President's weekly update
9 July 2020
SHAPE - social sciences, humanities and arts for people and the economy - is a new initiative led by the London School of Economics and Political Sciences and the British Academy that supports and demonstrates the value of these activities, in which we have agreed to participate. The THE has published an excellent article on this topic, but I disagree with the statement that: “The coronavirus pandemic inevitably puts the humanities at a disadvantage.” Far from it, a quick analysis of our ongoing research into the pandemic highlights numerous projects in humanities, many of which have been able to proceed more easily than lab-based activities. The period post-COVID-19 will rely heavily on universities and their research in economics, social sciences, business, education and the arts as well as in the science, engineering and health-based disciplines.
Our own Creative Manchester is aiming to strengthen not only our teaching and research in humanities but also links to other areas. One in which I have had some limited involvement is the remarkable ability of performance and creative endeavour to bring together communities and support people with disabilities resulting from stroke, dementia and other conditions.
The Government’s Research and Development Roadmap highlights the importance of humanities and notes that ‘science’, while so often taken to mean physical, biological and health subjects, actually derives from the word scientia, which means knowledge.
Senate met and received an update on our current financial position. I noted the recent Institute for Fiscal Studies analysis that suggested major loss of income for universities that is worse than our assumptions. We discussed influences on student recruitment, the financial implications of COVID-19, ongoing discussions with the trade unions and the need to adapt to what is a changing position. We will return to a number of items at the August additional Senate meeting, including proposals from School Boards and proposed changes to some of our regulations.
Meetings with the campus trade unions are taking place twice each week. We will be publishing the minutes of the meetings, and have recently provided an update of topics discussed at this Monday’s meeting.
At Finance Sub-Committee we had a report on our financial position for this year (ending 31 July) which is strong, due largely to the greatly reduced and delayed spend since we have been in lockdown. We also discussed budgets for next year which, based on the assumptions about loss of international students and other income streams, have a very major gap to close even after significant actions we are already taking to mitigate losses.
I spoke at the Festival of Higher Education on the future of higher education and specifically on research. I talked about a post COVID-19 world when we will need much more collaboration between disciplines, institutions and between countries if we are to tackle the biggest global challenges, including infectious disease and climate change. I also talked about the continuing importance of ‘discovery’ research to identify new knowledge and the need for a more sustainable funding base for research in the UK, which would allow more flexibility and improved career prospects for researchers.
At our briefing for our Board of Governors I updated them on the (several) recent Government announcements, the steps we are taking to ensure we are COVID-19 secure as we resume activities on campus, student recruitment, uptake of voluntary measures, progress with securing loans and other actions to secure necessary savings.
I took part in a panel with participants in the Leading at Manchester programme who made suggestions on leadership in environmental sustainability, then Dr Emma Gardner, who leads on this area for the University, and I asked questions about training and skills, incentives and the relative roles of behavioural change and research to reduce carbon and climate change.
Professor Graham Lord, Vice-President and Dean for the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, and I met with leaders of Cancer Research UK by video link. They are suffering a major loss of income and hence will need to reduce research expenditure.
I chaired a short update meeting of the Oxford Road Corridor Board. All members are working very differently and share concerns about financial challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. We heard from Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust that COVID-19 infections and hospital admissions have been reducing quite dramatically but they are preparing for a potential increase in cases, particularly over the winter months.
Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor