President's weekly update
14 July 2022
Celebrating our students’ achievements at graduation
It has been wonderful to preside over degree ceremonies again and see the much-deserved celebrations! A huge amount of effort goes into these events, so a big thank you to the many people who make them work so well and be such special moments. Particular thanks to those who went the extra mile in delivering the last set of catch-up ceremonies for those students who missed their events due to COVID. You can see some of the graduation photos captured on our Twitter account.
Government change
There has been much change over the last week and still a great deal of uncertainty, which will continue into September. I had a short introductory meeting with the new Secretary of State for Education, James Cleverley. We discussed pending A-level results, impact of the rise in cost of living on students, the importance of Foundation Years and the value of international students. He was very familiar with the latter having moved from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
Staff feedback
Staff at one of my regular meetings raised the common concerns about infrastructure, particularly IT, our website, and People and OD processes, which we are working hard to improve – and thank you to colleagues who are working to enhance service provision. Those in faculties praised their local PS support but some said that given our size, it can be difficult to learn what others are doing and gain from best practice in other parts of the University. However, they also noted the benefits of our scale, their pride in much of what we do, our global reputation, and the strong collegiality, which several said was much stronger than previous institutions at which they had worked.
Advancing Digital Futures
At the Board for Digital Futures, an important cross-University activity, we heard about our bid for a Turing Innovation Hub, digital and sustainability including our research on sustainable cities and environment.
Regional development
I spoke at the Northern Powerhouse Partnership Board about health innovation and lessons from Greater Manchester. We still have the only devolved health budget in the UK (~£6bn pa). While this has allowed us to develop some new approaches such as Health Innovation Manchester, health inequality is still a major concern and a growing activity for us. Lord Jim O’Neill, the chair, updated us on Northern Gritstone, the patient (long term) investment company that we have set up with the universities of Leeds and Sheffield and we heard an update on Transport for the North.
Separately, I had an update from Duncan Johnson, the chief executive of Northern Gritstone who reported that investments were going well with a lot of interest and they are now starting to support their first spin-out companies.
External engagement
At the Board meeting for UK Biobank we discussed the major award they have received for the next five years. This was following an outstanding quinquennial review. Biobank has also been awarded (subject to final Treasury approval) the funding needed to allow the headquarters to be located in Manchester, very close to the University. This will enable us to build on our existing collaborations and fits well with our health priorities on disease prevention and early diagnosis.
I was interviewed about levelling up at an event arranged by the Times and the Sunday Times together with Ian Muldowney, CEO of BAE Systems Air and Will Tanner, Director of Onward. We agreed that ‘levelling up’ was not just about fairness and equality, but also makes good economic sense for the whole country. We also felt that education, skills and re-skilling were critical to improving productivity and prosperity in less advantaged regions. I raised the major gap in health and life expectancy between more and less affluent areas, which has a significant impact on productivity, and the importance of the creative industries.
And finally
It was good to catch up with David Sweeney, outgoing Executive Chair of Research England. David has done a fantastic job and will be stepping down later in the year. His successor will be Professor Dame Jessica Corner who currently holds a senior role at Nottingham University and who many of us know well and is a welcome appointment to this important role.
Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor