President's Weekly Update
3 March 2016
The date of the national referendum to determine the UK’s future membership of the EU has been announced as 23 June 2016. Many of you will have strong views on this important issue and we hope that all of our staff and students will take part in the debate and use their vote as they deem appropriate.
The University of Manchester as a charity is constrained in expressing institutional views on political matters. That said, our University has wide and deep ties across Europe, in our teaching, research and wider activities, which we aim to preserve and enhance as an international institution. We also have many European staff and students from outside the UK who greatly enrich our global community.
You will each have, or be forming, your own views on the UK’s membership of the EU. I am increasingly being asked about my own personal position, which is that the UK and this University will benefit greatly from continued membership of the EU. I appreciate that my views may differ from your own. As always, as a University, we encourage informed and respectful debate amongst our staff and students about this important topic.
I asked staff for views on how we improve communication in the University. I wholly agree with the comment that we should all try to use plain English rather than complicated terms and ‘jargon’. I’m sorry to say that we scientists are amongst the worst offenders-often using complicated technical terms when there are much simpler and more commonly understood words. We should all strive for ‘plain English’!
Turning to engagements over the past week; PhD students in Mathematics were very positive about their School, describing a ‘sense of community and engagement’, but worried about office space. Staff raised concerns about what they saw as ‘new University regulations’, though the example given dated back over ten years and often what is described as a ‘University' regulation is in fact local at School or Faculty level.
In the School of Dentistry, staff are looking forward to moving into the refurbished Coupland 3 Building. Students were happy with staff and facilities in the Dental School but expressed some concerns about clinical facilities and support. Undergraduates had arranged a great research symposium last weekend with over 200 attendees.
In a visit to the School of Psychological Sciences we discussed the new Faculty with staff. Students were highly complimentary about their staff, facilities and research links, but wanted more recording of lectures and a bigger Alan Gilbert Learning Commons!
At one of our regular meetings with the executive members of the Students’ Union we discussed the EU referendum, the wider higher education political picture, our access agreement and Manchester’s bid to be named as ‘City of Youth’ which the Students’ Union is involved in.
I visited ‘The Study’ in our Museum. This is a fascinating open space at the top of the Museum where staff, students and the public can study and look at some of our exhibits. The Museum is also encouraging members of the public to take part in research and cataloguing. Here are some photos of my visit:
I chaired our Social Responsibility Governance Group meeting where we agreed on the governance structure for environmental sustainability, heard feedback on social responsibility from our external stakeholders' review, received updates from the Faculties and discussed future plans for our work with our local communities.
I met Professor Malcolm Press, Vice-Chancellor of Manchester Metropolitan University, to discuss general collaborations, Corridor Manchester, plans for Oxford Road, apprenticeships, schools' engagement and ESOF.
I attended a fantastic event at the Royal Institution (Ri) in London to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the televising of the Ri Christmas Lectures-just a few weeks after BBC television started in 1936. I gave the lectures in 1998 and it was one of the most challenging and enjoyable things I have done. The event was attended by 19 of 25 living past lecturers - I hope we got a great photo of all of us. They included Heinz Wolff, who gave the lectures in 1975, David Attenborough (1973), who was also interviewed at the event, and our own Professor Danielle George, who gave the lectures in 2014 and featured heavily in the clips of film shown - which also included me putting my PhD student Rob in freezing water for an experiment.
The regional group of young presidents and world presidents (YPO/WPO) of companies held a dinner in our National Graphene Institute. After a tour of the facilities and my welcome, they heard a conversation between Tom Bloxham (our former Chancellor) and Professor Sir Kostya Novoselov.
Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor
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