President's weekly update
9 November 2023
Outcome of UCU ballot on industrial action
In the national ballot of the Universities and Colleges Union (UCU) about pay, working conditions and staff contracts, 42.6% of members voted, which did not meet the 50% threshold needed to give the union a mandate for further industrial action. Of those voting, 68.3% were in favour of strike action. We will continue to work with all of our campus trade unions to address concerns raised around contracts, working conditions and pay gaps. UCEA, which negotiates on pay nationally for universities, is also keen to work with UCU on an independent review of the financial position of the sector.
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI)
It is fantastic that we achieved a Silver award in the Race Equality Charter evaluation. We are only the second university to achieve such an award and the first in the Russell Group. Thank you to the many people who contributed to this great achievement. The feedback includes some very helpful comments on what we now need to do to continue our progress.
Annual Performance Reviews (APRs)
We have begun our annual round of performance reviews for each of the three Faculties and Professional Services (PS). These feed into the Board accountability conference later this month when our Board assesses our performance against each of our targets.
In APRs for all three faculties, we noted a number of major successes, but also a need to improve student experience - especially in assessment and feedback and student voice, which scores low in the National Student Survey (NSS). We heard from one member of a faculty’s leadership team that at his former university they achieved a major improvement in NSS scores by reducing the extent of assessment and assessing only at programme level. This improved the quality and timeliness of feedback, reduced staff time and was clearly valued by students.
We also spent a lot of time discussing staff workloads and wellbeing - mainly as a result of industrial action, high staff vacancies - particularly in PS, the impact of our cyber incident and the major changes we have brought in, most notably the Student Experience Programme. We also discussed the importance of partnership and mutual recognition between academic and PS staff. The PS APR is next week.
Board Finance and Audit Committees
In addition to the separate Finance, and Audit and Risk Committees, we held the annual joint meeting to consider the final version of our accounts for the last year. These will be published within the next month.
President’s book club
We send selected books out to some of our alumni and donors. This time it was the book by our Chancellor Nazir Afzal 'The Race to the Top' about racism in British public and private organisations. I was pleased to introduce an online event where donors joined us to hear Nazir being interviewed by our Director of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI), Banji Adewumi.
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)
EPSRC council members, senior staff and key stakeholders met in Manchester for several days as part of their stakeholder engagement. I spoke at their dinner on partnerships in the region and their importance in driving innovation. I cited the history of partnership with the region and that it notable that our city’s Town Hall is, I think, the only one where the main entrance is flanked by statues of scientists - John Dalton and James Joule. I also talked about the many examples of more recent partnerships, including Innovation District Manchester.
City Makers
I joined a panel discussion on the relationship between universities and city developments. I spoke about our commitments to social responsibility, civic engagement and regional economic development and about how we have worked with our local communities to make our campus more welcoming.
University Mental Health Charter
I and many other colleagues contributed to an external review of our strategy, actions and future plans to support student and staff mental health, which are topics of real importance to us all.
Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor