President's weekly update
16 June 2022
Civic engagement is one of the themes in our strategic plan Our future. Many staff and students who contributed to discussions on our plans highlighted this as being important to us and it was a key driver for our Civic University Agreement with the four other universities in GM.
We held an event with academic and PS staff involved in civic engagement to discuss our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in relation to this important activity. Those present came up with many strengths and opportunities. Weaknesses and threats included how we engage with 'harder to reach’ communities and how we serve the whole of GM without spreading ourselves too thinly. We also considered how we will measure success. We have a number of measures currently but probably the best suggestion was that we use a new 100-person Civic Panel that we are recruiting this autumn for their views.
An important part of our civic engagement is supporting skills and attainment, particularly in less advantaged communities. Therefore, I was delighted to speak at the tenth anniversary of the Tutor Trust. We are a founding partner in the Trust, which trains university students to tutor school pupils from less advantaged backgrounds in core subjects where they may be falling behind. The Trust covers many areas in the North but almost 40% of the students they train are from our University.
Our next Chancellor, Nazir Afzal OBE came in to meet senior staff and me. He is very interested in working with local communities and disadvantaged groups. I would strongly recommend his autobiography ‘The Prosecutor’, which tells some distressing reports, but tells you a lot about Nazir and what motivates him. You will be seeing more of Nazir later in the year.
Russell Group engagement
At the Russell Group Board, we considered the many issues we are all facing such as inflation, pay, pensions, association with Horizon funding, and ever-increasing bureaucracy and demands on reporting from external bodies, notably our regulators. Bridget Phillipson, Shadow Secretary of State for Education, joined us for part of the meeting. A key topic of discussion was the funding of universities, which is unsustainable as most of our fees are fixed or declining in real terms, but costs are rising fast. We also explained the major role that Russell Group universities play in supporting their local economies, innovation, widening participation and civic engagement.
A joint meeting of Russell Group vice-chancellors, with leaders of the U15, the top German universities, discussed strengthening our collaborations despite the challenges of Horizon Europe membership. We were joined for part of the meeting by the German Ambassador to the UK.
You may have seen that our Ukrainian Society arranged a live video discussion for University of Manchester students with the President of Ukraine.
Accelerating health innovation
Excellent news that UK Biobank has major government funding to build a new headquarters in Manchester and aims to work closely with us.
The board of Health Innovation Manchester (HInM) considered how we best formulate our proposal to the government’s Innovation Accelerator scheme. GM is one of three such accelerators, which need to demonstrate economic benefit, job creation and attracting industry investment, particularly from overseas. We will need to submit our proposals over the summer.
Internal meetings
I gave a general update at a meeting with senior staff from across the University. We also heard an update on operational issues from our Registrar, Secretary and Chief Operating Officer (RSCOO) Patrick Hackett, and Director of People and OD Adèle MacKinlay updated on our People and OD strategy. Matt Atkin, Director of Planning, gave a summary of our Board Strategy meeting, and Vice-President for Research Professor Colette Fagan reported on our great success in REF.
Travel
I’ve made use of my meetings in London to meet senior alumni and major donors in between other commitments. Having not travelled on University business for well over two years, and our drive to reduce international travel in order to meet our carbon targets, I am now considering what can be done remotely and what requires me to be there in person, which will mean less travel, particularly international; but some will be essential.
Finally
Since my last message, we have had two days of holidays for the Jubilee. I hope that you all had an enjoyable and restful break.
Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor