President's weekly update

18 November 2021

Industrial action update

Most regrettably, UCU has now reported that there will be strike action based on the recent ballot on pay on 1, 2, and 3 December with action short of a strike (ASOS, which will consist of members only working their contracted hours and duties and not volunteering to do more) continuously from 1st December. We will of course do our utmost to minimise the impact on all of our activities, but particularly on our students.

Governance review

This week we discussed the recommendations and suggestions arising from the independent review of our governance in an additional meeting of Senate.  Our Board of Governors commissioned and owns this review which was undertaken by the independent consultancy Halpin, and we published in full. The Board has accepted all of the recommendations and has asked Patrick Hackett, our Registrar, Secretary and Chief Operating Officer, as Secretary to the Board, to develop an action plan to implement the recommendations and to consult key stakeholders, of which Senate is one. The key recommendations discussed were the establishment of Senate sub-committees and the addition of Heads of School as full members.

COP26

COP26 may have ended but we remain committed to driving climate action. In the last two weeks alone, we've extended 10,000 Actions into 50,000 Actions, creating the biggest sustainability initiative in higher education; and opened the Sustainable Materials Innovation Hub, led by Professor Mike Shaver, the new Director of Sustainable Futures, to help SMEs reduce, reuse and embed plastics in the circular economy.

International activities

We held a meeting of our international advisory group, chaired by Rory Brooks, one of our alumni, who is a great friend to the University. The meeting was attended by advisors in Australia, Japan, China and Belgium, as well as the UK. We reported on some diversification of international student recruitment with increases in students from India, USA and the Middle East. Professor Luke Georghiou, Deputy President and Deputy Vice-Chancellor, talked about our relationships with European universities and companies and growing concerns over the UK’s future association with Horizon Europe due to wider political issues between the UK and the EU.

In a meeting with our North American Foundation (NAFUM), I also reported on growth in students from North America. NAFUM has been very supportive of our student recruitment and has been particularly successful this year in securing philanthropic gifts.

Regional engagement

At a regular meeting with leaders from Manchester City Council and Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), we each gave an update on the Comprehensive Spending Review, which had some positive outcomes but also concerns emerging around Northern transport. We all await the government’s pending levelling-up white paper. University staff reported on progress on a number of major initiatives, particularly in innovation and business engagement and skills.

In a meeting with the four other vice-chancellors in Greater Manchester (GM), with all except the University of Bolton facing industrial action, we shared our concerns about the inevitable impact on our students, which is particularly regrettable given all they have had to endure over the past 20 months. Aside from this, we focused on our important interactions with GM FE colleges and the next steps in delivering on our civic universities agreement.

Internal meetings

With senior colleagues and a representative of our Students’ Union, we began the annual round of school visits, with the School of Environment, Education and Development (SEED). Students attending were largely international and asked about study online which is under discussion, and graduation ceremonies. Staff raised concerns about space, given the significant over recruitment of students this year, and professional support services particularly in HR, IT and research contracts and post-award transactions where we are well aware of pressures for a range of reasons, not least still due to COVID.

Minister for Universities

The Russell Group had a meeting with Michelle Donelan, Minister for Universities. She didn’t give out any information on the likely government response to the Augar review but indicated that it would be coming out ‘shortly’. She reaffirmed that barring a massive change in COVID infections (eg due to a new variant) any potential future changes to restrictions would be unlikely to apply to universities, where infection rates are very low. We also discussed pending actions on lifelong learning, the plans for the Office for Students to reduce bureaucracy and the need for universities to better promote the benefits of blended learning.

Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor

Feedback

• president@manchester.ac.uk