President's weekly update
4 May 2023
Opening of our Chinese Culture Gallery at Manchester Museum
We held the official opening of the Lee Kai Hung Chinese Culture Gallery, the new gallery in our Museum. The guest of honour was our alumnus, Dr Lee Kai Hung who generously donated the funding to allow u to build the gallery, which is named after him. He has also supported our Manchester China Institute. The event was attended by over 100 guests including many local dignitaries and leaders of the local Chinese community.
Best Students' Union award
Great news to hear they were awarded best Students' Union at Educate North’s event at the Midland Hotel.
In our regular meeting with Students’ Union officers, they told us about the many students, particularly those in their final year, who are expressing concern to them about the marking and assessment boycott by UCU members. We sought to assure them that many measures are in place to mitigate the impact of industrial action. We also discussed working together with Greater Manchester Combined on the availability of student housing and student mental health and wellbeing.
Meetings with staff and students
Students in the Alliance Manchester Business School raised comments or questions on the marking and assessment boycott, study spaces, Innovation District Manchester, our global centres, adding more on sustainability to the curriculum and the impact of inflation.
With staff we discussed flexible learning, degree apprenticeships, ChatGPT, diversification of student cohorts, difficulty in staff recruitment in some areas, student attendance and ongoing, though somewhat improved, problems with staff contracts of employment.
Science, industry and translation (SIT)
I attended a dinner hosted by the Royal Society SIT group in Manchester to consider opportunities and gaps to develop innovation in the North West including investments in start-up companies and the opportunities presented by Innovation District Manchester. The Royal Society is keen to understand what more they can do to help.
University Bioscience Managers conference
I was pleased to welcome attendees of this conference, representing senior technicians from across the UK. I spoke about the great value of our technical staff to all of our three core goals and about how, when I started my PhD, I was (rightly) told that the two people who would be invaluable to me were Malcolm the senior departmental technician and Georgina who ran many of the practical classes that I was a demonstrator for.
Russell Group chairs of working groups
I chaired a regular meeting of this group which discussed negotiations on Horizon association, mitigating the impact of the marking and assessment boycott, international students and any possible restrictions, for example on the number of dependents they can bring to the UK and a sub-group of members looking at reporting of data and what feels like the heavy burden of such reporting.
Bank holidays
I hope you all enjoyed the May Day bank holiday, with another one next week for the King's Coronation. I would also like to thank all our staff in vital roles who are working despite the bank holidays, keeping essential services operating.
Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor