Skip to navigation | Skip to main content | Skip to footer
Menu
Search the Staffnet siteSearch StaffNet

President's weekly update

27 March 2024

Regular discussions with the Students’ Union

April McMahon, Vice-President for Teaching Learning and Students, and I met with Hannah Mortimer, Union Affairs Officer, and in a separate meeting several further senior staff joined us to meet the Students’ Union Officers. We discussed their positive management of the controversial but entirely legal, ‘Pro-Life Society’, a student occupation - which has now ended, payments for students employed by the university, the evolving nature of our Campus Support and Security staff (noting that the vast majority of what they do is to support students), AI, and next year’s incoming officers. We talked about our concerns regarding the financial position of some universities and the ongoing review of the post-study work visa.

A range of Higher Education sector issues

I attended a Russell Group meeting with Raj Jethwa, CEO of UCEA which deals with all aspects of university pay and has now taken over employer representative responsibilities for the USS pension from Universities UK. We discussed the fact that formal pay negotiations are just about to begin, which will be challenging given the financial position of a number of universities.

I also joined a vice-chancellor meeting with Advance HE to feed in our views on priorities for the future. A survey they had conducted indicated that financial sustainability was the key concern of universities, but we also discussed other issues including student wellbeing, the changing nature of teaching and the impact of AI. Geopolitical threats, the importance of governance reviews and governor training by HE and the challenges of leadership in universities at the present time were also covered.

Health Innovation Manchester (HInM)

At the HInM board we heard updates on recent activities and plans with a focus on managing cardiovascular risk. We were also updated on progress in recruiting a chair to follow Rowena Burns when she steps down. You may have seen a recent report on health improvements since the devolution of the health budget to Greater Manchester.

Alliance Manchester Business School (AMBS)

I spoke to our AMBS advisory board, which includes some major supporters, about regional innovation and the key role of AMBS in our plans. This was timely as we have commissioned an independent review of regional innovation and our role in it. We discussed Innovation District Manchester, Innovation Factory, Northern Gritstone, The Productivity Institute, our Masood Enterprise Center, our philanthropic initiative on ‘ideas with impact’ to support very early ideas that might be of commercial value, and our external partnerships.

Connected to our Region

Duncan Ivison, who will take over from me on 1 August, has been busy visiting many parts of the university over the past week or so as part of his ongoing familiarisation which included attending a number of regional meetings together.

We held an event with Professors Malcolm Press, Linda Merrick and Nic Beech, leaders of Manchester Metropolitan University, the Royal Northern College of Music and the University of Salford respectively. We discussed the strength of our partnership including working with local further education colleges and Greater Manchester Combined Authority. We also discussed challenges for the wider university sector.

We met Chris Oglesby who leads Bruntwood, which together with Legal and General is our partner in Innovation District Manchester. Chris’ family have also collaborated with many of our projects and have been major donors to the University, especially in cancer.

At the Oxford Road Corridor (ORC) meeting we discussed overseas investment in local life sciences activities, received updates on cultural activities and development and saw very impressive marketing data; hits on many social media channels for ORC now exceed those for comparable UK regions and even Kendall Square in Boston!

Next week

There will be no message next week as I know many people will be away. I hope you have an enjoyable and restful break, while recognising that a number of our staff will have to work through the holiday period - for which I am enormously grateful.

Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor

Feedback