Dear colleagues 

As the 2025-26 academic year draws to a close, it is truly a time for celebration. On Tuesday my heart was full as I watched so many of our now former students cheered by proud loved ones as they crossed the Whitworth Hall stage to formally gain their qualifications. Graduation is always a very special time, and it seems even more so when the sun shines! 

But graduation is far from the only thing we have to celebrate this month. The results from the National Student Survey show that our final year students overwhelmingly feel positive about the service we provide them. Whilst there is always still room for improvement, it is gratifying to see SEED as the best performing School within the Faculty of Humanities, with higher average scores than both the University and the Russell Group in general. Whether or not your role is student facing, all our colleagues have played a part in this success, and I hope you all feel proud.  

Another cause for celebration is the move of our Geography department from the Arthur Lewis Building into the newly renovated Rutherford Building. Geography academics, research fellows and PhD students are now all working from Rutherford, whilst the Geography labs remain in Arthur Lewis.  

This move has been over three years in the making, and I’d like to thank colleagues on the Rutherford Operationalisation Group for their dedicated work to ensure the building is well-equipped and that the move went as smoothly as possible. I’m really impressed by the way in which this historic building has been refurbished to ready it to be a seat of learning for one of the world’s top ten Geography departments. I hope all SEED colleagues will take the time to pop in a visit over the coming weeks.  

Keeping with the celebratory theme, I was honoured to join colleagues for a lovely, albeit sweltering, awards ceremony for the Distinguished Achievement Awards at the end of last month. SEED colleagues won both Researcher of the Year - Humanities (Pam Qualter) and Teacher of the Year - Humanities (Miri Firth). SEED PhD student Freddie Jones also won Postgraduate Researcher of the Year – Humanities. Congratulations all! 

As we come to the end of the academic year it’s also time for some fond farewells. My colleague and friend David Hulme will retire this summer after a long and illustrious career within GDI and its predecessor,the Institute for Development Policy and Management. For many of us in GDI, David has been an inspiration, not just through his commitment to the discipline and his unbending resolve to focus on the chronic poor, and how best to shape policy that delivers real outcomes, but also through his engagement with colleagues, especially the many early career researchers who have come through GDI over the years. David will now be an Emeritus Professor, and we look forward to drawing on his wisdom in future. In the meantime, though, I’m sure colleagues across the School will join me in wishing David all the very best for a long and happy retirement, spending time with his beloved family and indulging his passion as a ‘twitcher’.  

We also bid a fond farewell, though thankfully only from their School Executive roles, to two of our Directors: Niki Banks, our outgoing Director of Social Responsibility, and Pam Qualter, our outgoing Director of Research. Both Pam and Niki have shone in their School Executive roles during their three-yeartenures and I sincerely thank them for their dedication to our School’s success.  

I also want to thank our brilliant Communications lead in School Operations – Siân Lambert who will be leaving us to take on a new role in the Royce Institute. Siân started with SEED at much the same time I took on the HoS role, and she has done wonders in disseminatingto you, and the wider world, the myriad activities that we have been doing this past year. We welcome back Lorna Pontefract who will be continuing in her role as Comms and Engagement lead when Siân leaves at the end of the month.  

Regular readers of my monthly message will be aware that I usually share three key messages I want colleagues to particularly be aware of but as we head into the summer break there’s really only one message I want to share: enjoy the summer and, if you can, do please take a break!  

As I reflected in last month’s message, it’s been a busy and at times unsettling year, with lots of change and uncertainty, but also with so much to celebrate. I know that many colleagues will be busy with planning for next year and getting ready to welcome our new students, but I hope that, whatever your role in SEED, you can find some down time over the next month or so.  

Very best wishes 

Khalid