Dear all 

As I said in my last message to you, the continuing war in the Middle East – with loss of lives in Lebanon and Iran, and wider economic ramifications in the region and globally is increasingly worrying.  My thoughts remain with those of you affected directly or indirectly by this and other conflicts. Please do reach out for support if you need it – some practical information on what’s available is here. We are also keeping a close eye on how this might impact us more directly.  

One consequence of this is that the travel disruptions in the region have directly impacted some of our overseas fieldtrips currently taking place or soon to leave. We have adjusted travel plans accordingly. While travel disruptions are very much a first world problem, I do want to thank all colleagues, PS and academics, who have been busy with these arrangements and for their participation in the field trips. Such study visits are an important element of the pedagogy on many of our programmes and provide rich first-hand learning experiences for our students.  

Those of you who attended our School Board meeting earlier this month will have heard my update about the School’s financial situation. We have submitted our budget projections for the 2026-7, which reflect an ambition to maintain rather than increase recruitment figures. As we implement longer term plans to respond to changing recruitment trends in higher education, the headline for us all is that the belt-tightening we have seen over this academic year will continue. Please be aware that budgets remain tight and that we must all adhere strictly to spending approval procedures. 

At this month’s School Executive meeting we were joined by Carly Chadwick (Humanities Research Impact Facilitator), Stefan Bouzarovski (SEED Associate Director for Impact) and Kiefer Lambert (Humanities Impact Support Officer) for a themed strategic discussion on our research impact. Whilst our discussion did address some of the challenges we see in growing research impact, it was really positive to hear that much progress has been made. As we move towards REF 2029, Carly reported that our School is in a stronger position than this time in the last REF cycle, with initial drafts already completed for some of our potential REF case studies. A huge thank you to all of you who have already submitted case studies and a reminder to continue to engage with the support on offer to develop and evidence the impact of your research.  

The strength of our research impact within SEED is further demonstrated by the fact that three out of the ten case studies highlighted in the University’s new ‘Research impact, ‘shaped together’ campaign are being delivered by SEED colleagues.  

Our School’s commitment to building partnerships outside the university and to contributing positively to society are further evidenced in the fact that five projects from SEED have been shortlisted for the Making a Difference awards. We also have two colleagues from SEED shortlisted for the Educate North Awards and the SEED Student Employability Champions initiative has been shortlisted for a national Academic Employability Award. Congratulations to all involved in both the impact campaign and the awards and good luck to those shortlisted! 

I wanted to send a final reminder for you to please take ten minutes to complete the Your Voice Matters survey before it closes next Tuesday. Another forthcoming deadline is that for applications for the role of Head of Architecture – the deadline for expressions of interest is Thursday 2 April. Please do reach out if you would like an informal discussion about this role.  

Following the successful visit from our President, Duncan Ivison, last month, I’m really pleased to announce that the Dean of Humanities, Fiona Devine, will be visiting SEED on Thursday 7th May for a Q & A session with staff. Formal invites will be going out to you all very soon but for now please do put that date in your diary.  

I wanted to highlight next week’s Spring Clean, as we start the final preparations for the relocation to Rutherford of our Geography colleagues and the move of GDI colleagues and our TLSE team from the 2nd floor to the 1st floor of ALB. Whilst the Spring Clean is targeted at those who will be moving offices, with additional bins and recycling facilities being provided in ALB to accommodate this, it might be a good opportunity for all of us to have a bit of a declutter in our work-spaces! 

Finally, I want to close with some exceptionally positive news announced a few days ago. The QS World University Rankings by Subject 2026 have been published and it’s fabulous to see that all the five disciplines in SEED have either climbed the rankings or maintained the same high place. In fact, of the four subjects for which the University is now ranked in the top ten worldwide, three of them are taught in SEED. A huge congratulations to everyone in SEED. Specifically for Architecture and the Built Environment (which includes the Manchester School of Architecture, in which we work jointly with Manchester Metropolitan University, as well as PPEM) we are ranked fifth globally, a position we’ve maintained for the past four years. Development Studies (GDI) has climbed to fifth in the world compared to 11th last year. Geography has broken into the top ten, climbing nine places to rank 9th worldwide. Education (MIE) has climbed ten places, up to 35th in the world.  

Whilst rankings are certainly not the be all and end all, this is a significant achievement, and it’s been reached through all of your hard work. These rankings collect data from 16.4 million academic papers and gather insights from over 151,000 academics and 100,000 employers. They focus on things like student experience, employer reputation, global partnerships, research citations, and the quality of teaching. This truly is a huge collective achievement, and one you have all contributed to, so well done. This is something that we can all be proud of – SEED a global leader! 

I hope, like me, you’re all looking forward to a couple of extra days off with the long Easter weekend. 

Very best wishes  

Khalid