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President's weekly update

3 February 2022

Levelling up

The government has published its long-awaited Levelling Up White Paper. There is much to consider but it does commit all government departments to support in regions outside the South East and specifically names Greater Manchester as one of three regions (with West Midlands and Glasgow City region) denoted as innovation accelerators with £100m allocated across all three, though partners across the region will have to bid for this funding.

Union ballot and action

UCU has now announced dates for strike action on the USS pension and pay and working conditions. Our staff are not part of the action on pensions (since the two ballots on this failed to reach the 50% threshold of members voting). Strike action on pay and working conditions will take place on 21, 22, 28 February, and 1 and 2 March. Action short of a strike is continuing.

UNISON members completed a ballot on whether to take industrial action over pay. 22.5% (which equates to 200 staff) of eligible members voted which is below the threshold of 50% required to take action. Of those staff who voted 72.5% (145 staff) voted in favour of industrial action. UNISON members at our University will therefore not be taking part in industrial action.

Internal meetings

Professor April McMahon, Vice-President for Teaching, Learning and Students, and I had a regular meeting with Melody Stephen, General Secretary of our Students’ Union. Melody is concerned about the potential impact of strikes on students and their learning, which we will of course do our best to mitigate where possible. We also discussed wellbeing support, the forthcoming Board of Governors meeting with students and potential candidates for our next Chancellor.

At our Board Nominations Committee, we considered reappointment and succession planning of Board members, including the Chair, who will stand down in July. We also received an update on progress in implementing the changes recommended in our independent review of governance by Halpin.

Several colleagues and I met Afzal Khan, MP for Gorton, who asked about COVID infections amongst staff and students, that are thankfully now declining, and student support. He was pleased to hear of the success of the Greater Manchester Student Mental Health Support Centre, which we instigated.

External meetings

I chaired a Russell Group meeting with the Vice-Chancellors of the Group of 8 leading universities in Australia. This was timely as the UK has just signed the first post-Brexit free trade agreement with Australia. We agreed to pursue opportunities for collaborative research, particularly our early career researchers.

Andy Westwood, Professor of Government Practice and Vice-Dean for Social Responsibility in the Faculty of Humanities, and I met two of our leaders in Further Education to further discuss how we can work together and to plan next steps of collaboration across the region.

Philanthropy

I have been involved in several discussions about our 2024 fundraising campaign in which we will engage all staff and students. I spoke at an event for staff in the Division of Development and Alumni Relations to discuss the importance of the campaign and the key themes.

This was also the main topic of discussion at the Law Family Commission on Civil Society, chaired by Lord Gus O’Donnell, of which I am a member. Gus asked specifically for details of our #BeeWell project on wellbeing in young people in our city region, which has just received further major funding from Children in Need. We considered how we can encourage more giving by individuals and organisations, notably businesses and what can be done to help the smaller charities.

Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor

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