Dear colleagues, 

Now that I am three months into the role as Head of School, it’s been a delight to get to meet staff across the School, especially through the recent School Board meeting and visits to departmental Forums (MIE and Architecture recently, with visits to Geography, GDI and PPEM to follow very soon). These conversations have been genuinely enlightening, and I hope those of you who have been at the Board and Forums have found it useful to hear from me directly, particularly about our response to the School’s budget shortfall this year and our strategic plan to respond to changes in student recruitment. 

One thing I have noticed through these conversations is that not all colleagues are aware of School communications. This is not completely surprising: we’re all leading busy lives and at risk of information overload. Over the coming months I’ll be working with the School Executive to explore ways to address this and to make sure that HoDs and managers are able to share important and pertinent information within departments. I’ve also added a few bullet points at the bottom of this message (and in eNews) to highlight a few things we’d really like all staff to be aware of. 

In the meantime, if you have any suggestions on how we can improve the flow of information around the School and make it easier for you to understand what’s going on please do let me know.  

Whilst we’re on the topic of School information, one of the key ways for colleagues to feed into how the School is managed is through the School Board. It was great to see so many of you at the last Board meeting and I’m glad to hear that we’ve had a successful, and exceptionally close, election for the School Board Chair. Congratulations to Ümit Yıldız who has been elected as the new Chair – I look forward to working closely with Ümit over the next three years. My thanks and commiserations also to Nuno Pinto and Anna Hughes for putting their names forward and their equally thoughtful pitches for the role. 

Congratulations and a very warm welcome also to the seven new fellows who have recently joined us through the Simon and Hallsworth and Bicentenary Fellowship programmes. I look forward to meeting them and encourage colleagues to reach out to them, to hear about their research and to welcome them into our vibrant research culture within the School. 

As you’re hopefully aware, on 15th October From Manchester for the world was launched by our President, Prof Duncan Ivison. If you didn’t manage to attend the strategy’s launch event or Town Hall session hosted by Duncan, please do take a few minutes to review the University’s new 10-year strategy. As details of the workplan take shape in the coming months, I look forward, with colleagues across the School, in engaging with this ambitious agenda to shape our University for the future. 

For those of you who are academic staff, you’ll hopefully have seen that our 2025-26 round of applications for academic promotion is now open. If you’re thinking of applying for promotion, please consult with your line manager or HoD first and seek their advice, and of course give yourself plenty of time to get your application sorted.  

We’re now really into the thick of the new semester and I know that calendars can start to look really full. But I would urge you to take five minutes to check out some of the events we have coming up over the next month. Do try to find something that interests you and come along.  

Even though we’re only halfway through semester one, planning is already on for semester two. If you are using or considering using teaching assistants next semester please do make sure you’ve reviewed and are following our new Policy on the Use of Teaching Assistants. 

Finally, I want to close this message with a celebration of the wonderful colleagues who were recognised at the Humanities Outstanding Staff Awards at the beginning of the month. In total sixteen colleagues and teams were commended, with the award for best programme being presented to the MA Leadership in Practice (ELiP) and the award for best Postgraduate Dissertation Supervisor being presented to Catherine Atkinson-Ross. Colleagues are nominated for these awards by students, and it is great to see so many of you being recognised by our student body. 

I hope you all have a good November and I hope to see many of you at the next SEED staff social on the 19th! 

Best wishes 

Khalid  

Three things this month:  

• Understand the action we're taking to respond to lower-than-expected student recruitment 

• Follow our new policy on the use of Teaching Assistants 

• Learn about our new strategy, From Manchester for the world, by watching this short video