President's Weekly Update
2 February 2017
Several senior colleagues and I, including Professors Ian Greer (Vice-President and Dean of Biology, Medicine and Health) and Keith Brown (Vice-President and Dean of Humanities); and Sir Howard Bernstein (Chief Executive of Manchester City Council, Head of Greater Manchester Combined Authority and Chair of Manchester Academic Health Science Centre); visited Harvard last week. This followed a visit to Manchester from leading staff in public and population health at Harvard at the end of last year to learn about ‘Devo Manc’ - devolution of the health budget to Greater Manchester, which began in April 2016 - and to understand the implications. The Harvard staff we met said that this is the most exciting ‘experiment’ in health care in the world - though many locally worry about the term experiment because that suggests that it could fail - which it can’t!
We met many academic staff who are experts in health data, working with communities, health inequalities and the organisation of health services. We also met the Deans of Public and of Population Health and of the Kennedy School of Government and the Provost of Harvard. I gave a talk to staff and students on ‘Making Manchester Healthier’ about the development of the devolution deal, its aims, progress to date and the role of the University. Howard gave a public interview in the Kennedy School on the history of collaboration in Greater Manchester. We are now working with Harvard colleagues on a partnership to evaluate the effectiveness of devolution and to gain information which may guide further developments and interventions. We are also working up specific projects for collaboration. These are likely to include the value and use of health data, social determinants of health, community engagement and governance of health and social care services.
The day after I returned from Boston, I travelled to India with Professor Steve Flint (Associate Vice-President for Internationalisation) and Dominic Boyd from our Directorate of Development and Alumni Relations. In Delhi we met the Secretary and the Head of the Indian Council of Medical Research and the Secretary to the Indian Government’s Ministry of Science and Technology. In our meeting with the British High Commissioner to India, Sir Dominic Asquith, we considered wider UK-India trade and educational opportunities and the huge opportunities for UK alumni. The head of the British Council in India (which was enormously helpful in our visit - if you plan to travel there, do contact them) was extremely helpful - we discussed joint undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD joint programmes and distant learning programmes with him and his staff.
We hosted an event for alumni in Delhi which included some who had graduated last year as well as one who had graduated in 1962! We also visited the KPMG offices in Delhi to discuss work placements and studentships for Indian students. It is clear that many companies in India are interested in education, including executive education for their ambitious mid-career staff.
In Mumbai we visited Reliance Industries, one of the largest companies in India (I had met the Executive Director during my trip to Mumbai last year), to discuss joint research projects and their amazing social responsibility projects in rural India where we could place some of our student volunteers who are interested. I then travelled to the Institute of Chemical Technology where we have very strong links. I gave a public lecture on ‘Universities on the 21st Century’ as part of my ‘UAA-ICT Dhirubhai Ambani Life Time Achievement Award’ which is sponsored by Reliance Industries - they paid an honorarium which we will use to support the exchange of students between our institutions.
Back in Manchester and in between trips, I met Baroness Susan Williams of Trafford, who is Minister of State for the Home Office, to discuss many aspects of higher education and government’s proposed changes, the implications of ‘Brexit’ for universities and the importance of international students. As someone who is local, we also discussed the major changes and developments in Manchester and in the University and some of our future plans.
Last week I reported that I had been involved in interviews for the Chief Executive of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority to succeed Sir Howard Bernstein when he retires at the end of March. You may have seen that Eamon Boylan has been appointed. Eamon currently leads Stockport Council, is a member of the Greater Manchester Local Enterprise Partnership and is a graduate of our University.
We’ve just heard about yet more league tables - we were ranked 20th in the world for international organisation by the THE and our Alliance Manchester Business School rose from 38th to 30th in the world in the highly regarded Financial Times MBA (Master of Business Administration) ranking. This places AMBS third in the UK behind Cambridge and London Business School.
Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor
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