President's weekly update
25 November 2021
Board of Governors’ meetings
We held our annual accountability conference with the Board, at which they reviewed progress against each of our objectives over the past academic year. Board members had a summary of
They recognised what an exceptional year it had been due the challenges imposed by COVID, but despite this there have been some remarkable achievements against our strategic plan. We also discussed areas where we need to do better and our plans for addressing these. At the end of the session I summarised our main concerns which were: ongoing uncertainty, staff and student wellbeing and engagement, our systems and essential change projects, achieving our carbon targets and financial sustainability. The chair of the Board summarised by recognising many achievements in such a challenging time, welcoming our transparency on what we have not done as well on, and how we will be addressing this and noting the huge efforts of all of our staff. A summary of our performance against targets will soon be published.
At the formal Board meeting, which followed, in addition to the standard items of business, my report, and reports from committees, the Board received a report on research, agreed the objectives for the chair of the Board and for me in the year ahead. The Board approved the financial statements in principle, subject to a few finalisation matters. These will be made public in the coming weeks.
We held a dinner for Board members, which included those members who had stood down at the end of the last academic year, when we thanked
Pension open meeting
We are holding a special open meeting for staff focusing on pension matters on Wednesday, 8 December. An affordable, sustainable pension for our staff is important to us and we need your input to achieve this, so any member of the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) is welcome to join us, and independent pensions consultant, Paul Hamilton.
Students’ Union engagement
At one of our regular meetings with our Students’ Union officers, we discussed the planned industrial action by UCU, and how we could best mitigate any adverse impact on students. We also considered how students can contribute to our Greater Manchester (GM) Civic Universities Agreement and to our social responsibility goals, student safety and wellbeing and mental health support, particularly at more challenging times such as over Christmas and during January exams.
Regional activities
Some members of the GM Local Enterprise Group and I met to discuss how we tackle health inequalities across our region. These have worsened because of COVID. Sir Michael Marmot, an eminent social scientist who has worked with GM on social determinants of health and health inequalities, joined us. We are now planning to build in some existing projects, including the BeeWell project led by Professor Neil Humphrey in schools in GM, and develop some new projects.
External meetings
At a Board meeting of the
Julia Gillard, chair of the Wellcome Trust and former Prime Minister of Australia, Sir Andrew MacKenzie, chair of UKRI and I, discussed the Comprehensive Spending Review, the research landscape, global partnerships, research training and careers and the sustainability of UK research funding.
Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor