President's weekly update
7 July 2022
The latest NSS outcome
The results of the National Student Survey of satisfaction have just been released. Our overall satisfaction score was 71%, which is the same as last year. Some areas did very well and we do see some positives in themes such as learning resources, and learning opportunities, but the overall result is disappointing and a long way behind our target. Further details are published on StaffNet and we will be following up with more detailed analysis, review of all students’ written feedback and actions to improve student satisfaction. We are appreciative of the tremendous efforts of staff throughout the year and to see emerging positive themes in areas such as return to campus and renewed access to learning resources.
A significant presence at CERN
I visited CERN, the home of the amazing Large Hadron Collider (LHC). We have a significant presence at this incredible facility, with many of our staff and students working there. Our staff lead a number of the key programmes trying to understand fundamental questions about physics which affect us all, but also with many practical implications. Inevitably, I was particularly interested in the huge medical applications.
I arrived just before a really big week for CERN: the 10th anniversary of the discovery of the Higgs Boson. We presented Peter Higgs with an honorary doctorate just a few weeks after he won the Nobel Prize! It was also the start of a major new experiment for the LHC, so while it meant I couldn’t go down into the accelerator, there was much activity in preparation for the many news teams, and I saw so much of the vast activities at CERN. It was great to meet so many of our staff and postgraduate researchers who, as well as those in Physics and Astronomy in general, do a great deal in outreach to schools and the wider public. You can see some great pictures!
Easyjet even managed to get me there within 15 minutes of the planned arrival time and back on time, and Manchester Airport was OK!
International engagement
It was great to speak with a group of online students at the Asian University for Women in Bangladesh. They were interested in my career, experiences and leadership and had questions about my career choices, balancing demands and priorities, innovation, study programmes in Manchester, careers pathways and skills for leadership.
External meetings
I chaired a Russell Group meeting of Vice-Chancellors with the-then Minister for Universities, Michelle Donelan. We expressed our concern about her recent letter to universities, in which she set out her views that external assurance and benchmarking diversity schemes are negatively impacting free speech, and urged us to consider our continued membership of organisations such as those that accredit the Race Equality Charter. When asked what the evidence was to support such a view, she said she had received a number of concerns but that, as autonomous organisations we must decide on any actions. We said we would be happy to meet any who have raised these concerns.
You will all be aware that it has been an unprecedented period of upheaval in government and we wait to see how matters will be resolved in the days and weeks ahead.
Innovation Greater Manchester (IGM) has submitted the first outline bid to government for funding as one of the three UK ‘innovation accelerators’. After feedback, this will be refined for final submission in the autumn. In the meantime, IGM has requested ideas and expressions of interest from public and private organisations across GM, and will assimilate these into a strategic plan for the final submission.
End of the academic year
We held the University Examinations Board, which considers all of the Faculty exam board reports. This marks the end of the cycle for our undergraduate students. Soon we have our lovely series of degree ceremonies to celebrate their many successes.
I want to thank all of the staff who have worked so hard to deliver our core activities. The year has not been without its challenges. The ongoing management of COVID has remained a significant hurdle to overcome and the recruitment of more students than planned due to higher grade achievement has required a huge effort across the University. While we have gone as fast as we could in recruiting extra staff and providing more facilities, I appreciate this has still presented some challenges and I really want to thank our staff for all they have done.
I hope that many staff will take part in our degree ceremonies, which are so important as we celebrate the amazing achievements of our students, whose studies have been much more disrupted than anyone would have wished over the course of the pandemic.
Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor