President's weekly update

10 March 2022

Ukraine

As a result of the Russian invasion, the situation in Ukraine is deteriorating, this is a major humanitarian disaster aside from the wider political concerns. We continue to offer support to those of our staff and students who are most directly affected. UUK and the Russell Group have both stated that they do not support a blanket ban on academic relations with Russia at the present time, as this would harm many of those academics who are standing up against the actions of their government, and in doing so are putting themselves in danger. Individual academic collaborations in Russia and Belarus are differentiated from institutional links with universities and other organisations.  We have very few of the latter and no significant donations of concern.

Industrial action

UCU has announced five further days of strike action on 28, 29, 30, 31 March and 1 April. This is an important period of teaching, and coincides with degree ceremonies for students who have had to wait to celebrate their achievements due to COVID. Our continued priority is to minimise the impact on our core activities and especially on our students. We have now been given notice of two further ballots by UCU, one on USS pension and the other on pay and conditions.

Internal meetings

In a visit to the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures, students asked about in-person exams, lessons learnt since the student vote of no confidence in me a year ago, missing learning, particularly in modern languages. They also asked if more staff in Humanities went on strike because they were paid less. Of course, we said that all staff are paid the same for a given grade. Students and staff both asked about the Whitworth Art Gallery. I replied that Alistair Hudson is the Director and that despite many complaints and legal challenges we ensured that the exhibition that has been in the news proceeded uncensored and for its full duration - this is testimony to our commitment to artistic and academic freedom. Staff also asked about IT support and teaching spaces. An interesting further question, which we should all reflect on, is what have we learnt from the pandemic?

We held a meeting with University leaders. After a general update, we heard about the fabulous rebranding for Jodrell Bank, an update on levelling up, some further details on our major fundraising campaign and plans for the People and Organisational Development directorate.

At a meeting with the heads of departments/divisions in the Faculty of Science and Engineering, they raised concerns about high student:staff ratios in some departments, Estates costs, the loss of valuable Professional Services staff and the levels of service in IT and People and Organisational Development.

I was delighted to give a lecture to our Global MBA students on governance, acquisitions and mergers based on my experience on a number of councils and boards, including nine years as a non-executive director of AstraZeneca, a FTSE Top 30 company.

Melody Stephen, General Secretary of our Students’ Union, chaired a panel that I was on to celebrate International Women's Day. I spoke about how we aim to close the gender pay gap. This is not a gap in pay for women and men doing the same job, but reflects, too few women in the most senior positions in the University and an over representation of women in the lowest paid roles. See also a film made by the Russell Group.

At a meeting of our Global Leadership Board, comprised of very senior supporters of the University who act as critical friends but primarily support us in fundraising, I gave a general update on the many things happening at the moment. We then went on to discuss the vision and plan for our fundraising and engagement campaign, which will be formally launched in 2024. Further details will be available soon.

Visitors

Caroline Wilson, the British Ambassador to China, visited us. We discussed the importance of Chinese students and the difficulties for the many who will wish to travel home and increasing restrictions on research collaborations.

We hosted a visit of senior staff from Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi to discuss our current collaboration and future plans for partnership in graphene and related materials. This was timely as I will be visiting partners and alumni in Abu Dhabi and Dubai later this month.

External meetings

I attended a dinner to raise funds for a new IntoUniversity centre in Salford. We work closely with IntoUniversity which has been very helpful in supporting us to recruit students who would not normally go to university. Over 2,000 students have worked with us through the IntoUniversity centre, 73% of whom go on to higher education versus an average of 28% in the region.

Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor

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