President's weekly update
8 October 2020
The high rate of reported positive tests for COVID-19 in Manchester and amongst our students continues to be a major concern, not just to us as a University, but I am sure also to those who live here.
We have been publishing the numbers of students and staff who have reported that they have tested positive. The number of staff testing positive remains very low, the majority of student cases are currently in those living in our halls of residence and over the past two days the number of positive cases has fallen significantly.
As a result of these infection rates we have decided to move to the Department for Education Tier 3, which means that face-to-face teaching is focussed on where it is essential, e.g. for practice based, accreditation and professional qualifications in all three Faculties until Friday, 30 October. This decision will be reviewed on Friday, 23 October. We had already devolved decision-making about teaching delivery to Faculty Leadership Teams, which are now implementing this.
The Senior Leadership Team has been meeting regularly, and we have been in daily conversations with public health leaders in Manchester and with other universities. We are also sharing data with the public health team in order to identify early any particular trends of areas of concern.
We have an extensive package of support for students who are self-isolating including food, medical supplies, laundry service and pastoral care. We have so far delivered 24,000 meals to students. I had a call with Universities Minister, Michelle Donelan, who welcomed the support we are providing. We have also set up a call centre and live chat facility for concerned students and parents.
I met some of the staff from our ResLife team who are supporting students. They are doing a fantastic job under a great deal of pressure and I thanked them on behalf of the whole University. I also met staff who are welcoming new students, including international students who are arriving at the airport, and the Chief Executive and General Secretary from the Students’ Union who have been providing support. I walked around the Alan Gilbert Learning Commons and the Students’ Union to see all the measures in place for distancing in study spaces, hand sanitisation and separate entry and exit routes. All were very quiet for this time of year but with some students studying. Our staff and our Students’ Union are doing an amazing job in supporting students to study safely.
Senior colleagues and I met with the Executive Officers of the Students’ Union, then had an open video meeting with students. Many of the questions were about safety and infection rates and about what this means for their studies. The event has been watched by about 6,000 students.
At Senate, we discussed the move to Tier 3 to deliver teaching, which was generally welcomed, though many staff and students have commented on how much they will miss face-to-face meetings. We also had a long discussion about measures we can take to modify the behaviours of a minority, but a significant number of students are not adhering to regulations to limit infections. Sadly, we are still seeing major gatherings and parties, which are putting at risk other students, our staff working in student residences and the communities they live in. The Greater Manchester Universities, with their Students’ Unions have issued a joint statement urging that students adhere to guidelines.
Our Board Finance committee and Board of Governors discussed the financial position for the current year, potential borrowing that we are putting in place and our responses to COVID-19. At the end they thanked our staff for their huge efforts at this difficult time.
Alan Ferns, Associate Vice-President for External Relations and Reputation, and I met Kate Green, Shadow Education Secretary who is also a Greater Manchester (GM) MP, together with Afzal Khan and Jeff Smith, who are also local MPs. Again, much of the discussion was about COVID-19 infections but we also spoke about the work between the GM universities and further education colleges.
Richard Cotton, Director of International Development, and I met the Indian Consul General. He told us that many Indian students are intending to come to study in the UK and in Manchester and wanted to hear about the quarantine arrangements for when they arrive.
In reporting some good news, we have seen a major commercial agreement with AVROBIO, several new major grant awards, Professor Danielle George is giving her inaugural lecture as President of the Institution of Engineering and Technology today, and one of our honorary graduates, Emmanuelle Charpentier, won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry.
We have also launched the COVID Catalysts campaign, including a suite of flash lectures which put a range of academics from across our research beacons in the spotlight. The lectures cover some of the step changes required to address challenges in the areas of green growth, economic recovery, inequality, health and innovation from a global, national and regional perspective.
I was delighted to see the amazing winning entries to the Royal Society of Biology Nancy Rothwell Award for specimen drawing.
Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor