President's weekly update
14 May 2020
In spite of most people working from home, we managed to celebrate the Volunteer of the Year and Making A Difference awards online. I spoke at each and saw the remarkable work of our staff, students, alumni and partners, with more submissions than ever this year. The MaD awards were an amazing achievement of online delivery with us all, including Dr Julian Skyrme, Director for Social Responsibility, as compere, Lemn Sissay, our Chancellor, who announced the winners, and awardees all joining by video from home and integrated with films. Over 5,500 people have already watched the awards which you can also watch on YouTube. Many thanks to the large team that delivered this event.
Nearly 300 staff joined a Zoom open meeting with members of the Senior Leadership Team and me – you can watch a recording on StaffNet. I gave a brief update, including on our plans to mitigate likely loss of international students next academic year, potential government support for universities and staff on fixed term contracts.
Staff also asked about safely returning to work. You will see we have announced our plans for the start of the next academic year and we have a contingency group looking carefully at the phased opening of some research labs in the first instance. The latest UK Government advice asks people to continue to work from home wherever possible for the foreseeable future. Workers who cannot work from home may travel to work if their workplace is open; however this is intended for certain sectors only. We are asking staff and students to continue to work from home unless they are already designated as a key worker. We will advise you well in advance of opening any of our facilities.
Professor April McMahon, Vice-President for Teaching Learning and Students, and I met Kwame Kwarteng, General Secretary of our Students’ Union. We discussed recruitment of international students, safety on campus, potential quarantining of students coming from overseas and access to the Library and other study areas when social distancing is likely to still be in place. April is holding an open Zoom meeting for staff on Tuesday, 19 May and you can sign up to attend.
I was interviewed by national Chinese television about the importance of our links and partnerships with China, why we have been so attractive to Chinese students and the steps we are taking to continue to recruit them to study with us.
The Russell Group online Board meeting was joined by Gavin Williamson, Secretary of State for Education, to discuss recruitment of international students (including visa requirements), safe reopening of campuses and Government support in sustainable research funding.
I chaired our External Relations Strategy Group which considered our response to the latest external stakeholder survey, mapping our key stakeholders, external recognition of our many activities in relation to Covid-19 and the various international league tables.
Professor Luke Georghiou, Deputy President and Deputy Vice-Chancellor, and I had a Zoom meeting with the President of Bordeaux University about potential collaborations and partnerships.
I recorded one of our Lockdown Lectures on our research into stroke and brain inflammation. Other lecturers in the series will include Professors Brian Cox, Michael Wood, Kostya Novoselov and Danielle George which will begin to be broadcast next week. I also recorded introductory comments for some of our staff leadership development programmes, our virtual open days and the welcome to a series of re-released Cockcroft Rutherford Lectures which will replace this year’s event. You can watch the first of these from war zone trauma surgeon David Nott OBE.
At an informal meeting of Senate, members asked about plans for savings, safety measures and risk assessments for returning to campus, arrangements for students who hope to go on study abroad in the next academic year, managing recruitment in the absence of A-levels and small group teaching.
We held the first meeting of the Chairs of all of our Board Committees which considered likely financial impacts of loss of international students next academic year and how we mitigate against this, including voluntary measures which will be announced next week.
Edward Astle, Chair of our Board, was keen to thank the senior team on behalf of the whole Board for all the work we have been doing, often with some urgency, and joined the start of a Senior Leadership Team meeting to convey these thanks.
There are many examples of the remarkable activities of our staff, including staff testing 150,000 PPE items for our local council, technicians making face visors and colleagues answering science homework questions as well as a vast array of research and clinical trials into Covid-19.
Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor