President's weekly update
11 February 2022
USS pension
The USS pension scheme remains an important topic for all of us. Universities UK, representing the employers of staff in the USS pension scheme, including us, has written to all employers with a short consultation following feedback from the recent consultation with USS members.
Although barely 2% of members replied to the consultation, by far the most common concern expressed was over the proposed reduction in inflation cap on benefit accruals. As part of the changes to USS it was proposed that the cap was reduced to 2.5%. At that time inflation was only about 1%, whereas now it is over 5%. UUK has now written to all USS employers to ask if we would be willing to reverse the reduction in inflation cap until the next USS valuation. The cost of this change would be 0.2% of salary for employers (£650k p.a. for us), but nothing for employees.
We have replied to say that we support this
USS has now done a costing of the recent UCU proposals, which will be discussed at the Joint Negotiating Committee on 11 February. This indicates that UCU’s proposal would see costs rising over the next two years to 29.1% for employers (an additional £24m pa for us) and 13.9% for employees, a rise of 40% from the current level. We have been alerted that these proposed costs have not yet been discussed with the pension regulator, and may weaken the covenant.
Board of Governors
Edward Astle, Chair of our Board, held my P&DR this week, which included feedback from all Board members and all of my direct reports. I am very grateful for the very many positive comments, especially after such a difficult year. There were a number of divergent views though, with some saying I should take on more responsibility for certain areas and others saying that I should delegate more, and some varied
Civic engagement
I chaired a meeting of the Oxford Road Corridor Board where the Levelling Up White Paper was a major topic of discussion. I updated them on our discussions with local Further Education (FE) colleges and Diana Hampson, Director of Estates and Facilities, gave an overview of Innovation District Manchester. We also heard about the success of the Corridor of Light.
At a meeting with Greater Manchester Vice-Chancellors, we considered our ongoing work with FE colleges, levelling up and Innovation Greater Manchester - we will be working on proposals to government for funding as described in the Levelling Up White Paper. We shared concerns about what feels like a continuing increase in bureaucracy and challenges to universities and being asked to do ever more on diminishing incomes. UK student fees have remained unchanged for ten years, hence declining in real terms, and there has been no increase in the government education grant. The full funding of research has declined still further than previously - now just under of 70% of true economic costs are funded across the sector. At the same time our costs are rising quickly.
External meetings
The Russell Group of Vice-Chancellors board meeting also talked about levelling up, international activities, Horizon Europe (still no update on association), lifelong learning entitlement and security concerns expressed by some MPs about certain aspects of research. The latter is already heavily regulated under export controls and government approvals for our research and students and visitors in sensitive areas.
Andy Street, elected Mayor for the West Midlands, joined us and talked about what he thought levelling up meant for their region - potentially a 40% increase in funding for research and innovation outside the greater south-east.
Professor Fiona Devine, Head of Alliance Manchester Business School, and
Congratulations!
In the quarterly World 100 social media report, University of Manchester posts were ranked the best performing for Twitter and Instagram engagement across the full membership of worldwide universities in the network. This is the first time we have achieved the top spot and is a continued indication of the growth and strength of our social media presence.
And many congratulations to Diana Hampson, our Director of Estates, who was named in the Place North West Property Power list, particularly citing work around MECD and ID Manchester.
Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor