President's weekly update
6 July 2023
Student progression and graduation
I’m pleased to say that exam boards have almost finished consideration of assessments for final year undergraduates, with just a short delay in some Schools, which will be completed this week. Thank you again to the many staff who worked so hard on this.
The marking and assessment boycott by UCU has meant that not all marks are complete for some students, but less than 3% of the graduating cohort will not have a classified award confirmed as yet. We aim to rectify this as soon as possible and to limit any impacts.
We are now moving on to graduation ceremonies, which for me is the most important time of the year when our students, staff, families and friends celebrate their great efforts and achievements. Such recognition has never been more important than for this year’s graduating students who were so badly affected by COVID in their last period at school and their first year of university, then by industrial action. They really deserve their degrees – and our students will be able to participate in their ceremonies whether they have a classified award yet or not. I would urge as many staff as possible to attend the ceremonies.
Update on cyber attack
A great deal of work is ongoing, and will be for months, to deal with the effects of the cyber attack. We have had to ensure that all those with a University account change their password [https://www.staffnet.manchester.ac.uk/news/display/?id=30005], and we are very well aware of the effects of temporary removal of VPN on some staff and students. We will continue to provide updates on StaffNet [https://www.staffnet.manchester.ac.uk/]. We are hoping that the VPN will be up and running again by early August though resolving other aspects of the attack will take longer.
Discussions with new staff
Senior colleagues and I attended an event with about 100 new academic and PS staff, though because of the backlog due to COVID, some had joined us two years ago. We asked why they chose to join Manchester and for their views on what about our University is impressive and what needs to improve. Many said they joined because of our very strong reputation but also some mentioned our values. All on my tables were very happy and spoke very positively about how friendly the University is, and how collaborative. Some said that a number of our processes need to improve, but others said they were much better than their previous universities! Several referred to the very strong partnerships we have across our city region.
Regional issues
At one of our regular meetings between senior staff and leaders of Greater Manchester Combined Authority and Manchester City Council, the main topics of discussion were Innovation District Manchester [https://www.id-manchester.com/], Investment Zones and Innovation Greater Manchester [https://gmlep.com/innovation-gm], accommodation in the region, the Civic Universities agreement [https://www.greatermanchesteruniversities.org/], of which we are a member, and regional funding opportunities.
Meetings in London
It was a pleasure to meet our new Honorary Chair, Sir Patrick Vallance [https://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/news/sir-patrick-vallance-to-become-honorary-chair-at-the-university-of-manchester/].
I also attended the Royal Society Summer Exhibition, which includes many amazing science exhibits for the public and schoolchildren, but fellows get a special viewing.
Meeting Humanities Faculty Leadership Team
We discussed the impact of the marking and assessment boycott, which, like other universities, was most prominent in humanities and in two disciplines that included over half of the affected students in our university. We also talked about the cyber attack and IT transformation, REF2028, financial sustainability of the university sector and our bicentenary and fundraising campaign.
Farewell to Professor Keith Brown
Keith Brown stands down at the end of this month after serving 13 years as Vice-President and Dean of the Faculty of Humanities. Senior colleagues and I thanked him for his enormous contributions to the Faculty and the University. We will miss him as Dean but he will stay as a research professor, so it’s not a real goodbye.
Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor