Dear all,

As the new Head of School for SEED, it’s a pleasure to be asked to write a message for colleagues across the Faculty. As I’m sure many of you will agree, after what’s felt like a whirlwind few weeks it’s great to see everyone settling into the new semester. Despite all the hustle and bustle, I always love this time of year. After the relative quiet of summer, life returns to campus as thousands of students come to Manchester, eager for new knowledge and new experiences.

As new students arrive and existing students return, this is also the time where students of the future start to consider their options. At our 4 October open day, I got to chat with prospective students and their families who had braved Storm Amy to come and see if Manchester was the place for them, and I saw clearly the passion and dedication of SEED and Humanities staff who are committed to singing the praises of our University and providing a first-rate learning experience.

I started as the new Head of SEED at the beginning of August, and it’s hard to believe that I’ve now been in post for nearly three months. Although I have been part of SEED for 20 years, there’s still been a lot to learn, and I have really enjoyed meeting and working with colleagues from across the wider School and Humanities teams whom I had not crossed paths with in my previous roles.

As well as myself as new Head of School, we have a new Deputy Head of School, Juup Stelma, who has taken over this role having done a great job as Interim Head of School for the last year, and a new Head of Geography, Will Fletcher, who has taken over from Phil Hughes. We also have a lovely, bright and welcoming new space in the Ellen Wilkinson Commons – conducive social spaces like this are key for colleagues (and students) to meet, interact and discuss ideas, and most importantly collaborate. Do check it out if you get a chance!

We have some really exciting events coming up over the next month which we would welcome colleagues from across the Faculty to join us for. These include events hosted by SEED colleagues as part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science:

• Explore practical strategies for play, physical activity, and green spaces for children and young people at Active Lives, Natural Spaces with Sarah MacQuarrie and Alexandra Hennessey from Manchester Institute of Education on Wednesday, 22 October
• Reflect on the value of natural capital at How do you value nature? with Joe Blakey and Mark Usher from our Geography Department on Saturday, 25 October
• Learn about the women who fought for social justice at the Ardwick Women’s Footprints tour with Carl Emery from the Manchester Institute of Education on Monday, 27 October
• Young people can find out how to access employment rights at Help, I didn’t get paid this month! with Kirsty Finn from Manchester Institute of Education on Wednesday, 29 October
• Reflect on your working life and aspirations at Imagining Our Working Lives with Amy Barron and Sarah Marie Hall from our Geography Department on Saturday, 1 November
• Discover how we are making Manchester a fairer, cleaner, greener place for all at Our Green Working Lives with Jen O’Brien from our Geography Department on Wednesday, 5 November
• Experience an older female community’s contradictory experiences of feeling both visible and invisible living next to expanding universities and gentrification at Hulme Nannas’ Exhibition with Niamh Kavanagh from our Architecture Department on Wednesday, 5 November

This semester also sees the return of our always popular GDI Lecture Series, featuring a range of enlightening presentations from guest speakers linked to global development and politics.

Colleagues from our Planning, Property and Environmental Management and Geography departments will be joining with The Productivity Institute on Monday, 10 November to host Reimagining New Towns with Dame Kate Barker, Deputy Chair of the Expert Taskforce on New Towns, at AMBS.

The start to this School year has been somewhat challenging for SEED. Lower-than-expected postgraduate taught (PGT) recruitment, particularly from overseas, has had a sizeable impact on our School, where nearly three quarters of our students are postgraduates. While we will need to manage our budgets carefully in light of this, it is useful to be reminded that we are part of one Faculty and one University.

I’m very grateful for the support of Humanities Faculty Executive colleagues as well as my own School Executive team as we navigate these choppy waters and put in place a five-year plan to strengthen our School for the future. Developing and implementing our strategy for financial resilience, in light of the challenges confronting UK higher education, will involve working with academic and professional services colleagues across SEED, which I am looking forward to.

SEED, with five distinct and sometimes very different departments, can sometimes feel somewhat disparate. We are spread over three buildings, with hugely wide-ranging teaching and research expertise. But there is a golden thread that brings our work together: striving for a better, more equitable and more sustainable future. And I know that this is something that truly unites both staff and students.

I see this in our School-wide initiatives, like the award-winning SEED Changemakers programme, which is again engaging our students with projects that make the world a better place.

I see it in our colleagues’ success at the Humanities Outstanding Staff Awards (of course no one’s counting, but SEED colleagues had the highest number of awards and commendations!)

And I see it in the enthusiastic and engaged attendance at our School Board meeting and at our SEED social events, where colleagues jump at the chance to connect, challenge and work together to make our School even better.

I was also inspired this week by the launch of From Manchester for the world, our strategy to 2035. Already, within SEED we are excited and engaging with the potential opportunities emerging from this bold vision. I look forward to working with colleagues across SEED, the Faculty and beyond to build the future University we all want to be a part of.

Best wishes,

Khalid