President's weekly update
24 November 2022
Positive discussions with our Students’ Union
In one of our regular meetings with SU officers, we heard very positive feedback on the announcement we recently made to students to help with cost of living pressures.
They also raised concerns about loss of EU students. Following Brexit, they are classified as international students and so have to pay higher fees and no longer have access to the student loan. We discussed possible ways around this, recognising limitations of equality legislation and of course by the funding that is available, particularly after significant payments to current staff and students.
The SU officers told us about the Greater Manchester Students Assembly working across the five GM universities. We heard that we now have over 7,000 students registered with the University's dedicated GP service and hope to gain more.
We also discussed how we can address the impact of strike action by UCU on students’ experience. Any savings resulting from pay deducted from those who take strike action will be directed to student support.
Internal meetings – finance, philanthropy and governance
At Finance and Capital Planning Sub-Committee, we discussed the current financial position and our approach to the five-year plan. Delivery of the latter is being squeezed by inflation, which is increasing all of our costs, particularly for energy. However, at the present time we are making savings due to much higher and unplanned staff vacancies than usual, particularly in Professional Services. This mirrors national shortages and is clearly impacting on the workload of colleagues and on delivery of our core goals. We are working hard to recruit staff but competition is intense, particularly in certain areas.
We also discussed the expansion and consolidation of teaching spaces in the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, due to external funding, and the purchase of further dental chairs for students to develop dental skills where there is significant pressure on current availability.
At a separate meeting we discussed current activities and future plans for fundraising and development of activities for our bicentenary in 2024. I have been spending quite a lot of time recently with donors and potential donors to the University, which is a very important part of our activity.
Our Board Nominations Committee met to consider the appointment of the next representative of our Professional Services staff on the board, together with new lay Board members, particularly with expertise in innovation, entrepreneurship and small and medium sized companies, and with property experience.
Oxford Road Corridor
I attended a Board meeting of the Oxford Road Corridor, now chaired by Professor Malcolm Press, vice-chancellor of Manchester Metropolitan University. In addition to approving the financial accounts and general updates, we spent some time considering ’placemaking and wayfinding’ in and around Oxford Road.
Equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI)
I had the second one-to-one session on this topic as part of the Senior Leadership programme and talked about what we can do to accelerate EDI at all levels amongst our staff and students.
Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor