Dear All

We are now well into the swing of the academic year and earlier this month it was a pleasure to speak at a welcome event for some of the University’s new academic and PS colleagues. The event gives new joiners the chance to find out more about the institution and its history as well as hear from staff from across a range of teams about what’s on offer for them.

As a member of the University Executive, I was delighted to meet new members of our community and tell them about my experience of working here. I am looking forward to seeing the contributions they will make to our University life and I am sure you have offered new colleagues in the Faculty a warm welcome.

From Manchester for the world – our North Star

It was great to join so many of our colleagues in person and online on 15 October at the official launch of our new strategy to 2035, From Manchester for the world. It was a really inspirational event, as we heard from voices from across the University and further afield about our ambition for the next 10 years.

Duncan has followed up the launch with the first of a series of Viewpoint blog posts from University Executive members, introducing our ‘North Star’, the shining point in the distance we are aiming for, and outlining the foundations and leaps which will help take us there. He has also set a question which we can all consider as we look ahead: What is the one thing you will do differently because of our strategy to 2035?

Celebrating women in innovation

Giving our students the knowledge and confidence to help change the world for the better is just one of the critical elements of our strategy. I was thrilled to join guests earlier this month for an event to honour Eve Kekeh, founder of pioneering childrenswear rental service Bundlee and winner of the Innovate UK Women in Innovation Award.

Enterprise Masters graduate Eve unveiled a special Purple Plaque at AMBS celebrating her achievements, part of a UKRI scheme designed to inspire the next generation of female innovators at educational institutions across the country. It was wonderful to catch up with Eve after a few years and hear about her amazing success.

Law review

Over the past month, I have worked closely with Claire Alexander as Head of SoSS, Carolyn Abbott, Head of Law and colleagues from the Department of Law to reflect on the findings and recommendations of an external review conducted last year. We have agreed lots of ways to enhance its research and teaching. Law is such an important and popular subject.

These conversations have been thoughtful and full of promise, and I am excited to see how plans progress as the department looks at new ways of working and we move forward together towards continued success. I was especially happy that Duncan joined one of the meetings to show his strong support for the review’s recommendations and the department’s future direction.

Teaching Sustainability update

As we move into the final year of the Teaching Sustainability project, we are focusing on a small number of priorities. We will work through the implementation of the outcomes of the Schools’ portfolio plans and think through the rollout of a new course unit framework. The Languages subgroup will support the development of the ‘umbrella model’ of language programme provision.

We will develop principles for team teaching and the role of teaching assistants across undergraduate programmes. We plan to complete an external review of the project as a whole. As the project comes to a conclusion at the end of the year, we will embed new ways of working into BAU activities across the Schools and Faculty. There is plenty to keep us busy in other words!

Recent research achievements

Many congratulations to Dr Ed Pulford (SALC), who has won the prestigious Philip Leverhulme prize in the Languages and Literatures category. Ed was selected for his multilingually-grounded ethnographic and historical research in East Asia and the former-Soviet Union, and receives £100,000 to advance his research.

Professor Neil Humphrey (SEED), Dr Ola Demmkowicz (SEED) and Dr Jo Deakin (SoSS) have been awarded £561,745 from the Youth Endowment Foundation for the completion of co-design for the London Sexual Violence (LSV) Project evaluation.

Dr Caroline Miles (SoSS), Professor Rosemary Broad (SoSS), Dr Reka Solymosi (SoSS), Professor Karen Lucas (SEED) and Dr Helen Zheng (SEED) have been awarded £32,457 by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority for a project which will explore the unique barriers confronting women as road users in Greater Manchester.

In AMBS, Dr Arijit De has been awarded Transport Research Innovation Grant (TRIG) funding of £44,843 from the Department for Transport for a project on leveraging AI to optimise road-rail logistics flows.

Regards Fiona

Professor Fiona Devine, Vice-President and Dean, Faculty of Humanities