President's weekly update
7 April 2022
University Chancellor
I am absolutely delighted that our next Chancellor will be Nazir Afzal OBE. Nazir was Chief Crown Prosecutor for North West England. Most recently, he was Chief Executive of the country’s Police & Crime Commissioners. He has been an outspoken supporter of women’s rights and in recognition of his huge achievements, we gave him an honorary doctorate in 2017. It is worth watching his speech on behalf of all the graduates. Nazir will take up the role of Chancellor on 1 August this year when our beloved Lemn Sissay ends his term. Nazir will be a wonderful successor.
Mentoring
It was great to hold my second meeting with five of our staff who are part of the 100 Black Women Professors national programme, who had quite varied experiences of local support and of the programme.
I’ve been fortunate to have had some excellent mentors and have also gained a great deal from mentoring others. If you are interested in mentoring, do consider signing up for our Manchester Gold programme - but with a closing date of 12 April you will need to hurry!
Board meetings
At our Board Remuneration Committee we considered salaries for our most senior staff. As usual I recommended increases below the average of staff increases. Senior staff receive no national pay awards, no increments and no bonuses.
Finance Committee discussed the major pressures of inflation on all of our activities - our staff, students and every aspect of our operations, while our major income streams are static and hence declining with inflation.
Community engagement
Four of the five VCs in Greater Manchester met in person with some of the heads of Further Education Colleges to discuss key areas where we can work together. A major area of concern for them was lack of teachers in subjects such as engineering, construction and digital, which may be something that some of our students could help with.
Research support
We are addressing the concerns which staff raised with me in School visits about our post-award support for research. The changes made include this week's launch of the revamped RBE microsite, which presents the new process for preparing contracts and for checking 'Trusted Research' due diligence, plus clearer signposts to other specialist services. Do take a look.
Health equity
This is a major initiative for us, which builds on our Research Beacon on Global Inequalities and our strengths in health. So, it was good that we hosted an event organised by Legal and General (L&G is a key partner in ID Manchester) to launch Professor Sir Michael Marmot’s latest report on the role of businesses in health equity. Michael has been working with us and the city of Manchester on health equity for some time and we are developing this as a new University-wide thematic priority as part of our research and discovery strategy. Professor Neil Humphrey also gave an update on the BeeWell project that he leads on and is already indicating that the impact of deprivation on poor health starts early in life.
Health equity was also the main topic for discussion at our first ‘Civic dinner’ for two years. We hosted local leaders of Manchester City Council and Greater Manchester at Broomcroft.
Degree ceremonies
This is the last week of additional ceremonies for those who missed out on their ceremonies due to COVID. Do watch a fabulous film where students Aidan and Ben interview graduates about their experience.
Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor