President's weekly update
26 November 2020
Due to a vast amount of work by many colleagues across the University we are now set up to offer about 23,000 students two lateral flow tests each, to allow them to travel safely before Christmas. The booking system is now open and around 2,500 students have already signed up. This is a massive logistical exercise. This is just another example of our busy staff delivering something amazing.
In fact everyone is working under incredible pressure in unprecedented circumstances to try to deliver the best for our students and our colleagues. In this challenging environment we sometimes fall short or make mistakes. You will have seen from my message on Friday that I made a very serious mistake for which I have offered a sincere public and private apology. I am very grateful for the many positive messages from our staff.
On Sunday, senior colleagues and I had another video meeting with
We asked students their opinions about our support for students in teaching and in their accommodation, the new 24/7 mental health support line, arrangements for Christmas and return after Christmas. Many had already sought comments from the wider student body in their residences. They were very constructive. Key issues raised were about repairs and maintenance in residences, creating spaces to meet and study in halls safely and rent rebates because of reduced access to facilities.
Kwame and Junior followed up with the student reps on rents and as result of this, we have announced a 30% reduction in rent for the whole of semester 1 for all students, irrespective of whether they will be staying in halls or going home.
We also discussed with the student representatives about how we deal with poor behaviour by our students - particularly parties, noise and breaches of current COVID-19 regulations that are disrupting other students’ studies and sleep. Greater Manchester Police (GMP) are also concerned about this behaviour, particularly at Fallowfield. They recently walked round the site and were extremely concerned about the scale of gatherings (sometimes in small spaces), damage to property and risks to health and safety of our students.
Many student representatives commented on this topic and responded later. There were some varied views but most seemed to support additional security presence, much stronger warnings to students about disciplinary action but with additional police presence only for criminal behaviour. They were very sympathetic to the difficulties faced by ResLife and security staff, particularly when faced with large gatherings of students. We have invited this group to work with our Students’ Union to represent students’ concerns and suggestions. They are working on a behaviour code for students in our residences to try to limit the very significant numbers of large gatherings.
I attended meetings with Universities UK (UUK) and the Russell Group which included discussion on the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), which is the pension scheme for many university staff, where the deficit has increased substantially. UUK has challenged the
UUK has just issued advice on tacking racial harassment and discrimination at universities. This comes soon after we published Race Matters - an in-depth analysis and recommendations of how we can tackle and address such unacceptable behaviours. Our new EDI Governance Group will oversee delivery of the recommendations. We will also be establishing a high-level strategic and advisory group to provide oversight, challenge, advice, and wider or external perspective on race matters and related issues. Kwame Kwarteng and I will chair this.
The Government Spending Review, not surprisingly announced rather little new money, but did reconfirm the commitment to spending 2.4% of GDP on research and development by 2027 with an annual uplift for the science budget of £400m per annum and a very positive approach to attracting global talent. All of which is good news in the current circumstances.
Our Board of Governors met and had an update from Professor Martin Schröder, Vice-President and Dean of the Faculty of Science and Engineering, on progress in the Faculty, particularly in adapting to COVID-19. The Board reviewed our financial statements for last year and our financial forecasts for the current year and 5-year outlook, both of which vary very significantly depending on a whole range of factors, but most notably student retention because of the pandemic. They noted that this was against a backdrop of ongoing real term decline in UK student fees and research indirect costs, but larger than inflation rises in pay and non-pay costs.
Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor