President's weekly update

16 September 2021

Students and teachers

This week is the start of Welcome 2021 for incoming first year students and it is wonderful to see them begin to arrive. Many more students will be joining us next week and it is fantastic to see the campus starting to look much busier than it has done for a very long time.

I should ask if you are on campus, please do wear your ‘AskMe’ badges and help any students who are looking lost – you can find more information on typical questions.

We held the first formal meeting with the new Students’ Union Executive Officers and talked about their aims for the forthcoming year with student safety and wellbeing featuring very highly for us both.

A further formal induction meeting was held for SU officers to discuss the many meetings they will attend including Senate, the Board of Governors and likely topics that will come up over the next year. I spoke to them about our overall mission and strategic plan and the importance to us of working with the Students’ Union. We also explained about the many committees on which they will be represented.

It was a real pleasure to host the first dinner with staff for over 18 months – a proper sense of some normality returning. The event was for leading teachers and teaching support staff from across the University. We heard about how they have managed with all the challenges since the pandemic and discussed opportunities for enhanced blended learning.

Discussions with Government

As you might imagine, I’ve spent quite a lot of time this week in discussions with various facets of government about the forthcoming Comprehensive Spending Review, which will now take place on 27 October. Given the very difficult financial position the country faces as a result of COVID, we are not expecting much investment for the Higher Education sector and we don’t know if any of the recommendations of the Augar Review will come forward at this time.

You may have heard the then Secretary of State for Education, Gavin Williamson’s speech at the Universities UK annual conference where he suggested that there could be a threshold for A-level grades to qualify for student loans which will soon be the subject of a consultation.  I had a meeting with Gavin Williamson about A-levels just a few hours before his departure from the role was announced, to be replaced by Nadhim Zahawi.

I also had online meetings with the Secretary of State for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy, Kwasi Kwarteng, and another with the Minister for Science, Research and Innovation, Amanda Solloway. We discussed how research and innovation can facilitate the government goals of recovery from COVID and levelling up the productivity and prosperity of regions such as the North.

Following on the research theme, it was good to meet with Sir Andrew MacKenzie, the recently appointed Chair of UK Research Innovation (UKRI), to discuss the forthcoming Comprehensive Spending Review and the government’s commitment to increasing research and innovation spending over the longer term.

At a meeting in London, (my first trip to London for a long time), organised by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), we discussed ‘levelling up’ and regulation with several business leaders and permanent secretaries from all the major government departments. We heard that the most important driver for companies to locate in a particular region is the skills base, which is very important for Greater Manchester (GM) given the number of students and our plans to work more closely with the further education colleges in GM.

The Director-General of the CBI, Tony Danker, spoke as part of our Vital Topics series in the Alliance Manchester Business School (AMBS) on ‘Choices that will define a decade’ which I chaired. He urged investment in innovation and in regions, including the North. Tony is one of our graduates and has been very supportive of our activities. He has described the success of Greater Manchester in large part, due to the partnership between the universities, business and regional government.

Alumni and philanthropy

It was great to host an online event for alumni from the Middle East and North Africa who represented over 20 different countries. Following an update on our activities, Angelo Cangelosi, Professor of Machine Learning and Robotics in the School of Engineering, spoke about developmental robotics and we both answered questions.

We recently concluded a feasibility study which investigated the potential for us to launch our first major fundraising and engagement campaign to coincide with the University’s 200^thanniversary in 2024. Through interviews and workshops, alumni, donors and staff members were consulted on a range of areas, including potential campaign themes, project areas, campaign goals and outcomes. We will make a decision on whether to proceed with a campaign in the coming months.

Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor

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