President's Weekly Update
17 September 2015
Over the next few days we will see many new students arriving on our campus, with a significant number coming from overseas. I am sure that you will all give them a very warm welcome and will support and advise them as best you can. I will be wearing my ‘Ask Me’ badge (as I hope you will), though I may be referring new students to others for the best advice.
Earlier in the week I returned from Beijing and Hong Kong. While on my trip, I had dinner with our Hong Kong Foundation and meetings with several individual members. The Foundation is extremely valuable in supporting the University, particularly in fundraising and making links in Hong Kong and beyond. I had separate meetings with the Vice-Chancellors of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), both of which will be visiting Manchester over the next few months. We have agreed a joint fund to support collaborations between our University and CUHK which will be promoted shortly.
I hosted a very lively alumni event in Hong Kong with nearly 200 attendees and many photographs were taken - 30 extra attendees turned up after a two hour journey to be there. Sadly there was no time to take up the generous offer of sailing on a Foundation member’s racing yacht!
Back in Manchester, I hosted a visit from Gareth Davies, Director General of Knowledge and Innovation at the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills. We discussed the challenges of the forthcoming Comprehensive Spending Review; arguments to support research and innovation; the next steps of developing the case for regional and local research strengths; links to business and the value of research and universities more widely.
At Finance Sub-Committee we considered the unaudited annual accounts for the University for the 2014-15 year. Our surplus looks strong but is likely to be quite a bit below the percentage of our income that is recommended by HEFCE and is essential to deliver our capital plan, since we now receive very little capital funding from government. Forward projections for future years look more challenging, even before potential reductions in funding which may arise from the forthcoming Comprehensive Spending Review.
At the first Senior Leadership Team meeting of this academic year we spent quite a long time catching-up on many items from over the summer. We discussed a paper that will be going to the Planning and Resources Committee on the results of this year’s National Student Survey (NSS) which measures student satisfaction. We also discussed student recruitment for the new academic year (for which we should have a little more certainty in the next couple of weeks); the proposed Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) to assess national teaching quality in universities; our Manchester Access Programme; plans for distance learning programmes and the refreshed research strategy for the University.
It was a pleasure to attend the Stroke Association's ‘Life after Stroke’ event in Irlam. Stories of the remarkable carers, young supporters, stroke survivors, fund-raisers and volunteers were inspiring. I was delighted that my friend and colleague Professor Pippa Tyrrell from our Institute for Cardiovascular Sciences was awarded the prestigious Special Award.
We held the Business Committee meeting for ESOF (EuroScience Open Forum ) which discussed sessions, speakers and sponsorship for ESOF in July 2016 in Manchester, and earlier this week the Careers Committee. ESOF is starting to take shape now. For more information, go to:
In London I co-chaired the Council for Science and Technology (CST) which considers many ongoing scientific issues and reports to the Prime Minister. The outputs of CST are made public at:
I also met Dr Ruth McKernan, Chief Executive of Innovate UK to discuss Catapults (which bring together business with researchers with the aim of helping start-ups bring ideas to market), particularly the Medicines Technology Catapult at Alderley Park and the ‘spoke’ of the Precision Medicine Catapult in Manchester.
I attended a meeting of the Migration Advisory Committee in London to discuss the importance of international staff and students at UK universities, the general processes for obtaining visas and particularly Tier 2 visas for staff from overseas who want to take up jobs in UK universities.
Please review the proposed changes to Faculties resulting from the Review of Life Sciences and Cognate Disciplines and express your views through the consultation at:
Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor
Feedback
Please send comments to president@manchester.ac.uk
President's Weekly Update
17 September 2015
Over the next few days we will see many new students arriving on our campus, with a significant number coming from overseas. I am sure that you will all give them a very warm welcome and will support and advise them as best you can. I will be wearing my ‘Ask Me’ badge (as I hope you will), though I may be referring new students to others for the best advice.
Earlier in the week I returned from Beijing and Hong Kong. While on my trip, I had dinner with our Hong Kong Foundation and meetings with several individual members. The Foundation is extremely valuable in supporting the University, particularly in fundraising and making links in Hong Kong and beyond. I had separate meetings with the Vice-Chancellors of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), both of which will be visiting Manchester over the next few months. We have agreed a joint fund to support collaborations between our University and CUHK which will be promoted shortly.
I hosted a very lively alumni event in Hong Kong with nearly 200 attendees and many photographs were taken - 30 extra attendees turned up after a two hour journey to be there. Sadly there was no time to take up the generous offer of sailing on a Foundation member’s racing yacht!
Back in Manchester, I hosted a visit from Gareth Davies, Director General of Knowledge and Innovation at the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills. We discussed the challenges of the forthcoming Comprehensive Spending Review; arguments to support research and innovation; the next steps of developing the case for regional and local research strengths; links to business and the value of research and universities more widely.
At Finance Sub-Committee we considered the unaudited annual accounts for the University for the 2014-15 year. Our surplus looks strong but is likely to be quite a bit below the percentage of our income that is recommended by HEFCE and is essential to deliver our capital plan, since we now receive very little capital funding from government. Forward projections for future years look more challenging, even before potential reductions in funding which may arise from the forthcoming Comprehensive Spending Review.
At the first Senior Leadership Team meeting of this academic year we spent quite a long time catching-up on many items from over the summer. We discussed a paper that will be going to the Planning and Resources Committee on the results of this year’s National Student Survey (NSS) which measures student satisfaction. We also discussed student recruitment for the new academic year (for which we should have a little more certainty in the next couple of weeks); the proposed Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) to assess national teaching quality in universities; our Manchester Access Programme; plans for distance learning programmes and the refreshed research strategy for the University.
It was a pleasure to attend the Stroke Association's ‘Life after Stroke’ event in Irlam. Stories of the remarkable carers, young supporters, stroke survivors, fund-raisers and volunteers were inspiring. I was delighted that my friend and colleague Professor Pippa Tyrrell from our Institute for Cardiovascular Sciences was awarded the prestigious Special Award.
We held the Business Committee meeting for ESOF (EuroScience Open Forum ) which discussed sessions, speakers and sponsorship for ESOF in July 2016 in Manchester, and earlier this week the Careers Committee. ESOF is starting to take shape now. For more information, go to:
In London I co-chaired the Council for Science and Technology (CST) which considers many ongoing scientific issues and reports to the Prime Minister. The outputs of CST are made public at:
I also met Dr Ruth McKernan, Chief Executive of Innovate UK to discuss Catapults (which bring together business with researchers with the aim of helping start-ups bring ideas to market), particularly the Medicines Technology Catapult at Alderley Park and the ‘spoke’ of the Precision Medicine Catapult in Manchester.
I attended a meeting of the Migration Advisory Committee in London to discuss the importance of international staff and students at UK universities, the general processes for obtaining visas and particularly Tier 2 visas for staff from overseas who want to take up jobs in UK universities.
Please review the proposed changes to Faculties resulting from the Review of Life Sciences and Cognate Disciplines and express your views through the consultation at:
Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor
Feedback
Please send comments to president@manchester.ac.uk