlined discussions on the requested Government support for universities and discussions on visa applications and welcoming messages for international students.
We held the first meeting of the shadow board of Manchester Graphene Company, chaired by Juergen Maier, former head of Siemens UK. The company will be part-funded by the University and by external investors and is making good progress in developing a range of commercial opportunities and a business plan. This will be submitted to our Board Finance Committee for approval in early summer, then the company can be formally established.
In these very challenging times, it was wonderful to receive a gift to the University of £1 million by one of our Hong Kong alumni, David Chu, to be used for student hardship and COVID-19 research. David graduated from the University in 1960 and has previously given very generously to support students from disadvantaged backgrounds. I spoke to him in Hong Kong to offer our real gratitude for this truly remarkable gift. Our student hardship appeal has so far attracted over 1,000 donors from all around the world, and I am grateful to every one of them.
I am pleased to announce additional support for our final year PGR students who are not supported by other funders. Information will be available shortly on the PGR FAQs page.
Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor