July message from Juup Stelma, Interim SEED Head of School

24 Jul 2025

The end of a busy year, leadership changes and transitions, and hopefully time to rest this August

Dear all,  

We have achieved a lot over the course of a busy year. Graduation took place last week, in both sunshine and rain, and with very high attendance from SEED staff and students. We also enjoyed a well-attended SEED Summer Social in the new Ellen Wilkinson Commons. Earlier in July, an exceptionally strong set of NSS results were published. All SEED departments have made solid progress on the already strong NSS results from the previous year. A huge thank you to our UG programme teams, led by committed Programme Directors, and our PS colleagues keeping us all organised.  

The coming month will see change in SEED. Phil Hughes steps down as Head of Geography. Phil has led Geography brilliantly through a period of change, including a significant increase in the size of Geography PGT programmes. As Will Fletcher takes over, I am sure there are more “good times” to come (see Phil’s message). Linda Evans also steps down as our first ever Deputy HoS – do read Linda’s message also. Linda's ever-present guidance and support made my year as interim Head of School a lot easier, and I’m pleased that Linda will be continuing her work on the mid-career mentoring programme supporting the next generation of leaders in SEED. Thank you also to Nuno Pinto who steps down as the SEED Associate Director for Internationalisation. Nuno has kept a keen eye on opportunities from around the world to benefit SEED staff, departments and research. Thank you, Nuno! Yes, the future of this AD role is uncertain; we are waiting for Manchester 2035 to reveal to us how to approach internationalisation. Thank you also to Kelly Burgess who has supported communications activity across SEED. We will miss Kelly. Kelly is taking up a role as Communications and Engagement Manager for the N8 Research Partnership, based at UoM.  

There will be change, also, for me. l will transition to the Deputy Head of School role. I have genuinely enjoyed being your Head of School this past year. Thank you to everyone for putting up with me and my many foibles. As Deputy Head, I will not only deputise where Khalid needs me; Khalid has asked me also to lead the search for, and development of, new teaching and learning opportunities and income. I will do this alongside our SEED Director of TLS, Rory Stanton. With departments, we will explore opportunities specific to SEED and aligned with Manchester 2035. That aside, as I step down from the Head of School role, I look forward to having a bit more time to do my teaching and, I hope, a bit of writing too.  

To end, I do hope we all get some rest this August. As per usual, there will be no SEED eNews at the end of August, returning in September. 

Juup