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School of Environment, Education and Development

Post-School Board message from Khalid Nadvi, SEED Head of School

10 Oct 2025

Our Head of School shares key takeaways from his presentation at the School Board meeting yesterday

Dear Colleagues  

I’m writing to you following yesterday's School Board meeting, as I wanted to summarise what I said and share key points with those of you who were unable to attend in person.  

At the meeting, I provided an update on SEED’s current financial position following lower than expected student recruitment and also on our five-year plan to adapt to the changing climate.  

As you may be aware, the student profile of SEED is currently heavily weighted to post-graduate learning, with nearly three quarters of our students currently undertaking post-graduate courses. Our student body is also very international, with 79% of our students coming from overseas, and 75% of these coming from mainland China. 

This year, while we have met our undergraduate student recruitment target, we are significantly below our postgraduate student target. This issue is not unique to SEED, it’s a trend that we’re seeing across the University and the UK higher education sector more widely. However, as the profile of our student body is so heavily postgraduate and international, 20%+ reductions in overseas PGT student numbers has led to a particularly pronounced impact for our School.   

Overall, this financial year we are seeing around a 15% reduction against target in our projected student income. This does not mean we have to bear the brunt of this deficit, as we are part of a wider Faculty and University, but it does mean we need to budget responsibly to support the deficit in income. For this year, what you will see is: 

  • No changes to Departmental budgets 
  • PRSA (personal research and scholarship allowance) budgets will remain intact but there will be no scope for overspends
  • A reduction in budgets for external teaching, teaching assistance and fieldwork, in line with reduced student numbers 
  • A 10% reduction in School budgets for Research, Teaching, Social Responsibility and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion 

My main message is that this is a time for financial prudence. We are taking measured and pragmatic actions now and planning for the future to avoid the need to have to make more drastic decisions. 

Regarding future planning, I laid out the outline of our five-year plan for SEED.  

Financially, our objective is to next year maintain fee income and contribution at the 2025/26 level, with a longer term goal of growing fee income and contribution back to or beyond our 2024/25 level by 2029.  

To do this we will need to change the profile of our student body and diversify how we operate as a School.  

We need to rebalance the split between undergraduate and postgraduate learners, with an aim of having a 40:60 split between undergraduate and postgraduate income by 2029 (as opposed to a nearly 20:80 split now).   

With student numbers from China falling, and this situation unlikely to change, we also need to increase the number of students we have coming from other countries. This will be challenging but we aim to have a target of 50% of our overseas students coming from outside of mainland China by 2029 (as opposed to 25% now).  

To achieve these two objectives: a pivot towards a more balanced intake of UGT and PGT students and a more diverse body of international students, will require us to focus our efforts on marketing, recruitment and diversification strategies and to ensuring that our teaching programmes meet what students are after, especially on issues such as employability.  

At the same time, with an increased focus on skills development in a rapidly changing world, we will also need to develop a portfolio of viable online, CPD and industry partnerships which will allow us to contribute meaningfully to lifelong learning and diversify our income streams. This will be closely aligned with the University’s Manchester 2035 agenda.  

Research will always sit at the core of our identity as a School and a University, and we will be working to strengthen our research excellence and improve on our 2021 REF results. However, we also need to create a culture where all staff contribute to teaching and learning.  

Social Responsibility is a unique selling point for SEED. We will continue our commitment to this and strengthen our position as a recognised SR ‘leader’ within the Faculty and the University, whilst also enhancing our culture of collegiality, particularly through EDI initiatives. I, and the School Executive, are fully committed to this.  

I know that there is a lot to take in from this update. There will also be more detail in the minutes from the Board meeting and within the slides I shared, which will be circulated alongside the minutes on the SEED School Board Teams channel. I will also be attending Departmental Forums over the coming weeks which will offer space for further discussions. My door is always open if you have questions – please email me on SEEDHeadofschool@manchester.ac.uk to get in touch. 

Finally, I wanted to say a very big thank you to Miri Firth, who has chaired the School Board for the last three years. Under Miri’s leadership we have seen greatly increased engagement with the Board and the integration of both Student and PS voices within the Board. It is largely a credit to Miri that we are now seeing such healthy attendance at School Board meetings and interest in the role of School Board chair. Please do engage in the election for our new chair. 

Best wishes 

Khalid Nadvi, SEED Head of School