President's weekly update
2 November 2017
I am pleased to confirm that the Voluntary Severance (VS) Scheme, taken together with other actions, has met the objectives of the planned staffing changes in all academic areas in the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures and the Alliance Manchester Business School. Hence it will not be necessary to introduce a compulsory redundancy process in these areas and staff are no longer ‘at risk’ of redundancy. All staff in these areas and the trade unions have been informed of this position.
In the Professional Support Services areas of the Directorate of Finance, the National Composites Certification and Evaluation Facility (NCCEF) and Photon Science Institute (PSI), we have already achieved the required reduction in posts through voluntary severance, redeployment and other factors. There are two posts in the Faculty Office in the Faculty of Science and Engineering which are subject to compulsory redundancy because insufficient applications for VS were received. However, we remain committed to mitigating the need for redundancy wherever possible and opportunities for redeployment will continue to be sought until June 2018.
I fully appreciate that this has been a very difficult and anxious time, particularly for those staff in affected areas, but I hope that we can now focus on the future and on our ambitious and important goals for the University. I would like to reaffirm our commitment to on-going, meaningful dialogue and engagement with staff at all levels as we continue to work to deliver the strategic vision for the University and as we now focus on the more positive aspects of M2020.
I met with Sir Richard Leese, Leader of Manchester City Council and Deputy Mayor of Greater Manchester, to discuss our current plans, the external environment and the ever growing partnership between the University, the City and Greater Manchester. We discussed current political uncertainty, in the UK and beyond, and the importance of growing the economy and inclusive growth and better social equality in the region, and enhancing its global reach.
I also met Joanne Roney, Chief Executive of Manchester City Council, and discussed how we can better work together on schools and local community engagement. Since it now seems unlikely that universities will be required to sponsor specific schools, we will work with the City and our neighbouring universities to coordinate activities.
We held meetings of our Board Finance and Audit committees this week and a joint meeting of these committees to consider the report of our external auditors and final accounts for 2016-17 for the University. The auditors gave a very positive report but also noted the harsher external environment that we face.
At Finance committee we were updated on our capital plans, reviewed our insurance cover and received a presentation on UMI3 (our intellectual property and commercialisation subsidiary) from the Chief Executive, Clive Rowland. The committee was pleased to hear that UMI3 has met all its targets and is well on the way to delivering significant commercial benefit to the University.
At Audit committee we heard reports of a number of projects that the internal auditors Uniac have been working on and received an update on their programme of work for the forthcoming year. The University’s annual ‘value for money’ statement was also discussed.
I attended the Russell Group of vice-chancellors in London. The discussion was about the latest government announcement of the introduction of a Knowledge Excellence Framework (KEF), the freeze on undergraduate fees this year which will have a significant impact on all universities, the review of student debt that has been announced (but without any detail), demonstrating the ‘value for money’ of higher education, the plans for changes to the Teaching Excellence and Research Excellence Frameworks and the USS pension. The Russell Group has just released a report on the impact of its 24 member universities which generated almost £87 billion for the UK economy in 2015/16 and supported over 260,000 jobs directly and indirectly.
Senior colleagues and I received preliminary feedback of our annual external stakeholder review. This is carried our every two years by an independent organisation which interviews a number of our most senior external stakeholders (eg from industry, funding bodies, local and regional government) to solicit their views of the University. The review, which will be communicated more widely when completed, was very positive overall with recognition of the strengths of our research beacons, our social responsibility activities, our strong relationship with the city and the region, and impressive changes to the campus. Some of those interviewed for the survey raised concerns about student satisfaction and felt that we must aim to achieve a ‘gold’ ranking in the next TEF.
It was wonderful to learn that Manchester has joined the UNESCO global network of cities of literature, in a process led by colleagues in SALC and partners across the city. UNESCO Cities of Literature – which include Baghdad, Dublin, Barcelona, Prague, Melbourne and Reykjavik – are dedicated to pursuing excellence in literature, engaging as many citizens as possible and encouraging the creation and sharing of stories, with collaboration locally and across the world.
Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor