As we come towards the end of the 2025-26 academic year, I’ve been reflecting on a sometimes hectic first year as Head of School and planning ahead for the challenges and opportunities of 2026-27. 

Earlier this month the School Executive had our annual planning away day. We started the session with some really encouraging news: for our undergraduate students, numbers are up for applications, offers and acceptances. We will be going into clearing for many of our undergraduate programmes, but we are already on target for undergraduate recruitment.  

This all demonstrates that, whilst we are seeing an increasingly competitive undergraduate market, the undergraduate programmes we offer in SEED continue to be really attractive. I’m sure the fact that all of our departments have climbed in the worldwide rankings also helps with this! 

Unfortunately, the numbers of applications for our postgraduate taught programmes have continued to fall, although GDI might be an exception to this trend for 2026/27. Overall, this is not a surprise, and is not unique to SEED, but because so many of our students are postgraduate it is something we must and are reacting to.  

We have already stepped up our marketing and our outreach to key international markets and in the longer term we are taking steps to rebalance our portfolio, grow our undergraduate programmes, and ensure we are offering the courses that prospective students want and need. We are also working to strengthen the employability outcomes from our programmes, both at UG and PG levels, providing students with practical experience and resources that can help them in the tight labour market they face on completion of their studies with us.  

Coming up this weekend and next we have two undergraduate University Open Days, which I hear are likely to be very busy. I’d like to thank all the colleagues who will be coming onto campus to work on those days and to show prospective students just why they should choose the School of Environment, Education and Development at the University of Manchester. 

The School Executive has also been reflecting on the results of the recent ‘Your Voice Matters’ staff survey. I’ll be honest, I am disappointed to see that on several key measures we’ve seen drops in staff satisfaction since last year’s survey and I and the whole School Executive are concerned to fully understand the context for the survey responses.  

Over the next few months we’ll be firmly in listening mode, trying to understand the concerns, struggles and frustrations of staff across SEED so that we can deliver constructive change to address these. With this in mind, David Pattwell (Director of School Operations) and I will be holding a series of drop-in sessions next month – you should soon receive diary invites for these.  

These sessions are unstructured and there’s no need to book – just drop by my or David’s office at the allocated time. Please feel free to come with comments, complaints and suggestions for improvement.If you can’t attend in person, please email to arrange a Teams meeting. We’ll also be attending Departmental Forum meetings early in the next semester to hear from you there.  

As you’re probably aware, we are now on the final countdown for the relocation of our Geography colleagues to the Rutherford Building, with the move taking place between 13-15th July. If you’re in or around the Arthur Lewis Building on those days, please be aware that there will be lots of coming and going.  

Having visited Rutherford a couple of times during the extensive refurbishment works, I can’t wait to see the finished result. I’d encourage all colleagues to drop by and visit once our Geography team are settled in. 

Finally, the results of the 2025-26 promotions round have now been announced and I want to congratulate all the academic colleagues who have successfully secured promotion. The promotion panel were really impressed by the high standards or professionalism and achievement demonstrated from across the School.  

I look forward to seeing very many of you at the SEED Summer Social on Wednesday 22 July! 

Best wishes 

Khalid 

3 things this month: 

• RSVP for the SEED Summer Social  

• Sign up for one of our Summer wellbeing workshops