President's weekly update
27 July 2023
Students’ Union
Summer is often a time for farewells and new beginnings. We held the last meeting between senior staff and our current Students’ Union officers and thanked them for our excellent partnerships and many achievements during a difficult year. Several of the current officers have been elected to return next year, which provides some helpful continuity. I also thanked them for their great presentations at our graduation ceremonies. There are graduation highlights online [https://wakelet.com/wake/GDxuhv-d_-9qL-07LEed4].
We met the incoming officers and heard their priorities for next year, which include supporting student wellbeing and mental health, especially with the ongoing cost of living challenges, and feedback on assessed work. They also discussed their external engagements including discussions with students’ unions across Greater Manchester and a meeting with the Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham.
Meetings with senior staff
Marking and assessment boycott and cyber restoration dominated other agendas. With about 50 senior staff from across the University, we discussed how we further mitigate the effects of the marking and assessment boycott to give students the marks they deserve as soon as possible. Significant numbers of staff have now notified us that they are no longer participating in the marking and assessment boycott, so further marks should become available soon.
We updated on the cyber attack, which will need ongoing work. It is essential that you take the actions we are asking of you. These can be found in our regular cyber updates on StaffNet [https://www.staffnet.manchester.ac.uk/news/university-news/].
We also received presentations on our student residences strategy [https://www.staffnet.manchester.ac.uk/news/display/?id=29896], including plans for new residential buildings to meet future student needs and upgrades of current accommodation, and on our timetabling project.
Government Chief Scientific Advisor
Professor Dame Angela McLean, who recently succeeded Sir Patrick Vallance, visited us. I told her about our major innovation activities, including IDM and our cross-cutting themes of Digital Futures, Sustainable Futures, Creative Manchester and Health Inequalities.
Regional activities
At the Health Innovation Manchester Board [https://healthinnovationmanchester.com/our-board/] we discussed the future strategy, digital innovation across the region and industry engagement, in which we are playing a leading role.
Innovation Greater Manchester [https://www.innovationgreatermanchester.com/] Board members discussed the next steps in securing an Investment Zone for Greater Manchester, our work with smaller companies and support for innovation for our Further Education Colleges.
I attended the leaving event for Professor Helen Marshall, who retires soon as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Salford after eight years. Helen has delivered many successes during her tenure. We have been very pleased to partner with Salford on the Greater Manchester Civic Universities agreement as well as many other regional and city activities.
Summer
I hope you all manage to get a well-deserved break over the coming weeks. Of course, many staff will be working through this period on their research, teaching preparation, trying to make up lost marks, ongoing operations. I particularly applaud the staff who continue to work so hard on dealing with our cyber attack and mitigating the impacts of the marking and assessment boycott by catching up on marking.
I won’t be sending regular messages over the summer but will update you on key news that arises in August when we will hear about the latest National Student Satisfaction survey, and A-level results, confirmation and clearing, which this year has required a lot of extra work due to our cyber attack.
Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor