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President's weekly update

13 October 2022

A special Foundation Day

This year’s annual Foundation Day was particularly special because we installed our new Chancellor Nazir Afzal. There was a very large procession. Nazir, founders, one of our former chancellors - Anna Ford - and our honorary graduands were joined by members of the Board of Governors, General Assembly and staff. Also attending were local dignitaries including the Lord Mayor and the Bishop of Manchester, members of our Global Leadership Board and North American Foundation and staff, students and friends.

I gave the Foundation Address to update on the University over the past year, then read the citation for Nazir’s installation, to which he responded. After this he presided over the rest of the ceremony. We awarded three honorary degrees to Dr Amani Abou-Zeid for her amazing humanitarian work, Edward Astle, in part for leading our Board for so many years but also for his extensive charitable work and Julie Hesmondhalgh, best known as an actress, but who has also devoted great efforts to charity. Edward gave the response on behalf of the honorary graduates.

Our student and staff musicians were wonderful and added to the occasion. You can watch the whole event on StaffNet.

Student welfare

This health and wellbeing of our students is always a matter of great importance, but particularly so now with many very worried about the cost of living. We are working with our Students’ Union on ways to support all our students.

Student suicides have been much in the news of late. Although the rates of suicide are somewhat less amongst students than people of the same age outside universities, this is still a matter of major concern. Several years ago we set up a dedicated student mental health hub with the NHS and other Greater Manchester universities. Dr Simon Merrywest, our Director of Student Experience, has led locally and nationally on suicide prevention. You should read his Viewpoint blog.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI)

All my senior colleagues and I have been taking part in a 360˚ review to look at our approaches to EDI and this will be followed by coaching.

I spoke about my career to the Women@Manchester Network and then discussed many topics including mentoring, the pressures of families and home commitments, how to manage busy diaries and had a large number of questions.

I would highly recommend Nazir Afzal’s recent book The Race to the Top which is about racial discrimination in many workplaces and describes discussions he has had with numerous leaders.

Digital Futures

This is one of our cross-cutting University platforms in which staff from just about every part of the University participate. I chaired the Board meeting where, after a general update, including on the planned Turing Innovation Hub, we heard in more detail about commercialisation of digital activities and about digital skills within the University and across the city region.

Internal matters

In my many discussions with staff, they often want to know what is expected of them. We have now launched (after consultation with Faculty Leadership Teams and Senate) Statements of Expectations for Research and Teaching, to help both our University and academic community achieve their ambitions. The research statement has been refreshed since its first iteration in 2015 and the teaching statement is new. 

Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor

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