This week Keith talks about our plans around Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, and updates us on industrial relations and the return to campus following the end of Plan B.  

Dear Colleague,

How was January for you? Rising prices, Covid issues, ‘Partygate’, military tensions in the Ukraine, yet another semester with significant amounts of online teaching, ongoing industrial relations issues in universities and miserable weather all adding up to a depressing start to 2022. Most of us will have personal factors to throw into the mix. I spent most of the month being very ill with a combination of my usual winter asthma complications plus Covid. It was enough to make you wish we were back in 2021! It’s too late to wish you a Happy New Year, and it would sound a bit hollow anyway given the above litany of bad news, but most human beings have an in-built tendency to think that things will get better, problems will be resolved and obstacles will be overcome. As the English poet, Shelley, put it, ‘If winter comes, can spring be far behind?’ It’s what keeps us going.

Good news

So let us start with some good news since there is plenty of it. Huge congratulations to Dr Mario Pezzino, SoSS, and Dr Jen O’Brien, SEED, for becoming our latest Higher Education Academy Principal Fellows. This is a prestigious award for Mario and Jen and recognises their effective strategic leadership in academic practice and academic development and their key contributions to high-quality student learning. I hope more colleagues will take the opportunity to pursue an HEA Principal Fellowship. We need more great teachers who think hard about teaching and who provide valuable leadership in teaching and learning as both Mario and Jen do.

Two of our Music professors have captured external attention in the past few weeks. Professor Barry Cooper’s work around the origins of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony is intriguing and has attracted much interest. It was also good to hear that Emeritus Professor of Music, John Casken, has been awarded the inaugural Tippett Medal by the Royal Music Association. This new prize for composition is awarded for ‘The Shackled King’, a drama for bass, mezzo-soprano and ensemble based on Shakespeare's King Lear. Congratulations to you both.

Professor Søren Holm in SoSS has been appointed to the DARE UK (Data and Analytics Research Environments UK) Scientific and Technical Advisory Group which is a programme initiated by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). The group is looking to ensure that investments made in the data research infrastructure are joined-up, demonstrate trustworthiness and support research at scale for public good.

It was also great to learn that Andreea Avramescu, PhD student in AMBS, has been awarded a prestigious SPECIES Scholarship award. She will spend three months at the University of Malaga to carry out research to examine the complex optimisation problems involved in the optimal design of supply chains.

I am intrigued to learn more about Cottonopolis: lessons for environmental science through the hidden histories of Manchester. This multi-disciplinary UKRI-funded project involving researchers from across Humanities seeks to unravel the socio-environmental legacies of industrial cotton production in Manchester. It will examine the global impacts this legacy created on scientific knowledge and deliver talks and workshops and a public digital archive to share key findings with community groups.

No more plan B

Once again we are returning to campus, hopefully this time for longer and more fully. Please take a few moments to familiarise yourself with what this means for Humanities. Most of our students returned this week for the start of Semester 2, and I am sure you will be pleased to see more staff and students enjoying the campus experience. As you know, we had expected that there would be no remote teaching this semester, but circumstances are such that some students are genuinely unable to come to Manchester. We have agreed to make it possible for those students to apply to continue to study remotely on a number of programmes in the Faculty of Humanities (for Semester 2 only) and they were informed of the outcome on 24 January. I am sorry that a number of you will have to continue remote teaching this semester, and I assure you that every effort is being made to provide you with the support you need.

Industrial relations

In January, we received the news that UCU did not meet the threshold for strike action over the USS pension issues, and more recently the UNISON ballot over pay also failed to reach threshold for strike action. Unfortunately, towards the end of January, the University received confirmation from UCU that its members will be taking further industrial action over pay and working conditions. UCU industrial action will take the form of discontinuous strikes on 21, 22 and 28 February, 1 and 2 March. Action short of a strike, as we were previously notified, will continue, ending no later than 3 May 2022. The vote took place in November last year, and just exceeded the legal threshold for action (50.4%). In total 728 staff voted in favour of such action. We have over 12,000 staff across the University.

The University, and I personally, understand how important pay and working conditions are to colleagues, and we take these concerns very seriously. It is also the unquestionable right of colleagues to take industrial action. However, we continue to be extremely worried about the impact of this action on our whole community, particularly on our students who have suffered so much over the past two years. I repeat the plea I have made on previous communications to think very carefully about the impact strike action, or action short of a strike, will have on our students’ education and experience of University.

I will take this opportunity to remind staff and line managers of the detailed guidance available  in relation to the forthcoming strike days and ongoing action short of a strike (ASOS).

EDI

Over the last year, Susie Miles, Associate Dean for EDI, has led colleagues across the Faculty in thinking about some of the difficult issues we face in relation to equality, diversity and inclusion, and about what we could do to address why our ambitions have failed to make adequate progress. They have brought together ideas and experiences from students, staff and stakeholders to build on best practice and write an EDI strategy for Humanities. We will work with the overall University EDI objectives, while committing to a set of clear, measurable objectives of our own. You can read more about this work in today’s lead news story. Currently we are recruiting a new Vice-Dean Social Responsibility who will be a member of the Faculty Senior Leadership Team and will be accountable for the delivery of this strategy.

Politics and policy

Amidst all farce surrounding No 10 we have had the launch of the Government’s flagship Levelling Up white paper which appears to fall short of what many had hoped, but which does offer opportunities for universities to engage as regional anchor institutions in an important agenda. This is an area where Humanities is well-placed to make a contribution and we will be giving it some thought over the next few months. Less encouraging was the arrival of the ‘Student outcomes and teaching excellence’ consultation from the Office for Students which is not really a consultation and appears to represent yet another regulatory burden on universities that will create a great deal of work for those colleagues who have to deal with such matters. Meanwhile ministers continue to shout about wicked universities teaching students online as though this was something we chose to do for ulterior motives. Before Christmas I received hundreds of emails from students requesting, demanding even, that we offer online teaching this semester and not a single complaint from a student about the dual teaching they received last semester.

And finally

I hope that in spite of the grim start to the year and some of the discouraging concerns that continue to affect us all, you have a great semester. Most of our students will be back in the lecture halls and classrooms along with those of you who teach. Hopefully many of you engaged in research will be able to travel to archives and libraries, to engage in fieldwork, and to participate in person at conferences. Professional staff will continue with our hybrid experiment, combining working from home with a higher degree of interaction with colleagues and students on campus. Student recruitment for next year is looking good, our Size and Shape work is proceeding well, a healthy budget is being drawn up with significant investment in staffing, and our people continue to excel in so many ways. There is much to be positive about.

Best wishes,

Keith  

Dear colleagues,

As I write this message on a stormy December morning, I suspect that, like me, you are counting the days until you can switch off from work and spend much-needed and hugely deserved time with your family, friends and loved ones.

This year has been incredibly challenging, in some ways more so than 2020 and most of us will never have experienced anything like it throughout our careers. It has been a demanding, exhausting, and frustrating year for us all. Yet we have worked together, found innovative solutions to whatever came our way, and achieved more than we ever thought we could or would achieve. We learned new skills, adapted to even more new ways of working, and found strength we were not sure we possessed.

Many of you will have experienced illness, or members of your family and friends will have been unwell. Sadly, we are once again in a deteriorating public health situation. Please take care and be assured that we will continue to do all we can as a University to ensure that the safety and wellbeing of our staff and students is foremost in our thoughts when we return to work in January.

I am proud to work with so many dedicated colleagues who have shown and continue to show such dedication to our students, to research, to your role and to each other. Thank you for everything you have done over the course of a very long and tiring 2021.

Senior leaders across the Faculty have also been sharing their thanks this week. Please take a few moments to read their short messages.

God willing, I will be on the beach at Kingbarns in Fife with my family on Christmas Day, no doubt my granddaughter will be expecting me to listen repeatedly to Taylor Swift’s ‘Shake it Off’, and I may even get Hilary Mantel’s The Mirror and the Light finished (anyone else find this one a bit of an ordeal?). I hope that you too have something joyful to look forward to, that you have a great Christmas and a very Happy New Year.

Best wishes,
Keith

This month Keith updates on senior staff changes, discusses planning and accountability and the Humanities New Academic Programme.

Dear colleagues,

Introduction

What are you like when it comes to learning something new? I confess I am not very good at it which, I tell myself, is largely a product of age, but it is probably just me being lazy or impatient. After all, the Roman philosopher and politician, Seneca, wrote that ‘I am still learning’ in his late 70s (the quote is often attributed to Michelangelo) which is a good example of lifelong learning. But it can be such an effort and I am always looking for short-cuts. A couple of weeks ago I bought a chainsaw – no, nothing to do with the Scarface (Al Pacino) approach to management – after years of cutting up wood with a bowsaw. I bought the safety gloves, the helmet with visor, mixed the oil and petrol and set to work. Hopeless! Flooded the engine repeatedly and could not get it to start, jammed the chain when it did come to life, and almost had an accident because I had not bought a trestle so that the logs rolled towards me, causing a kick-back on the saw. I ended up at the local garden centre (not the hospital thankfully) where a very macho guy demonstrated what to do, without any safety equipment, before handing it to me and telling me to have a go! It is still scary to use, but I think I am now on the right track.

So why I rambling on about my chainsaw? Well, we have all learned a great deal in the last 18 months. We have learned about how we cope under extreme stress as a society, an organisation, in our families and as individuals. We have embraced new ways of doing many things from how to administer a lateral flow test, to ordering food online, to using Zoom. In relation to our place of work, we have adapted and innovated, shared and learned from best practice, tried and failed and tried again. Now, hopefully, we are entering a phase when we can begin to stand back and ask which parts of that new learning we want to hold onto and even move to the next step, and what we want to let go. For example, do we continue to work at home more than we did in the past, a question more resonant for professional staff? How much remote learning do we build into our normal programme design? Can we continue to do our research without the pre-pandemic level of travel? Answering those questions will be driven by a mix of drivers, organisational priorities and performance, pedagogic outcomes, research quality, wellbeing and workload issues and personal preferences. As you know, the University has launched an initiative into better understanding workload concerns, some of which may be rooted in recent, enforced innovations which may not be entirely beneficial. When it is working, my chainsaw is certainly quicker and less tiring to use than the trusty old bowsaw, but it is also stressful to operate and I am reluctant to use it on my own so the benefits may not be worth it. We shall see!

Staff development and Humanities New Academic Programme (HNAP)

Sticking with the idea that we work in a learning institution, we can be surprisingly resistant to being taught. Interestingly, this is more of an issue with academic staff than professional staff who, in general, embrace learning opportunities. Some of these learning experiences are mandatory because of important compliance issues, yet many staff appear to regard requests to complete online courses as unreasonable and beneath their dignity forcing the University to wave a stick at them. On the other hand, we had a reasonably good take-up for teaching staff preparing for dual teaching, and there are many other opportunities to learn that are voluntary. It is entirely likely that some of these courses or modules could be improved, as can many of our academic programmes (see NSS!), and there is a strong feedback loop that helps us refine them over time.

A particularly important programme is HNAP which is mandatory for all new academics on standard (‘permanent’) contracts. Here the team have invested a huge amount of time and effort to respond to staff feedback and provide something more aligned with need, and more cognisant of other pressures on staff time, than was sometimes the case in the past. However, there continues to be a culture in some Departments of talking down the importance of HNAP, suggesting it is a tick-box exercise, and using nudge and wink tactics to deliver subversive messages about the necessity of fully engaging with it. Similarly, senior staff who are slow to grade the assessments of younger colleagues can inadvertently signal the low priority they attach to HNAP assignments which is also unhelpful. Please have an open mind to learning opportunities and, in particular, encourage staff in the early stages of their careers to see the benefits of HNAP.     

Planning and accountability

The disruption of the last two years has made planning difficult and accountability confusing. Plans have had to be set aside or adapted much more frequently than usual, while driving high performance is problematic in such stressful circumstances. Nevertheless, as we move towards a version of normal, as an organisation and as individuals we need to understand where we are succeeding or failing, and we need to have some form of route map for the future. The Board of Governors recently reviewed the University of Manchester Our Future strategy document that was launched in February 2020, a month before the first lockdown and, with some tweaks to the key performance indicators. They concluded that Our Future remains the best expression of our shared ambition, and so we will now be gearing up to put in place local plans to deliver it.

The Board of Governors also gave its support to the Senior Leadership Team’s financial accountability plans which are intended to provide the University with a greater level of financial security and resilience against the backdrop of a higher education sector business model that is fundamentally unsustainable. For the Faculty of Humanities this means pressing on with an expansion of our student number under the Size and Shape programme which I have addressed in previous messages and will do so again at regular intervals. This week, the Faculty Leadership Team (FLT) gave its approval for the development of the first 22 new teaching programmes to be developed for launching in 2022 and 2023.

As for accountability, we had our Annual Performance Review (APR) recently at which members of FLT were questioned in detail about the entire range of activities. The APR is composed of three ‘deep dives’ into each of the core goals, Research, Teaching and Learning, and Social Responsibility alongside a comprehensive high-level review of the entirety of our business. You can access my commentary on the last year along with the APR documents. We discussed a range of issues, including our selected topics of Size and Shape and Civic Engagement. There were no glaring deficiencies identified, although NSS is low across the institution and sector, and there is always room for improvement, such as research income benchmarked against leading competitors by subject. Next week I will be further quizzed on the Faculty’s performance at the Board of Governors’ Accountability Conference which can be a testing experience. Meanwhile, along with members of FLT, I have begun the round of School visits which embraces a combination of highlighting performance issues and indicating the direction of travel. Hopefully you will be able to attend.

Senior staff changes

You will have seen from earlier announcements that Vice-Dean for Research, Gerard Hodgkinson, is stepping down from the role at the end of this academic year after a highly successful five-year term of office that included the delivery of our very large and complex REF submission. We have begun the process of recruiting Gerard’s replacement. If you are interested in the role you can find out more in our news story and I will be very happy to talk to you about it. The new Vice-Dean will take up the post in summer 2022, which will ensure there is time for a full handover.

In addition, Andy Westwood is standing down as Vice-Dean for Social Responsibility after his five-year term of office. Andy has also been very active on our behalf, most notably in driving forward our civic engagement where Humanities is leading the rest of the University. Recruitment for that role will commence in the New Year with a view to a summer 2022 start.

At the end of March 2022 Janine Ellis, Head of School Operations in Alliance Manchester Business School (AMBS), will be moving to the role of Head of School Operations in the School of Health Sciences (SHS). The current Head of School Operations in SHS will be retiring in December and we have taken the decision to move an experienced Head of School Operations into SHS, and recruit to the Head of School Operations vacancy in AMBS. Janine will bring a wealth of skills and experience to SHS from her extensive experience in AMBS and I hope you will join me in wishing her well for the move. 

UCU ballot

Sadly, a relatively small proportion of University staff, 728 – which is around 6% of University staff – have voted to take action over pay and conditions. That action will include a number of days of strikes and a lengthy period of action short of a strike. It is difficult to understand the need for this action, especially at this time. We can only hope that after successive episodes of previous industrial action and two years of Covid, our students will not be significantly disadvantaged. I recognise that in the past many staff taking industrial action have sought to mitigate its impact on their own students. If you are intending to withdraw your labour, as is your right, I appeal to you to consider a similar approach insofar as you are able to do so.

Achievements

Here are just a few of the great achievements by our colleagues that have been recognised recently.

It was great to hear that Diana Mitlin, Professor of Global Urbanism in the School of Environment, Education and Development, is now a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. This is a wonderful achievement and recognition of more than 30 years of ground-breaking research into urban poverty and inequality, particularly in the Global South.

Earlier this month I read the announcement that Professor Richard Kingston, also from SEED, will be leading a £7 million project to develop a pioneering digital hub, funded by the National Environment Research Council (NERC). The four-year project will ensure key decision makers across the public sector and industry will have access to an extensive range of UK environmental data. This is a fantastic project and my congratulations to Richard and the team.  

Congratulations also to Dr David Buil-Gil from the School of Social Sciences. David received the Early Career Award at Research Capability 2021, an event held by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), for his research on new techniques for researching crime in small geographic areas.

PhD student from the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures, Cameron Biles-Liddell, continues to receive recognition. Cameron has been invited to compose two new orchestral works with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra which is a huge honour.

It was also encouraging hear about the success of another PhD student this week, Thu Trang Dinh from AMBS. After an intensive three-week exercise she received a Learning Machine Award from the Alan Turing Institute, one of the most prestigious organisations in data science.

Thank you to everyone, including many of our Professional Services colleagues, for your exceptional work on the Festival of Climate Action online festival. It highlighted the breadth of our climate change research expertise in the run up to COP26, drawing in over 1,750 attendees including audiences from policy, industry and NGOs, alongside prospective/current students and an international research audience.

Conclusion

Someone asked me today, “What’s the key message about the Faculty of Humanities you want to convey to the Board of Governors next week?”

“Easy,” I replied, “we’re amazing.”

And it’s true, you are!

Best wishes,

Keith

This month Keith talks about the campus safety and dual teaching, industrial action and our successes.

Dear colleagues

I started writing this message on the way to Manchester, my first train journey for a very long time. I have to admit it felt a little surreal. Still, it was good to discover that some things do not change whatever happens. There was no water to make hot drinks and we were already running 15 minutes late by the time we approached the border with England. Furthermore, good old Transpennine Express, TP to its friends, thought it was a good idea to group the few passengers in seats in close proximity to one another. I am sure many of you have similar travel stories to relate, travel being like the weather, the staple of British conversations.

TP aside, after coming to terms with the crowds of people on Oxford Road, it is good to be back on campus, meeting people again in person even though there were times in the last 18 months when it felt as though I was living with members of University SLT and Humanities FLT.

Over the last couple of days I have had a series of group meetings and 1-1’s, all of which can be done effectively by Zoom, but there is an intangible value-added to being in the room with people. There was also Foundation Day this week, an annual occasion when the University celebrates its legacy and bestows honorary degrees on some remarkable people. I had the privilege of presenting David Aaronovich, a distinguished journalist and a member of Manchester’s infamous 1975 University Challenge team.

Campus safety and dual teaching

As Fiona Smyth, Hannah Rundle and I said in recent messages, there has been a huge investment of time and effort in making the University as safe as possible. Our first priority has been, is and will continue to be the safety of our staff and students. We have brought together all the recent communications from Faculty and University leaders along with helpful resources on our Return to Campus microsite, including a video which explains how best to keep safe on campus.

While we are all hoping for the best we continue to plan for all eventualities. We have started the academic year with an on-campus timetable. In parallel to this, long and detailed work by colleagues across the University means we have a secondary timetable should the Government direct us to reduce on-campus activity at any point. We will share quickly any changes with you to allow as much time as possible for planning.

Thank you to everyone involved in making dual teaching a reality – no mean feat, especially given the initial IT problems that beset the University! I encourage all academic staff teaching during Semester 1 to complete the very short survey sent out by Fiona Smyth earlier this week. Your feedback could make a significant difference to our ongoing plans to ensure Humanities students receive the best possible learning experience throughout Semester 1.

Industrial relations

As you may have seen the UCU is balloting its members on taking action.

Trade Unions have an important role to play in mediating what goes on in the work place, and staff have every right to be members of these organisations and to take reasonable action in pursuit of justifiable objectives. Hopefully that is something on which we can all agree.

Indeed we have a strong track record in advancing and championing the role of industrial relations through our Work and Equalities Institute.

However, I am very disappointed to see that industrial action is being considered at this time, particularly after what has been a challenging 18 months for everyone.

It would be very regrettable for all concerned if industrial action was to undermine your ongoing hard work which continues to make the university a success.

Naturally we are also extremely concerned about the impact potential industrial action could have, especially on our students, taking away the opportunity to learn after a significantly disrupted period.
We absolutely recognise that it has been a tough time for everyone and are working hard to deliver the best benefits for everyone, while ensuring our financial sustainability.

It is worth acknowledging that our University cannot make decisions on its own. Pension changes are negotiated collectively via UUK and USS, and pay increases are negotiated at a national level by universities and UCEA. We have continually pushed USS, UUK and UCEA to ensure future benefits remain appropriate, affordable, and sustainable. This has led to significant changes in the pension proposals, and we believe the current offer is in the best interest of our staff.

It is important to remember that pension benefits built up to date are secure and won’t change. Let us not forget, if we do not make these changes now then pension contributions could be 50% higher or more by mid-2022.

Correspondence from USS makes it clear that the pension regulator feels (even with the proposed benefit changes) that payments should be several percentage points higher. So, irrespective of what any of us think about the valuation, USS is at the limit of what the regulator will allow.

We will of course continue to work closely with the UCU and very much hope any industrial action can be avoided.

Over the coming weeks we will continue to keep you up to date with further information on this matter.

My plea to those of you who are eligible to participate in this ballot is to pause, to take a little longer to consider whether it is fair at this time to inflict yet more disruption and disappointment on our students.

Distinguished Achievement Awards

As we continue to work in challenging circumstances, it is more important than ever to recognise the exceptional work taking place across the University. The President's Distinguished Achievement Awards do just that. If you know someone who deserves to be recognised for going the extra mile please get in touch with your School contact. Each School has its own deadline and process so please familiarise yourself with your local guidance.

For inspiration, you can find out more about last year’s Humanities winners on StaffNet.

Our successes

Earlier this month the University Research Staff Strategy Group announced the winners of the 2021 Research Staff Excellence Awards which recognises research staff for their achievements, impact and successes.

Although the winners were announced in the previous edition of eNews, I would like to add my congratulation to them. Very well done to: Dr Rob Bellamy, a Presidential Fellow in Geography who works on climate change, is our Faculty Researcher of the Year; Dr Lei Nei, AMBS, who was awarded the Best Outstanding Output Award for Humanities; and Dr Kate Scott, also located in Geography who was awarded the Faculty’s Best Outstanding Contribution to Research Impact.

External recognition is always gratifying to see - my congratulations to Dr Jen O’Brien, yet another Geographer, who has recently been awarded first place in the Pearson HE Innovate Awards category for Jen’s outstanding, innovative work on the ‘Creating a sustainable world’ University College for Interdisciplinary Learning (UCIL) course. Confirming our strength in this area, Professor Claire McGourlay from Law was awarded third place in the same category for the Justice Hub’s Virtual Vacation Scheme.

Making an impact

I was delighted to see that former Bank of England Chief Economist Andy Haldane, who recently joined AMBS as an Honorary Professor, has been appointed by Boris Johnson to head the UK’s levelling-up taskforce.

My thanks to everyone who was involved in this week’s panel discussion addressing history and memory in our city. Hosted by Professor David Olusoga from the School of Arts Languages and Cultures, the event explored events in Bristol since the removal of the Colston statue and the outcome of a recent Manchester City Council led consultation into statues and public memorials in the city.

The latest Vital Topics lecture saw Richard Jones, Vice-President for Regional Innovation and Civic Engagement at the University, address the UK’s regional productivity disparities and the ‘levelling up’ agenda. The hybrid event, facilitated by Professor Elvira Uyarra, brought together an in person audience in AMBS with delegates from around the world.

Looking ahead, I am delighted that next week we will host the Manchester Festival of Climate Action. Over four days we will consider the challenges at the forefront of the climate crisis, providing a forum to share innovative solutions to drive urgent change. Please take a look at the agenda and book onto the talks you are interested in.

And finally…

I wonder how many of you are currently watching the compelling BBC2 series, The North Water, without realising it is adapted from a 2016 Man Booker Prize-nominated novel by SALC’s Professor Ian McGuire? Well worth the watch and it is available on BBC iPlayer. It is so much better than the slightly bonkers The Terror that was also located in the Arctic.

Best wishes,
Keith

This month Keith talks about the challenges ahead and our preparations for the new academic year including resources and dual teaching.

Dear colleagues

Did you have a good summer? I hope so. Depending on where you live the weather was passable. For me, a fine July was followed by a disappointing August with a cool, damp North Sea haar sitting in on the shore. I know we have all continued to work, though not perhaps as frantically as last summer, but I trust you found some time to take annual leave. I managed a week in north Argyll that included a sea voyage in a small boat around Mull when we were accompanied by a large pod of bottlenose dolphins. That was an extraordinary, unforgettable experience. We all need change, rest, relaxation, whatever it is that works best for you from visiting family to extreme sports, although perhaps there is some overlap in those two activities. Some of us may even have found that watching England lose a Euro final had a curiously calming effect.

New session, more challenges

So, here we go again. Another academic session, another semester. I am no Henry V, but as we consider the next few weeks it does feel as though it would be apt to exclaim ‘Once more unto the breach’. We may not be confronting the stout walls of Harfleur, manned by determined French men-at-arms, however we are facing very real challenges. Covid is still out there, an invisible, silent enemy that continues to claim victims. In spite of the massive success of the vaccination campaign, cases are rising. It unsettles our minds, inducing fear, rational and irrational, of what was once normal. Like many of you, I share that unease and am a little anxious about getting on public transport and staying in a hotel in Manchester.

Those colleagues who teach, and those who support them, are grappling with how to deliver dual teaching while timetabling is also proving difficult. As you will know, the University has over-recruited undergraduates due to the impact of Teacher Assessed Grades which were announced after we made most of our offers. Consequently, there are going to be even more students to teach than was planned. In the Faculty of Humanities we are expecting an overshoot of around 1,100 undergraduates with a high concentration in the School of Social Sciences and parts of the Alliance Manchester Business School. As yet, we do not have reliable numbers for PGT recruitment. 

Meanwhile, research is now fully back on the agenda with an anticipated increase in expectations if the University is to deliver on its ambitions. Professional staff continue to adapt and are learning new ways of working through the new Student Experience Programme (SEP) structures, alongside ongoing work to improve and reshape how we operate. The financial sustainability of the HE sector continues to look fragile with the threat of further pension cost increases, a rise in national insurance costs has been imposed, and there is a general need to do more with less, all of which will impact on industrial relations.

Our preparations

You may now be wondering why I am setting out to depress and demotivate you before the semester gets started. That would be a fair question and the answer is that it is important to be honest with you. There are very real challenges and we will have to work hard to address them. However, we are not in the same place as last year. From a public health point of view the world is very much safer, and we can be confident that the University is doing everything possible to priorities staff and student safety as we return to campus. You will have received regular updates on working arrangements and can find all the relevant information, including how to get support on Humanities StaffNet. You should also talk to your line manager about any concerns you might have about working on campus. 

Fiona Smyth (Deputy Dean and Vice-Dean for Teaching, Learning and Students) and I have previously written to you about preparations for in-person and dual teaching. That advice remains unchanged at this time and I would strongly encourage you to sign up to be trained. Even if you think you know what to do, you may benefit from the input.

School and Faculty officers have worked very hard over the summer to ensure that sufficient resources are in place to meet the challenge of giving all students the best chance to succeed while protecting staff from increased workloads. It is also important that those colleagues with research in their contracts have appropriate time for research during semester and that those whose institutional research leave has been approved are able to take it up. Therefore we are in the process of appointing an additional 63 academic staff on a range of different contracts along with 16 additional temporary professional services staff ahead of the new SEP structures and 50 graduate interns for Semester 1 to support dual teaching and the wider student experience. Schools also have adequate budgets to hire graduate teaching assistants (GTAs). In addition, we have identified and fitted out extra space to accommodate staff, and we have made a significant investment on equipment to support teaching. We have endeavoured to provide everything that Schools have requested and will continue to look sympathetically on requests to help all staff to do their job to the best of their ability. 

Faculty Committee

Last year we established the Faculty Committee as an opportunity for academics, professional services, and students to engage with Faculty leadership on aspects of our academic strategy and organisation. Over the past 18 months, for example, the Committee has had some really valuable discussions on the University’s move to hybrid working, as well on the Faculty’s work on Size and Shape.  

The first meeting of the 2021/22 academic year will take place on 14 October and I invite any colleague who would like to put forward an item for consideration by this committee to contact one of the elected members in time for the submission deadline of 24 September. This is an excellent opportunity to raise a key issue with senior leaders and elected members and I encourage you to find out more on StaffNet. 

Vital Topics event

On Monday Alliance Manchester Business School will welcome Manchester alumnus and the Confederation of British Industry’s (CBI) Director General, Tony Danker, for their first hybrid event of the year. Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice Chancellor, will host this Vital Topics event, where Tony will set out why the economic choices we make now will define the decade to come. I encourage you to attend either online or in-person. On Monday morning Tony will also be interviewed by Sky News business presenter Ian King, who is another Manchester alumnus and AMBS Advisory Board member.

Good news

As always we are able to celebrate a plethora of remarkable achievements by our talented colleagues. Professor Kevin Malone from the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures has composed a number of works inspired by the dreadful events of 9/11, all of which have been performed internationally and his latest composition will be premiered in London's prestigious Wigmore Hall tomorrow at 1pm, exactly 20 years after the events. Kevin is also the focus a dissertation by a PhD student in Vienna!

Congratulations to Dr Matthew Dennis, in the School of Environment, Education and Development, who will lead a research project to assess the potential of woodland restoration along England’s rivers and streams. His project is part of a £10.5 million programme to help trees and woodlands adapt to climate change, thus enabling the UK to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions. This is a significant project and I look forward to hearing about its progress from Matthew and his team in the coming months.

It is encouraging to hear about some of our best teachers who were nominated, commended or won one of this year’s Teaching Excellence Awards. Staff from Alliance Manchester Business School did especially well with Mike Kennard, Christos Begkos, Patricia Perlman-Dee, and Jillian McCarthy and team winning awards, and Wendy Wild commended. Holly Morse from the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures also won an award.

Congratulations to Rees Johnson, PhD student in the School of Social Sciences who has been awarded the Inaugural Tony Nicklinson Essay Prize by My Death My Decision, a campaign group who want the Law in England to allow the option of legal, safe and compassionate assisted death for the terminally ill or intolerably suffering. 

I was also delighted to read that Professor Jill Rubery, AMBS, has been appointed to ReWAGE (Renewing Work Advisory Group of Experts). The Group works closely with government to provide a single and collective point of expertise to support the strategic response to the recovery and renewal of work, employment and labour markets in the wake of the pandemic.

Thank you to the Faculty’s Research Communication Team and Creative Manchester who have developed a flagship event for this year’s Black History Month. They have worked with the Centre on the Dynamics of Ethnicity and the Race, Roots and Resistance Collective to put together an event chaired by Professor David Olusoga. The event, which will explore statues and public memorials in Manchester and Bristol, will take place on 5 October. 

And finally

I do not know with certainty what the new semester will bring. What I can promise you is that we have done all that might reasonably be done to prepare for the new session. However, if we have learned anything over the last 18 months it is that while planning is important, the ability to adapt, to be flexible and agile is equally important. Albert Einstein insisted that ‘A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new’ and we are doing a lot that is new. Things will not run to plan, there will be mistakes, irritations and unexpected problems to solve, all of which will be testing, frustrating and disappointing. When that happens, and it will, let us try to keep our eyes fixed on the prize, the student whose mind is opened up to a new way of thinking, the solution to an important research question, the implementation of a new, more efficient administrative process, the rejuvenation of a colleague whose career had faltered, the postgraduate you help to get their career launched, all the incremental gains that will ensure that we accomplish our shared vision. Have a great semester.

Best wishes,

Keith

This week Keith talks about hybrid working, the Board of Governors, and our post 19 July arrangements. 

Dear colleagues,

Dear colleagues,

I am writing this message on the morning after. You know what I mean, surely? The night after the Euro Final. The night after all the drama, excitement and, from an English point of view, disappointment. As a neutral watching the game, I wanted England to win, but I could not avoid concluding that Italy’s triumph was deserved. I think Italy were the better team on the night and they played the most exciting football throughout the tournament so congratulations to all our Italian colleagues who will have celebrated this great success. As for England, what a great achievement and what a thrilling journey. The disappointment will fade, I can assure you. Following the early exit of the Scotland team from the tournament, there was the usual self-deprecatory humour suggesting that any other outcome would have unfairly deprived young people of the necessary training in learning to live a life defined by defeat and disappointment!

One of the great things about team sports is the extraordinary commitment of players to their own success but also to members of their team. We saw that again and again throughout the tournament, be it in the noble behaviour of the Danish team when Christian Erikson collapsed on the pitch, or in the final when the extraordinary Giorgio Chiellini ‘took one for the team’ to stop an English attack, earning himself a yellow card.

All of us work in teams and we are all part of a bigger team that builds up through departments and faculties to constitute The University of Manchester. In the last 18 months we have seen great examples of teamwork, of sacrifice for the team and commitment to others in the team. We have done an amazing job and we are a remarkable team of people playing in all positions, be they on-field performers, backroom staff, or managers and we have seen inspiring and innovative leadership at every level. Thank you to everyone and I hope that, like the footballers who have entertained us so much over the past month, you will be able to enjoy a break from work at some point over the summer.

Board of Governors

The Board of Governors held their Planning Conference on 5 July at which the Senior Leadership Team of the University presented their ideas for taking forward the ‘Our Future’ strategic plan within a sustainable financial model. There have been some tweaks to the former, which was launched weeks before the first lockdown, and some refinements made to the high-level key performance indicators. However, the essence of the underlying vision is unchanged, as is the strategic direction of travel. However, the recent crisis brought into sharp relief the financial fragility of the UK HE sector, hence the greater focus on seeking a path towards greater financial sustainability.

As I have tried to explain on previous occasions, universities, especially research intensive institutions with large STEM capacity, are grossly underfunded. Home student fees were set at their current level of £9,250 in 2012 and had inflation been applied they would now be set at £11,451. Unfortunately there is no appetite in government to raise fees or provide an alternative form of funding students. Meanwhile, all research loses money and the more research we do the more money we lose. We might be able to reduce the amount of unfunded research (not supported by grants) and make some marginal gains on full economic costing, but increasing research activity will only exacerbate our position. There remains some slim possibility of government injecting targeted funding to research, but COVID has altered economic priorities and universities are not high on the agenda. Besides, government knows we can cover much of the deficit with overseas student fees where there are no restrictions on numbers or pricing.

As you know, our Size and Shape Taskforce reported recently on how Humanities might grow our overseas student number in a manner that does not damage our commitment to excellent research and teaching. I explained to the Board of Governors the work we have undertaken to date, including setting up a Size and Shape Implementation Group in anticipation of their approving our plans. Although this recent meeting did not formally approve our growth ambitions, the only area of concern was the over-reliance on the China market, and therefore the direction of travel was agreed. We have been tasked with preparing a detailed five-year plan by October, and since the first increase in numbers will be the start of session 2022, we are de facto moving forward at pace and will keep you updated on progress.

Unfortunately, growth will not dig us out of the hole the sector is in. Staff costs are outstripping income and will continue to do so even with an increase in high-margin overseas students. To illustrate the point, University staff costs will grow £17.6m in the next year which is the equivalent of adding 800 additional high-margin overseas student fees or 1,900 home student fees. That growth would need to be repeated year after year simply to stand still, a position that is utterly unsustainable. Therefore we require significant efficiencies across our staffing costs. This is already a driver in various projects in Professional Services, such as the Student Experience Project. On the academic front, all three faculties must look hard at the cost of our teaching model, and at the amount of sub-optimal research we undertake, alongside adjusting the overall shape of the University to bring the Humanities student number closer to the Russell Group average of 51% rather than our current 44%.

Hybrid working

Last week our Faculty Leadership Team received an update from Jayne Hindle, chair of the Humanities Hybrid Working Working Group, and Julian Skyrme who is leading at University level, on our plans for the Professional Services hybrid working trial. The group is making good progress on developing a blended/hybrid way of working across the Faculty, aligned with the University Principles document. Following feedback from individuals and teams across the Faculty, the group is establishing a set of ‘norms’ and guidance to support the introduction of the pilot, which will be shared with you as soon as possible. I know that many of you took the opportunity to meet with Jayne and Hannah Rundle, Director of Faculty Operations, when they held a drop-in session for colleagues who had questions or comments about hybrid working. They plan to hold further drop-ins shortly, but in the meantime I encourage all PS staff to talk with their line manager, or contact Jayne directly, if you have any questions or comments you would like to share.

Post 19 July arrangements

Earlier this week you will have seen the message from Nalin Thakkar confirming that our approach from Monday, 19 July will be a managed return of staff back to campus. Please take a few minutes to read his message and familiarise yourself with the University plans which he outlines very clearly.

To confirm, on Monday you should continue to work as you are at present, unless you have been advised differently by your line manager. Line managers will give you at least one weeks’ notice that you are required to work on campus. For those staff already working on campus you will be advised locally of any changes to the way you are working, for example removing limits on the number of people allowed in certain spaces. Our expectation is that there will be no restrictions on campus from 1September, but this will be confirmed on 19August. We are, of course, mindful that further government restrictions may be imposed if needed and our planning for the 2021/22 academic year takes this into account.

National Student Survey

Yesterday the National Student Survey results were published, showing that overall satisfaction fell across the majority of the sector. Colleagues are now looking at our University, Faculty and School results and will be sharing them with you over the coming weeks. Everyone involved in teaching, learning and student experience activity has shown a huge level of creativity, resourcefulness and dedication and I am proud of all we have achieved and will continue to achieve together. My thanks to you all.

Good news

I was delighted to read that Professor Gary Younge, School of Social Sciences, has been named as one of 29 new Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature, the charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK. He has been awarded his fellowship in recognition of his books: Another Day in the Death of America, A Chronicle of Ten Short Lives and The Speech, The Story Behind Martin Luther King’s Dream. 

Congratulations to our two Humanities colleagues who will begin Fellowships with the University’s Institute of Teaching and Learning (ITL) in September, offering each the opportunity to work on a project to enhance teaching, learning and the student experience. Wendell Kimper, School of Arts, Languages and Cultures (SALC), will address ‘Accessible by design: developing inclusive pedagogies’ and Jennifer Rose, Alliance Manchester Business School (AMBS), will look at peer-to-peer assessment. Well done to you both.

I was very pleased to read last week that Professor John McAuliffe, SALC, has been appointed as Director of the new Creative@Manchester research platform. He will formally take up the role on 1 September 2021 and over the next three years will oversee the strategy and vision for the platform.

Congratulations also to Harriet Larrington-Spencer from the School of Environment, Education and Development who has been shortlisted for the 2021 Shaw Trust Disability Power 100 as one of the most influential disabled people in the UK, a wonderful achievement.

Thank you to everyone involved in the hugely successful partnership events with The Guardian Live, an excellent example of teamwork between the Faculty Research Communications and Engagement team, the John Rylands Research Institute and Library and participating academics. All three events were rated by their audience as 99% or 100% for their quality.

It was great to read a recent blog (link to add) by Political Science MA student Benjamin Pontz who shared a fascinating insight into his 10 months at the University. From his first tentative email to Andy Westwood, to being invited into the home of an academic for Christmas, his blog highlights how the support and guidance he received, from an academic and personal perspective has positively impacted his aspirations as a future policy maker.  

Many thanks to all our colleagues, both professional and academic, who joined others from across the University in either organising or leading sessions at the recent Community Festival. It has been a huge but rewarding challenge to ensure we were able to offer such a wide variety of sessions, including community mapping to help meet healthcare needs in Uganda, creative sessions with poetry, music and art, and wellbeing activities and virtual tours. Staff and students, including SEED’s Jen O’Brien, shared their own personal stories and perspectives of being a part of the University.

Colleagues stepping down

We are at that point in the year when a large number of academic management roles change hands and it is only right that we recognise the contribution of those moving on, usually to a period of institutional leave. Those in the process of being freed from the responsibilities of leadership include these 12 colleagues you can read about in this document, along with the names of those replacing them. My thanks to all those stepping down for your hard work and commitment.

Within the Faculty Leadership Team, Alessandro Schiesaro has ended his term of office as Vice-Dean and Head of SALC after five years which included having to manage difficult industrial relations and the impact of COVID. More positively, Alessandro secured the funding of Creative Manchester which has morphed into the Creativity Platform, made a large number of exciting academic appointments, including Presidential Fellows and high-profile public figures, and oversaw a significant increase in grant capture and curriculum developments. Alessandro has been an excellent Head of School and an important contributor to the leadership of the Faculty.

And finally

It has been a long, gruelling campaign and summer is upon us. There will always be something else to do, but you deserve a break so please take that annual you have earned, deserve and need. The University of Manchester will still be here when you get back. Enjoy the relaxation of the many restrictions to which we have become strangely accustomed, but as Sergeant Esterhaus of Hill Street Blues often said, ‘Let’s be careful out there’.

Best wishes,

Keith

This week Keith talks about the Professional Services hybrid working pilot, updates us on our Size and Shape project and announces Associate Director appointments.

Dear colleagues,

A couple of weeks ago while on annual leave I went for a sail off the west coast of Argyll. The small craft we boarded at Crinan was taking us into the Corryvreckan Whirlpool located between the islands of Jura and Scarba where a number of unusual geographic and tidal features create very dangerous and dramatic movements in the water. The pilot of the boat told us that he was not issuing life-jackets because of COVID (although they were there if needed!), and after advising us not to lean too far over the side, off we went into the turbulent maelstrom. It was an exhilarating experience that took in some interesting nature watching, including nesting sea eagles. The sail also provoked some thought, not least about risk management. Do you risk catching disease from a life jacket, or risk being bounced into swirling, fast-moving and very deep, cold water?

Odysseus faced a much greater dilemma on his ten-year journey home from the sack of Troy when he had to choose between Scylla and Charybdis, those mythical monsters that Homer placed at the Strait of Messina. Sailors chose to avoid passing through this stretch of water, taking a much longer route, but Odysseus decided to sail on through, avoiding the whirlpool created by Charybdis, though losing six men to the multi-headed and vicious Scylla. Choosing the lesser of two evils is not always possible and even piloting a safe passage can result in some casualties.

We have faced our own choices in the last year or so, choices that were often between a rock and a hard place, or the devil and the deep blue sea, choices between health and jobs, between pleasing students and reassuring staff, between prioritising teaching and preserving research, between spending today and saving for tomorrow. On the whole, we have avoided the worst and succeeded in keeping people safe, protecting jobs, teaching our students, carrying on with our research, and we have managed our finances prudently. Like Odysseus, we suffered some casualties along the way and a few mistakes were made, but collectively we have done a great job.

The University of Manchester is emerging from the pandemic crisis with a proud record of having done all the above while also contributing directly to the fight against the disease. You should all be proud of your role over this last year or so, and we should all reject the petty-minded naysayers who continue to spread disinformation and create instability and strife. We should be wary of those who, like Odysseus, ‘knew how to say many false things that were like true sayings’.

Faculty appointments

Staying with the theme of Associate Dean appointments, last month Andrew James and Jared Ruff announced in their Senior Manager message that Dr Javier Garcia Oliva will be taking over the role of Associate Dean for Business Engagement (ADBE) from 1 August. Also taking up AD roles are Professor Angelia Wilson, who began her term as Associate Dean for Internationalisation on 1 May and Professor Neil Humphrey, who will take up the role of Associate Dean for Research on 1 August. My congratulations to our new ADs, and sincere thanks to those who have held these roles over recent years and progressed their respective agendas in incredibly difficult circumstance. Andrew James has done a fantastic job as the first ADBE, creating a strategy for the Faculty of Humanities, increasing the number and range of our business relationships, and stewarding existing ones. Maj-Britt Mosegaard played a key role in advancing our research agenda, chiefly in supporting the delivery of the hugely important and complex REF submission. Angie Wilson has been acting ADI since Geraint Howells left the University at the end of December and has already made a significant impact on this very challenging role.

Recognition and success

Congratulations to the School of Environment, Education and Development’s Geography Department, especially Professor Jamie Woodward, for the impact of their research on microplastics which has found that the poor management of untreated wastewater by water companies is the main source of microplastic pollution in the UK’s rivers. The report has been published in the journal Nature Sustainability and featured by the BBC, the Guardian and in other media. I hope Jamie does not mind me saying this, but for those of you who wonder how to get your work noticed, you may want to observe Jamie who is something of an exemplar at promoting his research.

It is great to hear that the Royal Irish Academy has admitted Emeritus Professor Joe Bergin from the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures as an Honorary Member, elected for his exceptional contribution to the sciences, humanities and social sciences as well as to public service. This is tremendous recognition of Joe’s work.

Professor Jackie Carter, School of Social Sciences, has been recognised as one of the nation’s leading data science professionals, having been named as one of Women in Data UK’s ‘20 in 20’. This is a great acknowledgement of her technical knowledge and experience, and her commitment to encouraging more diverse representation in the data industry.

Congratulations also to Alliance Manchester Business School’s Professor Timothy Devinney, who has been elected a Fellow of the prestigious Academy of Management (AOM). These Fellowships, which are rare in the UK, are specifically awarded to academics for the range, depth and impact of their scholarship, and also for their wider role in influencing the academic community. 

And finally…

Returning to my annual leave and the sail into the Corryvreckan Whirlpool, I discovered that the Isle of Jura is a place where, in addition to producing a very (too?) smooth whisky, the SAS do some of their most challenging training, and it is where George Orwell wrote 1984. Orwell and his son almost drowned when their boat capsized in the whirlpool, miraculously swimming ashore to await rescue. I might not have had to study his book at school when, of course, the year 1984 was in the future! Interestingly, it was Orwell who wrote, ‘There are some ideas so absurd that only an intellectual could believe them’ which offers a tantalising route into Woke bashing that I will resist. Anyway, if you enjoy books about unbelievable nightmares, I can recommend The Children of Jocasta by Natalie Haynes, a clever and compelling retelling of Sophocles Theban plays (Oedipus et al) which I read after surviving the whirlpool. If you enjoyed Circe by Madeleine Miller, in which Odysseus gets bumped from centre stage by a woman, you should enjoy this one.

Dear colleagues,

So, we continue to wait while lockdown eases like a slow thaw at the end of a prolonged winter, wondering whether a further return of students to in-person teaching on campus will take place after 17 May. Meanwhile, all around other changes take place, meeting up with family, eating outside, shopping in person. But even the easing of lockdown brings its challenges. Businesses that cannot survive without government support, children whose learning has been disrupted, illnesses that have not been treated, relationships strained to breaking point. I recently visited my mother in her nursing home, the first time I had been in a room with her since December 2019 due to a combination of my own illness and lockdown rules. It was a strange experience as she had no idea who this stranger was talking to her since her Alzheimer’s condition has deteriorated significantly, removing the last vestiges of recognition. The arrival of the future can be unsettling and unwelcome even when we tell ourselves that we are the kind of person who likes to try something new, overturn the established order of things, or, as the Americans say, push the envelope.

What will the future bring?

Niels Bohr, the Danish Nobel Prize winner and physicist, observed ‘Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future’, and we are having to do a lot of thinking about what next. You may remember that the University involved many of us in a prolonged project to envisage our new vision and strategic plan which was agreed and about to be implemented just as COVID struck. There is no need to repeat that exercise which, if anything, has tested and reaffirmed our agreed values. But we are considering what changes may be forced on us by the recent crisis, and what opportunities may have arisen as a consequence of what we have learned. One very obvious question we are asking ourselves is about how we work and whether we want everyone to return to operating five days a week from a campus office setting. Thus we have a project addressing Hybrid Working in relation to Professional Services staff. You can find out more about this project in Patrick Hackett’s recent blog. Meanwhile, the Flexible Learning Programme is exploring a path towards increased flexibility in how we teach and learn after the pandemic and staff will have the opportunity to get involved.

Others have taken part in a more bird’s eye view of the higher education sector to think about how we might have to adapt in the face of new developments and the acceleration of previously acknowledged directions of travel. This Foresight Group, which included on it a number of colleagues from Humanities, considered the future delivery of the teaching/student experience, the likely course of research, it sought to reimagine the way we work, considered the regional innovation agenda and levelling up, and thought about the future role of the campus for an international university with global ambitions. Recently, the Foresight Group published its findings, which reinforce the importance of the priorities within our strategic plan, add further emphasis to some aspects of our current plans, and signals new areas for consideration. Please take some time to watch the online videos or to read the report.

Size and shape

The pandemic crisis has exposed already significant cracks in the UK HE funding environment. As you know, the University has been very transparent with the data at every stage of the crisis, and while we may have weathered the storm, the fundamental underlying financial weakness of UK universities, principally those that engage in significant research, cannot be ducked. Further shocks to the system can be expected and undesirable solutions will be required because Government has no intention of stepping in to save us.

That need to find our own route to financial sustainability takes us back to the size and shape issue that I have referenced repeatedly over the last year or so. For a number of years, I and my colleagues in the Faculty Leadership Team set a course against growth in order to focus on the quality of student recruitment. Consequently, while some discrete disciplines increased their intake numbers, the overall size of the Faculty shrank slightly at a time when many other UK universities were indiscriminately growing humanities numbers to cover costs elsewhere. Having achieved the uplift in quality that we targeted, and in anticipation of the financial pressures elsewhere in the institution, we set up a Size and Shape Task Force within our Faculty to consider what we would like to do. The Task Force engaged with every Department, Division and School to draw out local ambitions and aspirations and the Report has now been completed.

The Size and Shape Report concludes that in addition to consolidating the 2020 increase in intake, an increase that largely flows through to 2021, there is an appetite and capacity within the Faculty of Humanities for further growth over a five year planning period. However, such growth must be planned and accompanied with appropriate levels of investment in staff numbers, ancillary teaching resources, space, and by appropriate balancing actions elsewhere in the University. There are also risks associated with a growth strategy, and external factors such as Augar could take us off course. It is important to underline that while the Report signals a likely direction of travel, nothing has been finalised. We have commissioned the Knowledge Partnership to complete a second stage of work to test our assumptions about the market and advise us on some of our ideas. We will engage in further discussion across the Faculty and, of course, the University will have to decide on the overall strategy. We will continue to keep you updated on this issue over the next few months.

Post REF strategy

Just a few weeks ago the University entered its submission to the Research Excellence Framework (REF). The figures Gerard Hodgkinson, Vice-Dean for Research, shared in his message last month are astounding, and I recommend you take a few moments to read his message. However, the research cycle continues and we are already moving ahead with the creation of our new post-REF/post-COVID research strategy, driven by our ambition for continuing progress. We are well-placed to carry out this exercise since we start from a position of considerable strength and can draw heavily on the discipline-level plans in our REF submission. Clearly we will need to ensure that any expansion in student numbers does not erode our ability to deliver on world-class research, and it may be that we will need to rethink the proportion of academic staff who focus wholly on teaching. You can expect that we will continue to aim high in terms of research ambition, although we need to recognise that the experience of the last year has set back many colleagues’ research plans. There will be further information about our research strategy, including expectations for individual academic staff, in due course.
Outcome of the Faculty Committee Election
Thank you to all those individuals who put forward nominations for the Faculty Committee and to those colleagues who stood for election. Dr Constance Smith, UKRI Fellow in SoSS, has been elected as an academic and research member and, along with Nichola Ellis, Head of Planning, Governance and Compliance, as a professional staff member. Both new members will join the Committee from 1 September 2021. Thank you to all who voted in this process.

Success and achievements

We are all very proud that the University of Manchester has been named the world’s number one university for action on sustainable development in the Times Higher Education (THE) Impact Rankings. More than 1,200 universities from 98 countries were ranked on actions leading towards the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Manchester topped the overall table as well as achieving first place for its work towards the SDGs of Sustainable Cities and Communities and Responsible Consumption and Production and second place for work in relation to Life Below Water. Thank you to everyone who worked so hard to ensure Humanities’ activities played a significant role in this achievement.

Congratulations to everyone involved in the Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) between Alliance Manchester Business School and British Salt, which has won The Business Collaboration & Partnerships Award at the Educate North Awards. The Awards celebrate best practice and excellence in the education sector in the North. Well done to two of our academics from the School of Social Sciences who have been recognised by the Political Studies Association in their 2020-21 Awards. Professor of Political Science, Maria Sobolewksa has been awarded the Joni Lovenduski prize for outstanding professional achievement by a mid-career scholar, and Politics PhD graduate, Dr Anna Sanders received the McDougall Trust Prize for elections, electoral systems and representation. Congratulations to Dr Edmond Smith, Presidential Fellow in the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures, who has won an ESRC New Investigator Award valued at £314,533, and to Dr Sarah Marie Hall from the School of Environment, Education and Development who has been announced as a Royal Geographical Society Gill Memorial Award recipient for outstanding early career research in human geography.

Well done to colleagues in our Marketing, Recruitment and Web team who have set up our Faculty social channels, where we will be sharing good news from across Humanities, alongside content from our students and alumni. The team has also been working with each School on new digital brochures, featuring more interactive student content explaining the benefits of studying at Manchester. Both pieces of activity will help our Schools stand out in a competitive market and help us recruit even higher quality and more internationally diverse cohorts. Thank you to all involved in this great work.

And finally…

Apparently we have just lived through the coldest April on record. I have lost a number of plants in my garden to frost and chilling winds and it does feel as though spring has been postponed. Definitely not the ‘proud-pied April’ of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 98 that ‘put a spirit of youth in everything’! Still, let us all hope for better weather ahead, for bright mornings, warm evenings, clear blue skies, and even the clichéd sight of students sitting in sunshine on the campus grass living out a little part of their dreams.

Best wishes,
Keith

Dear colleagues,

I hope you were able to take some time off over the Easter period. Like you, I was knackered by the time the University closed on 31 March. However, after spending days entertaining my granddaughter, clearing out 20 years of accumulated stuff from a large garage (I found my Subbuteo under my son’s Action Men and my daughter’s Troll dolls), putting up shelving (15 minutes per unit turned out to be closer to an hour!), and trying to get the garden into shape in between bouts of snow, hail and very strong winds, it is almost a relief to get back to work for a break. Still, they say a change is as good as a rest!

Board of Governors

Just before Easter, the Board of Governors (BoG) Accountability Conference took place. You may not know much about the BoG, but that is where ultimate authority within the University lies. At this annual event members of the University’s Senior Leadership Team are invited to present and answer questions on their area of accountability. Currently our Faculty has two Senate members elected to the Board, Steve Jones from SEED and Claire Alexander from SoSS, who play a pivotal role in representing the academic voice on the BoG. I shared a session with the three other University budget holders in which I highlighted the enormous challenges Humanities faced in the previous year, what we did to address them, and explained how far we had been able to deliver on our Key Performance Indicators. As always, the questioning was tough but reasonable. In spite of the limitations of conducting such an exercise by Zoom it was a successful event and, in broad terms, the BoG expressed satisfaction with our overall performance as a University. The main area of concern remains the underlying financial unsustainability of the UK higher education sector, a topic that will be central to the BoG Planning Conference in July.

Faculty and School budgets

We held what were somewhat truncated planning and budget meetings in the weeks before the Easter break. This year the budget round is unusual because of the unique circumstances in which we continue to find ourselves. Normally we look forward on the basis of a five-year rolling budget and plan, but on this occasion we are simply putting together a one-year budget aimed at consolidating our position. For Humanities that means a modest reduction in the level of financial contribution which will allow us to drop the student intake from this year’s level a little, while remaining above pre-pandemic recruitment levels. School budgets include investment to ensure that the staffing, a combination of new standard contract, fixed term and graduate teaching posts, are hired in time for the start of teaching next academic year. There is some risk that grade inflation as a result of the use of Teacher Assessed Grades will result in over-recruitment in popular areas, hence a number of disciplines are already being closed and additional budget will be released early to hire more teachers if necessary. Schools will also have the necessary funds to support our research ambitions. In short, unless there is another dramatic shock to the system, we can expect a return to previous levels of financial support for our fundamental activities being available at Faculty, School and Departmental level.

To return or not return?

The big question many of us have been agonising over the last few weeks, of course, has been about the next stage in the return to campus. Now we know that there is to be no immediate change and that we must carry on as before which means that apart from a relatively small number of academic and professional staff in the Faculty of Humanities, most of us will continue to work from home. That news will be a relief to some of us and a disappointment to others. Our students too will have mixed thoughts about the fact that it is increasingly likely that for undergraduates the entire academic year will be an online experience. For our taught postgraduates there remains the possibility of them accessing some campus teaching later in the spring or early summer. Whatever the outcome, I am sure you will all continue to provide our students with the best possible teaching and support as well as continuing to offer encouragement to the members of your own teams. Let us press on and finish the job now, knowing that we have all gone that extra mile in what continues to be testing circumstances.

Faculty Committee elections

Thank you to all those individuals who put forward nominations for the Faculty Committee and to those colleagues who have decided to stand for election. For the Academic and Research category, we received four nominations from SoSS for the one available seat. All staff eligible to vote should now have received details of how to submit their vote and I strongly encourage you to do so. Voting will close on Monday, 26 April and the elected nominee will be announced later that week. We received one nomination for the Professional Services category for the one seat available, and I am delighted that Nichola Ellis, Head of Planning, Governance and Compliance will be taking up the seat from 1 September 2021.

Overseas working

Please can all colleagues, especially those of you who are reading this from outside the UK, look out for an email from me later this week in which I will outline some actions you need to take to ensure we are meeting our legal and tax obligations.

Good news

I was delighted to hear about our new Fellows of the Academy of Social Sciences, where we already have a high presence. My congratulations to Professors Yoram Gorlizki and Vanessa May, from the School of Social Sciences, who have been recognised as leading experts in their fields. Yoram’s research spans comparative politics, political and economic history and Slavic studies, and Vanessa has been recognised for her expertise in the areas of belonging, self, family and personal life.

Congratulations to colleagues in SEED’s Global Development Institute which has been named as a partner in a new project on migration management in Africa and the Middle East. The research and findings will improve our knowledge and understanding of the impact of the EU's external borders, beyond continental Europe.

Our graduates continue to shine. A campaign led by Jess Bostock, a Geography graduate, and Sylvie Pope, a Social Sciences graduate, has led to the Government announcing it will ask the police to record crimes motivated by a person's sex or gender. Congratulations also to our entrepreneurial students and recent graduates shortlisted in the AMBS Masood Entrepreneurship Centre’s annual business start-up competition. We look forward to finding out which of these excellent projects will receive part of the £75,000 prize fund to turn their innovative business ideas into reality.

Our research grants continue and this week I wanted to highlight two notable awards in the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures. Well done to Dr Kerry Pimblott for her Arts and Humanities Research Council Early Career grant, and to Dr Ed Wouk for his Leverhulme Trust grant.

And finally…

I referenced the changeable weather earlier, (Oscar Wilde archly wrote ‘Conversation about the weather is the last refuge of the unimaginative’!), and I hope that you have been and will continue to find increasing opportunities to get out and about to enjoy the benefits of the outdoors whether in sun, snow, hail, rain or wind. Like the weather, I suspect there is more uncertainty to follow over the coming months, but as Bob Dylan, who references weather more than any other singer, puts it, ‘You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows’. It appears that the wind is blowing in the right direction as we move through spring towards summer so let us stay focused on the tasks before us and on planning for a better future. Thank you once again for your ongoing hard work and commitment.

Best wishes
Keith

Dear colleagues,

Pink moon

One evening at the end of February, my wife and I drove down to the edge of the sea to sit in the car, have a drink and do a crossword which is what passes for entertainment these days. While trying to figure out an answer to an annoying clue, I noticed an odd, pink shape emerging from the sea on the distant horizon. No, I had only sipped a few mouthfuls of beer. After a few minutes I realised it was a stunning full, pink moon rising into a bluey-pink sky above a still, blue sea. Had I been a Neolithic man some five thousand years ago I suppose I might have fallen to my knees and worshipped this awesome sight. Instead, like everyone else I got out of the car and started to take pictures with my iPhone.

Signs and portents, what do we make of them? Traditionally the pink moon I was fortunate to witness is a harbinger of spring and of hope, a sign that winter is ending. And winter is ending. As the English Romantic poet Percy Blythe Shelley put it, ‘If winter comes, can spring be far behind?’ The temperature is rising, the snowdrops, crocuses and daffodils are appearing, and Easter with all its ancient promise of hope is approaching.

Return to campus?

Of course, we know the spring of 2020 brought the very opposite of hope, it saw the unleashing of the pandemic, the first, shocking lockdown, the dreadful scenes from our hospitals, and for our University the closure of most of our campus and with it the extraordinary adrenalin fuelled shift to online. Spring carries no guarantees. But the signs are good. Some of us have received our first vaccination with many others to get it in the coming weeks and months, children are back at school, and further steps are being taken to open up our campus (see Nalin’s message on 26 February).  Some students who are studying practical or practice-based subjects and require specialist equipment and facilities are already receiving in-person teaching in Architecture, Music and Drama, and the full-time MBA, where colleagues are finally able to teach in a manner much closer to what they believe to be best for their students.

The signs are hopeful, and we look forwards to further announcements in mid-April that may allow a managed return to something approaching normal. I assure you that the safety of our staff and students while they are on campus is of the utmost importance. For those colleagues who are already on campus please follow the available guidance which includes adhering to social distancing and wearing a face covering (unless you are exempt). You can see further information in our new Phase 1 Roadmap infographic.

Planning for next phases of the roadmap is underway and we will keeping you up-to-date on these activities as this work progresses. Helping to support our planning will be your feedback on how the University has responded to the COVID-19 pandemic. If you have not yet shared your views via the current survey you have until midnight tonight (Friday, 12 March) to get involved.

One of our Heads of Department said to me a few days ago how much she wanted to be back on campus and, while knowing it would not be possible, to be able to give her colleagues a hug. Now, as some of you will know, I am not one for hugging, air kissing, or any other demonstrative sign of affection outside close family (it’s a Scottish male thing), but I know what she was getting at. I have spent more time with my SLT and Faculty Leadership Team in the last year than any time before, but it has all been on Zoom. There is something deeply human about meeting in person, sitting down to talk over a coffee, and getting together over a drink. Those days will return and it is good to be able to think they might not be so far off even if some of us also feel a degree of anxiety. Our students feel the same and it is natural that they want to spend time with their teachers so let us see what we can do to give them a taste of that experience before this semester ends.

Leaders and managers

I have just finished a round of talking one-to-one with all 26 Heads of Department as I have done periodically over the last year. Alongside School Directors and our professional managers within the Faculty these colleagues have done a remarkable job in keeping the show on the road, leading by example and striving to maintain morale. The overwhelming message they delivered in these conversations was that academic and professional staff are tired, very tired, that January and February were gruelling, and yet they were overwhelmingly optimistic and upbeat. I know that everyone has contributed, but I want to acknowledge the fantastic job our leaders and managers have done and continue to do. When you see them you may not be able to give them a hug, but leading can be lonely so please let them know they are appreciated.

Research Excellence Framework

Another group of people we should remember are those colleagues on the edge of completing a monumental task for the Research Excellence Framework (REF) submission which will be made on 24 March. These academic and professional leads along with their staff at Faculty and School level, the Unit of Assessment (UoA) leads, the army of people reading and editing environment statements and impact cases, and the colleagues who evaluated outputs have collectively got us to this point against a background of the pandemic and a massive switch of resource to support teaching. Here are the numbers in our submission: 819 academic staff, 1,675 outputs including 190 double-weighted monographs, 73 impact cases, 20 environment statements, £117 million in grant income and 1,906 doctoral completions. That is an awesome list and, of course, it was generated by all of our researchers, but the team who heroically pulled this together deserve our gratitude.   

Committees

The recent Senate elections saw a 29% turnout which is an increase from 19% at the last election so thank you to those who voted, yet this remains disappointingly low. Congratulations to those who have been elected and who now have a responsibility to represent the views of the Faculty and the University. We will soon be seeking nominations for the Faculty Committee which is a relatively new group re-established last spring with the intention of providing academic and professional staff with an opportunity to engage in strategic issues that affect the Faculty. There will be two seats available from September 2021, one academic or research member from SoSS and one professional member of staff. All staff will receive information about how to submit a nomination on Monday, 15 March so please look out for this announcement and when the opportunity arises please use your vote wisely.

Good news

As always, there has been another crop of achievements by our colleagues. Uma Kothari in the SEED has been awarded a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship for a project on Touring Britain in the 1950s: the adventures of postcolonial Indian travellers. Unfortunately I was unable to join the inaugural lecture from SALC Honorary Professor Maxine Peake. Her conversation with John McAuliffe and Maggie Gale covered a range of topics including women in the creative industries and attracted an online audience of 527. A Knowledge Transfer Partnership involving AMBS and global legal business DWF has launched an insurance intelligence tool which draws on historic data to approximate the recommended value of an insurance claim and tailor an approach for how best to achieve an optimal outcome for clients. It is great to hear that Manchester University Law Society (MULS) and the Manchester University Pro Bono Society have been nominated for five awards at the LawCareers.Net Student Law Society Awards. Congratulations to all the students and staff in the School of Social Sciences involved in this great achievement.

And finally…

I have one more number for you – 55. That is the number of Scottish league titles that have been won by Glasgow Rangers Football Club following their brilliant achievement in winning their 55^th title this season under the leadership of Stephen Gerard, a well-known Liverpudlian. This comes after the worst decade in the history of the club following their controversial and humiliating relegation from the top division to the fourth tier in 2012. It has been a long, grinding road back to the top, but they made it. Winter is over, spring beckons – definitely over the moon!

Best wishes,

Keith

Dear colleague,

None of us expected to be where we find ourselves at the start of the second Semester. Still in lockdown, still teaching remotely, still trying to squeeze in some research time, still juggling work with home schooling, caring remotely for elderly relatives, trying to stay healthy and to stop worrying. Yet, here we are. Nothing has changed and if anything the mild optimism we experienced towards the end of 2020 has evaporated. The Zoom tyranny relentlessly grinds on and on and on. As someone said to me last week, it feels like being trapped inside a video game with no known way out (remember Tron anyone?). Except that there is a way out. This crisis will end and one day we will find ourselves able to do the things we long so much to do, including working beside and with other people on campus doing a job that will always have its ups and downs, but which is mostly fulfilling and rewarding.

At this stage we cannot give you a precise route map towards normal, no more than our Government is able to do. We are trying very hard to continue prioritising staff and student safety in the widest sense of that concept (please note, those staff who are currently required on campus can take two asymptomatic COVID-19 tests per week and I strongly urge you to make full use of this opportunity), while also seeking to take account of our ongoing business commitments and needs. We would like to give greater certainty about when and under what conditions we will return to campus, but at this point we are only able to say that it is unlikely that the Faculty of Humanities will see a staged return to campus outside a very small number of specialist areas before Easter. It is our intention to continue to stay close to Government and Public Health England advice and, when that alters, we hope to make any transition in a planned and orderly manner.

Looking further into the future, we have begun to plan for the next academic year. It is possible that uncertainty and disruption may continue to affect how we operate to some degree. Therefore, we will plan for a number of scenarios including an environment that is close to pre-COVID conditions, a version of social distancing, and a continuation of a state of prolonged lockdown. We cannot say which of these will be most likely, but we have to prepare ourselves for each eventuality. This means complex timetable planning, having different versions of the student offer to hand, and developing flexible research plans. Everything is being done to provide you with as much certainty and support as is possible even if it is not always as much as we would all like.

Unfortunately, our financial situation continues to be challenging for reasons that are predominantly structural across the UK HE sector with costs rising faster than income. We are also incurring COVID-related costs, such as a proportion of those associated with testing. Therefore, we expect to maintain the high level of student recruitment that some parts of the Faculty absorbed in the autumn. This is far from ideal and it is not where we want to be in terms of managing adjustments to our size and shape. However, unlike last autumn we have much greater confidence in students registering, and so we will take early decisions on staffing needs for next academic year, hopefully within the next few weeks. Furthermore, it is our intention to ensure that those academic staff who have been granted research leave by their Schools will be able to proceed with their plans. Meanwhile, our longer term size and shape task force continues its work, providing an evidential basis for making informed decisions as opposed to what are inevitably short-term fixes.

In the meantime, we have current students struggling with the pressures, uncertainties and concerns of studying in adverse conditions. I know you are all doing your utmost to teach them and help them in so many different ways. As a further step to support our students, last month we launched the five-point student assessment pledge which comes with some additional, though necessary, work for staff. As you will know, the main points include automatic extensions for up to two assignments, simplified mitigating circumstances and the waiving of re-sit fees. Please can all student-facing colleagues ensure you have the pledge information you need to support our students. Shortly we will launch pledge guidance for academic and professional staff on Humanities StaffNet as well as student guidance on the Humanities website. Please look out for the guidance which I am sure you will find useful. Thank you all for being understanding of the need that has driven this policy, and for adapting to it in the positive manner that you have demonstrated throughout this crisis.

Many Professional Services (PS) colleagues whose work is crucial to student support will be aware that the Student Experience Programme (SEP) continues. Permanent members of staff in Admissions and Student Marketing & Recruitment have been matched to roles at their current substantive grade, while remaining vacancies are being advertised to redeployees and colleagues in this area on fixed term contracts whose skills and expertise we value and seek to retain where possible. Transition to the new technology, process and structures for Admissions and Student Marketing & Recruitment will take place from May to October 2021. We are now moving forward with the next phase of SEP, which covers teaching and learning teams and PGR teams, with engagement sessions for PS, academics and students taking place so that we can get your feedback on structural design.

In spite of some of the fake-news that particular interest groups promote within our community, The University of Manchester operates with very high levels of consensus. Indeed, in normal times that is one of the reasons we take a long time to do things. We have committees, working groups, focus groups and engagement activities at every level throughout the organisation, especially on the academic side of our business. Among the most important deliberative bodies in the University is the Senate where matters directly pertaining to academic business are discussed. For academics and researchers, being an elected member of the University Senate means you can play a vital part in high-level University policy discussions and decisions. We especially need elected members from AMBS and SEED which are unrepresented, and we need individuals who have some experience and understanding of how the University works and are willing to work on behalf of the entire University community. Nominations for the 2021 Senate Elections closed today (15 February) at 12 noon. We have received nominations from all Schools and I encourage academic staff to vote when details of how to do this are announced. You can find out more about the Senate on Humanities StaffNet, including some enlightening first-hand comments from former Senate members.

We continue to hear about many successes among our colleagues, and it is good to keep reminding ourselves of the really great stuff we do. Łukasz Stanek, School of Environment, Education and Development (SEED), has won the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) President's Award for Research in the category History and Theory. Congratulations to Leah Gilman, Francisca Ortiz and Alejandro Espinosa-Rada, School of Social Sciences (SoSS), winners of the annual Sociology Prize for Public Engagement, and to Tony Walker, Alliance Manchester Business School, who has been appointed as the new President of TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) UK North. We are also delighted to see that AMBS has climbed to 30^th place in the FT MBA rankings, a tremendous achievement, and I was inspired to read the comments from students on HCRI’s courses discussing the volunteering they’re involved with while completing their studies, what they’ve gained, and the impact of COVID-19 on their experiences.

The extended Christmas break seems very far off already, but it offered many of us an opportunity to switch off from work. Annual leave aside, we have all become more aware of our own wellbeing alongside that of those people we spend time with at home or in our professional lives. The Faculty Leadership Team has postponed all its non-essential meetings and calls this week, 15 – 19 February, which is ‘Meeting Light’ week, and I hope that, insofar as you are able, you will use the opportunity to dial down the pace during this time.

Best wishes,

Keith

Dear colleagues, 

We are approaching the Christmas holiday period and I imagine that, like me, most of you are staggering towards the finishing line, drained and exhausted by months and months of hard grind. Therefore I will spare you another long message about University business. We are all tired after what has been months of relentless toil and all we want to do is retreat into our private lives to spend quality time with family and friends. You have earned this holiday, you deserve this break and you owe it to yourself to make the most of it. When we return to work in January we can deal with whatever is waiting in the inbox, the diary, the timetable. 

For now my message is very simple. Get through these last few days, wind down where that is possible, and then stop. Remove all evidence of the ‘home office’, put the laptop away, switch off the email and forget about The University of Manchester. There are some colleagues across the organisation whose jobs are such that this total shutdown will not be possible, but for most of us this is not only possible, it is essential for our health and wellbeing. 

It has been a horrible year in so many respects and, as I have said before, we all have stories to tell of loss, illness, fear, anxiety, depression, frustration and anger. Yet, there is also hope with the roll out of the vaccine, and we have other memories of great teamwork, the kindness of colleagues, the patience of our students, the sense of personal achievement and the pride we all share in what we have achieved. Whether you are religious or not, Christmas is a time of hope and joy. My wish is that, in addition to having a Merry Christmas, you all experience something of that hope and joy over this festive period and that you and your family have a very Happy New Year. 

Best wishes,
Keith

Dear colleague,

Tiers and more tiers

It has appeared at times in the last month or so that we are trapped in some nightmarish video game constructed by a number of interlocking and overlapping tiers from which there is no escape. We have Covid alert levels, or tiers, imposed by the UK Government with variants in the devolved administrations; there are Department for Education tiers encapsulating the guidance to higher education in support of campus reopening; there is University of Manchester tier mapping; and we have a Faculty of Humanities refinement to that institutional tiering. Confused? It seems that in this game we find ourselves going up one tier and down another in the process of trying to find the way out, but instead we repeatedly find ourselves back where we were before. Unsurprisingly, this frustrating and relentless activity wears away at our patience and resolve, all of which is exacerbated by the different voices shouting from the sidelines be they Government or Opposition, ‘the Science’ or the media, University management or UCU, staff or students, colleagues or family, everyone has a view on what we should be doing.

It is very easy to point the finger of blame. The PM should have acted sooner, the medical experts should be clearer on their guidance, the universities should not have brought students onto campuses, students should have acted more responsibly etc. We have all engaged in this sport, criticising people who are doing their best and are struggling to keep their heads above water, but no democratic society has got it right, no part of the UK is performing notably better than another, no University has emerged as a model for others to follow. We are all trying to get through this crisis with as little lasting damage as possible. This University is no different. I have said before that it often feels as though we are muddling along, making mistakes along the way and uncertain that our choices are correct. For the present, we are persisting with putting the health and safety of staff and students first while committing to providing the very best learning we can offer. However, as you will have seen from recent announcements, we must aspire to return to sufficient face-to-face teaching to meet the expectations of our students, taking account of the wellbeing issues created by isolation and the prolonged absence of a full campus experience.

Planning

We are now entering that part of the planning cycle where the past performance of the Faculty is reviewed and future intentions are tested, though it must be said that all planning currently is highly contingent on external factors. We really are finding ourselves in a situation where this week’s plans are ripped up the following which reminds me of Dwight Eisenhower’s comment that ‘plans are useless, but planning is indispensable’. The Faculty of Humanities Annual Performance Review takes place on 1 December and if interested you can view our full submission here. For those of you who may want only to read a summary, here is my short overview.

‘These are the times that try men’s souls’
Thomas Paine

‘If you falter in a time of trouble, how small is your strength’
Proverbs 24:10

 It would be surprising, disrespectful even, if I did not commence this annual report with a reference to the extraordinary times in which have found ourselves since the beginning of this calendar year. Like every other organisation in the country, the University of Manchester has faced its own version of this devastating crisis and, to date, has risen to the occasion, uncovering an inner determination and resilience along with an agility and adaptability we never knew we possessed. As Vice-President and Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, I make no special claims for what our people, staff and students, have achieved in relation to any other part of the University. We have been tested by the times and have played our part, we have done all that was asked, and more, and I wish to take this opportunity to salute the extraordinary commitment, boundless energy, imaginative innovation, cheerful good humour and profound decency displayed by our people throughout this time. Such strength is not small, though each of us may have played small parts, it is immense, admirable and humbling. In all my years in this office I have never been as proud of our achievements as I am now – it has been, and continues to be, an honour to work alongside my colleagues in the Faculty of Humanities.

Our most outstanding achievement over the last year was, unsurprisingly, dealing with the crisis. Lockdown and the subsequent phasing of public health management profoundly impacted on the Faculty, an impact that was exacerbated by coming on top of a damaging strike that was more disruptive and divisive in Humanities than elsewhere in the University. Nevertheless, we succeeded in delivering wholly online teaching to some 17,000 students, graduating three thousand final year undergraduates, and at the time of reporting our teaching remains almost entirely online. Immense effort went into recruiting students for this current year in an exhausting campaign which appears to have been more successful than expected. Allied to the very tight cost controls and managed savings, Humanities exceeded its financial contribution for AY 2019-20 and has made a very strong start to the current financial year. While research has been deprioritised, steady progress has been made in finalising the REF submission, improving PhD completion rates, and in grant capture with two extraordinarily large grants for the Productivity Institute and African Cities. Many of our researchers have been deployed to address issues associated with the impact of the pandemic on society, the economy and on individuals. Our extensive social responsibility agenda reaches out to address multiple societal needs, many exacerbated by the events of this year.

Nevertheless, while we take pride in achievements, there remain areas where our performance has been disappointing. While the most egregious cases of research underperformance have been addressed, the hurdle for REF inclusion is very low. Far too many eligible staff are performing at a level that is unacceptable. It is essential that at the earliest opportunity the University agrees appropriate performance levels, and that we put in place the mechanisms to support staff to reach those standards while dealing effectively and swiftly with those who do not. Secondly, while the NSS may be flawed, we have consistently struggled to attain our targets and in recent years our scores have declined. Some of that decline can be attributed to successive student boycotts and staff industrial action as well as lockdown, but there remain underlying issues that frustrate our ambition and disappoint a large minority of our students.

The challenges we face are extremely difficult to address. The financial sustainability of the institution, already an issue pre-COVID, has been fully exposed by the current crisis. Addressing it goes to the heart of the size and shape debate and the Faculty is well aware that the easiest solutions, at least under the current financial parameters, could profoundly affect Humanities. We need to have a frank discussion about what that might mean and how it might be achieved. Our research activity has been damaged seriously and we will not be fully able to assess that impact for some time. It is essential that at the earliest opportunity we get back on track before competitors pull ahead. Clearly our teaching will never be the same again, but we do not yet know what the best blend of traditional and digital pedagogy looks like, or what implications this might have for teachers and for those they teach. Humanities’ professional services staff are operating with such depleted numbers and funds that the business of running the Faculty is seriously at risk. Finally, staff morale has held thus far, but the strain on people has been immense, and maintaining that morale is going to become increasingly difficult the longer the crisis lasts.

I hope you can agree that this is a fair warts and all assessment of our performance, highlighting our extraordinary achievements, but tinged with some recognition that there are, COVID aside, some underlying weaknesses that we need collectively to address.

Good news

Despite having to deal with a lot of change as a University and individually, we continue to break new ground in our teaching, research and professional work, and the past few weeks have been no exception with another string of exceptional achievements.

My congratulations to all our colleagues, academic or professional services, who were nominated in or won one of our Humanities Outstanding Staff Awards. I was pleased to see that our students nominated over 250 members of staff, demonstrating how much they value your expertise and support. Once again our students dominated the list of those gaining the prestigious Stellify Award with 155 of our graduating students receiving it. It is your support and guidance that has helped us reach this outcome. Thank you to everyone involved.

I was delighted to read that Dr Sarah Marie Hall, Reader in Human Geography, has been awarded £1.5 million by the UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship programme to lead an austerity and altered life courses project, a wonderful achievement. Congratulations also to Dr Alexia Yates and Dr Stefan Hanss from the Department of History in the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures, who have been awarded a Philip Leverhulme Prize 2020 each worth £100,000 in recognition of their outstanding research achievements.

Last week I heard that Professor Helen Beebee from the School of Social Sciences has been appointed the Editorial Chair of a new open access initiative, a great honour which will have a significant impact over the coming years. I also attended one of the Alliance Manchester Business School Original Thinking webinars, where Professor Karen Niven gave an overview of her research programme on interpersonal emotion regulation. This series showcases some of the world-leading research from colleagues at AMBS and I’d encourage anyone to attend.

We often say that we want to make a difference, perhaps through the teaching or research we do, or the support we give through our role, and seeing the evidence of impact can be inspirational. Professor Cathleen Miller spent six months as a visiting Fulbright Scholar in SALC, interviewing and documenting the stories of asylum seekers in Manchester. One of those individuals is Jenny Dakosta Van Mputu, a political activist who escaped from the Congo and sought asylum in the UK. An article Cathleen published in Al Jazeera last year about his experiences, along with a documentary she worked on, was presented at Jenny’s court case where he was finally granted asylum, thereby avoiding certain death if deported. Cathleen’s research and Jenny’s 15-year “relentless struggle”, both for asylum and to make a difference in his home country, are a great example of how we can really make a life-changing difference.

And finally…

Over the course of the last year I have seen rather more of Daniel the Tiger than I might have elected to see was I not sharing this TV experience with my granddaughter who will be four this weekend. For those of you who are uninitiated, Daniel is a creation of Mister Rogers, the ‘It’s a beautiful day in the neighbourhood’ guy, and it is packed full of childlike, as opposed to childish, wisdom. Among those pieces of good advice is ‘Everyone’s job is important, we all help in different ways’, which is similar to what St Paul writes in First Corinthians Chapter 12 about the mutual dependence of the parts of the body. I certainly could not do my job without the help of many great people doing very different jobs well. We all need to remember that inter-dependency, to say thank you, to show our appreciation of one another, and to offer encouragement to those colleagues who help us to get through the day.

Best wishes,

Keith

Dear colleagues,

So we have passed 100 days of lockdown and absence from the University campus. To me, it seems longer, although that may be because I have been in a form of lockdown for much longer due to illness at the beginning of the year. This interest in 100 days started with Napoleon and the 100 days between his re-entering Paris on 20 March 1815 after escaping from the Island of Elba and his defeat at the hands of the Duke of Wellington at the Battle of Waterloo on 8 July 1815. However, the concept only really entered public discourse when it was used to describe the energetic start to the Presidency of Franklin D Roosevelt in 1933, and since then it has become a totemic measurement of the initial impact of politicians, chief executives and even football managers. There is an entire literature devoted to describing and analysing the concept as well as offering expert advice on what you should do to succeed in your first 100 days. If you follow all that advice you will probably need to lie down and take a rest on the 101^st day, assuming that, unlike Napoleon, you have not met your Waterloo.

Which is where we are now, in need of a rest. Lockdown is easing, more quickly in England where most of us live, less so in Scotland where I am. Last week I had my first draught pint in 2020 sitting at a bench in a cold wind looking out over the sunny sand and sea at St Andrews. That was a good moment! But I am tired and fed up. Tired of endless Zoom meetings, telephone calls, emails, tired of trying to work out acceptable solutions to seemingly intractable problems, tired of criticism from often uninformed people who do not have to juggle competing interests in a four-dimensional puzzle that threatens to overwhelm us, tired of going round in circles. I am fed up not being able to meet friends, travel to different places, go to the cinema, eat out or watch real (Scottish!) football. I need a proper holiday! And I have nothing like the domestic problems many of you are managing, be they young children, constraints on space, loneliness, caring responsibilities, health challenges, worries about money and future career prospects. I know that many, perhaps even most of you, are even more tired and fed up than I am.

Which brings us back to our 100 days. We have done a great deal in that time. We have done things we never expected to do, things we may have thought were impossible or undesirable, but we have done them. We have kept the show on the road in the most unbelievably difficult circumstances. Somehow those of you who are academics managed to deliver the teaching, complete the assessment and graduate our students. Meanwhile, grants continue to be submitted and awarded, including the two largest grants the Faculty has ever received, books and articles continue to be published and many of you are still finding the time and the energy to research and to write. Professional service colleagues have collectively ensured that our activities across teaching and learning, research and social responsibility are supported effectively. Communications and marketing colleagues have kept staff and students informed and our prospective students interested in joining us. The machinery of Finance, IT and HR has carried on ensuring we are paid and supported in a myriad of ways, while skilled administrators at every level in the organisation have kept us moving forward, connecting the moving parts, plugging the gaps, balancing the needs. And do not forget the managers, those people leading teams and Departments and having to find inner resources to support promotions, carry out PDRs, balance workloads and respond to the unrelenting demand from the organisation for data, evidence of compliance and the implementation of new practices and policies. All that from our homes in 100 days!

It is no wonder we are tired, drained, strung out, tetchy and in need of a break. Which is why it is so important that every one of us takes time out, whatever stage of lockdown we find ourselves in, to walk away from it all. There are things we cannot distance ourselves from, all those domestic circumstances that shape our private lives. But we can put our work down, turn off the Zoom, the phone and the email, lay aside the task list, relax about the deadlines, and shut off that inner voice telling you to stay on the treadmill. I cannot instruct you to take a holiday, but I am pleading with you to do so. You will benefit, your families will benefit and, yes, your colleagues and employer will gain from the renewal and re-energising that takes place when we rest. No-one wants to live with or work beside a grumpy (or grumpier than usual?) Dean, do they?

I am not going to lie to you and pretend that all will be well when you come back. COVID-19 will not have been cured, the UK economy will be heading for recession with ever-increasing numbers of job losses, we will still be working remotely, there will still be huge concerns about student recruitment, and the University’s finances will still look precarious. We have tried to be open and honest with you about the situation, and if you have not done so already please take time to read Nancy’s message last week which gave a clear message on the road ahead. For the Faculty of Humanities, which faces greater losses than any other part of the University if international student recruitment falls significantly, there is likely to be some very challenging problems to resolve. A number of you have taken the decision to leave us by taking advantage of the University’s Voluntary Severance (VS) scheme, others are still thinking of leaving, and I encourage you all to consider whether this might be something that would work for you. As has been said repeatedly, there is unlikely to be another open VS scheme.

We need to be refreshed and ready to focus our efforts on ensuring that we are mitigating against this serious loss of income. There is a huge amount of working going on, in which many of you are critical, to try and ensure as many returning and new students join the University this autumn and that they have a great experience when they do. There is some evidence from our application and acceptance data that we might be able to close the gap between our targets and our predictions. Even if that progress remains subject to factors entirely outside our control, it is worth the effort trying our very best.

We have had a very difficult 100 days in which we have done great things. We will continue to do great things next session. Andy Westwood will be leading a £3.9 project entitled Capabilities in Academic-Policy Engagement (CAPE), exploring ways of improving academic-policy engagement. Sherilyn MacGregor is writing a policy paper for the Commission on a Gender Equal Economy on what a feminist version of a Green New Deal for the UK would look like. HCRI will be delivering its new MSc in International Disaster Management and Humanitarian Response for the first time. Sam Hickey will be looking forward to his term as President of the Development Studies Association. David Langslow will publish an important edition of an ancient Latin medical text. And you will be delivering great online learning, great professional support, and seeking answers to the most important research questions we face as a society. A lot to look forward to in the next 100 days.

Best wishes,

Keith

Dear colleagues,

So we have passed 100 days of lockdown and absence from the University campus. To me, it seems longer, although that may be because I have been in a form of lockdown for much longer due to illness at the beginning of the year. This interest in 100 days started with Napoleon and the 100 days between his re-entering Paris on 20 March 1815 after escaping from the Island of Elba and his defeat at the hands of the Duke of Wellington at the Battle of Waterloo on 8 July 1815. However, the concept only really entered public discourse when it was used to describe the energetic start to the Presidency of Franklin D Roosevelt in 1933, and since then it has become a totemic measurement of the initial impact of politicians, chief executives and even football managers. There is an entire literature devoted to describing and analysing the concept as well as offering expert advice on what you should do to succeed in your first 100 days. If you follow all that advice you will probably need to lie down and take a rest on the 101^st day, assuming that, unlike Napoleon, you have not met your Waterloo.

Which is where we are now, in need of a rest. Lockdown is easing, more quickly in England where most of us live, less so in Scotland where I am. Last week I had my first draught pint in 2020 sitting at a bench in a cold wind looking out over the sunny sand and sea at St Andrews. That was a good moment! But I am tired and fed up. Tired of endless Zoom meetings, telephone calls, emails, tired of trying to work out acceptable solutions to seemingly intractable problems, tired of criticism from often uninformed people who do not have to juggle competing interests in a four-dimensional puzzle that threatens to overwhelm us, tired of going round in circles. I am fed up not being able to meet friends, travel to different places, go to the cinema, eat out or watch real (Scottish!) football. I need a proper holiday! And I have nothing like the domestic problems many of you are managing, be they young children, constraints on space, loneliness, caring responsibilities, health challenges, worries about money and future career prospects. I know that many, perhaps even most of you, are even more tired and fed up than I am.

Which brings us back to our 100 days. We have done a great deal in that time. We have done things we never expected to do, things we may have thought were impossible or undesirable, but we have done them. We have kept the show on the road in the most unbelievably difficult circumstances. Somehow those of you who are academics managed to deliver the teaching, complete the assessment and graduate our students. Meanwhile, grants continue to be submitted and awarded, including the two largest grants the Faculty has ever received, books and articles continue to be published and many of you are still finding the time and the energy to research and to write. Professional service colleagues have collectively ensured that our activities across teaching and learning, research and social responsibility are supported effectively. Communications and marketing colleagues have kept staff and students informed and our prospective students interested in joining us. The machinery of Finance, IT and HR has carried on ensuring we are paid and supported in a myriad of ways, while skilled administrators at every level in the organisation have kept us moving forward, connecting the moving parts, plugging the gaps, balancing the needs. And do not forget the managers, those people leading teams and Departments and having to find inner resources to support promotions, carry out PDRs, balance workloads and respond to the unrelenting demand from the organisation for data, evidence of compliance and the implementation of new practices and policies. All that from our homes in 100 days!

It is no wonder we are tired, drained, strung out, tetchy and in need of a break. Which is why it is so important that every one of us takes time out, whatever stage of lockdown we find ourselves in, to walk away from it all. There are things we cannot distance ourselves from, all those domestic circumstances that shape our private lives. But we can put our work down, turn off the Zoom, the phone and the email, lay aside the task list, relax about the deadlines, and shut off that inner voice telling you to stay on the treadmill. I cannot instruct you to take a holiday, but I am pleading with you to do so. You will benefit, your families will benefit and, yes, your colleagues and employer will gain from the renewal and re-energising that takes place when we rest. No-one wants to live with or work beside a grumpy (or grumpier than usual?) Dean, do they?

I am not going to lie to you and pretend that all will be well when you come back. COVID-19 will not have been cured, the UK economy will be heading for recession with ever-increasing numbers of job losses, we will still be working remotely, there will still be huge concerns about student recruitment, and the University’s finances will still look precarious. We have tried to be open and honest with you about the situation, and if you have not done so already please take time to read Nancy’s message last week which gave a clear message on the road ahead. For the Faculty of Humanities, which faces greater losses than any other part of the University if international student recruitment falls significantly, there is likely to be some very challenging problems to resolve. A number of you have taken the decision to leave us by taking advantage of the University’s Voluntary Severance (VS) scheme, others are still thinking of leaving, and I encourage you all to consider whether this might be something that would work for you. As has been said repeatedly, there is unlikely to be another open VS scheme.

We need to be refreshed and ready to focus our efforts on ensuring that we are mitigating against this serious loss of income. There is a huge amount of working going on, in which many of you are critical, to try and ensure as many returning and new students join the University this autumn and that they have a great experience when they do. There is some evidence from our application and acceptance data that we might be able to close the gap between our targets and our predictions. Even if that progress remains subject to factors entirely outside our control, it is worth the effort trying our very best.

We have had a very difficult 100 days in which we have done great things. We will continue to do great things next session. Andy Westwood will be leading a £3.9 project entitled Capabilities in Academic-Policy Engagement (CAPE), exploring ways of improving academic-policy engagement. Sherilyn MacGregor is writing a policy paper for the Commission on a Gender Equal Economy on what a feminist version of a Green New Deal for the UK would look like. HCRI will be delivering its new MSc in International Disaster Management and Humanitarian Response for the first time. Sam Hickey will be looking forward to his term as President of the Development Studies Association. David Langslow will publish an important edition of an ancient Latin medical text. And you will be delivering great online learning, great professional support, and seeking answers to the most important research questions we face as a society. A lot to look forward to in the next 100 days.

Best wishes,

Keith

Introduction

Since my last message at the start of May, we have seen some lockdown restrictions easing, we have begun to have conversations about a phased return to campus, and have announced some voluntary measures to help ease the financial pressures on the Faculty and University. While some of these changes may have made our lives a little bit easier, it is fair to say that each of these (and other) changes brings with it uncertainty, and therefore the potential to add to the everyday stresses and strains we experience as we face our own particular challenges of caring or home schooling responsibilities for example, or feelings of isolation.

Please can I encourage everyone to continue to talk to each other, to share your concerns with your line manager and to be there for those who are struggling. These are not feelings that you alone are facing, nor do you have to face them alone. I do not make these observations from a lofty position but as an ordinary member of the public who has close family with COVID, who are looking after a child at home, are elderly and lonely, are worried about job security and/or are concerned about return to work. It is a familiar family story across the UK and insofar as we can be supportive of one another in the virtual workplace we have an obligation to do so.

Return to campus

While we are continuing to work from home for the time being, as you would expect we are endeavouring to ensure that when the time is right we can return to campus in a safe and coordinated manner. Plans are underway for a phased return which will begin with selected researchers who need to work in laboratories, these colleagues being almost entirely in other Faculties. Of course, before we return it is vital that we can protect all our staff, especially those who may be vulnerable, and you can find out more about the efforts taking place to support a smooth transition back to campus life in the recent message from the Chair of the Campus Reopening and Corporate Support Group, Nalin Thakker.

Each of the Faculties is establishing priorities for the re-occupation of space which will result in plans being developed for each School. Immediate priorities for Humanities include the setting up of days for each School’s staff and PGR students to pick up any essential items from offices and the opening of Geography laboratories. We are trying to sort out Library and data access. Once the alert level reduces further, our priorities will include: securing teaching spaces for Global MBA students, Executive Education programmes and initial teacher training; computer cluster spaces for PGR students struggling to work from home, and reopening our Visual Anthropology and Data Visualisation laboratories. We will update you on our plans for Humanities as soon as we can.

Humanities Taskforce

In addition to the return to campus work I have already mentioned, there are various groups looking at key priority areas for the Faculty. One of these groups is the Taskforce, which is made up of senior colleagues from across the Faculty. The group focuses specifically on the effective development and delivery of an enhanced blended teaching offer for 2020/21.

To deliver this work five subgroups, each led by Taskforce members, will focus on individual aspects of this agenda, including: providing leadership and implementation for the agreed blended model; how best to communicate this offer with our internal and external audiences; how best to deliver a holistic remote student experience; identify the resources and skills required to deliver this blended offer effectively; and how we harness the work we are doing at present to build a future digital strategy. Over the coming weeks and months, these subgroups will draw on the wide range of expertise and roles from across the Faculty and central teams. If you want to learn more about the work of the Taskforce, or its various subgroups, please email rosie.haynes@manchester.ac.uk for more information.

Voluntary measures

As I mentioned earlier, you will all have recently seen information from Karen Heaton, Director of Human Resources, detailing a set of voluntary measures which have been launched to all staff, following consultation with the trade unions. The aim of the voluntary measures is to reduce our pay costs and help mitigate the scale of further action that will likely be needed once we know the full impact of student numbers on our financial position in October 2020. Colleagues in the Faculty Leadership Team are working with their own teams to give everyone the opportunity to raise questions. I encourage anyone who is interested in any of the options to speak either with their line manager or HR partner. Please be assured that you are under no obligation to take up any of these measures and you should not feel pressured to put yourself forward. If you would like to find out more about the options, please see the Voluntary Measures for Staff page on StaffNet.

Beyond the horizon

Franklin D Roosevelt said that ‘We have always held to the hope, the belief, the conviction that there is a better life, a better world beyond the horizon’ which is worth reflecting on at times like these. It would be very easy for us to lose sight of the longer term and at the Faculty Core Brief for academic and professional managers last week I tried to draw attention to three key points we must not forget. Firstly, we spent a long time as a University thinking and talking about our Vision, our Strategic Plan and our Values. We must hold to those as we chart a way through very difficult times, and while we will not always agree on how we attain our Vision, roll out our Plan, or apply our Values they at least give us a common language for a conversation. Secondly, The University of Manchester has been, is, and will continue to be a great place to work as is well-known from successive staff surveys and the low staff turnover. Whatever we have to do to get through this pandemic and the anticipated financial crisis this University will remain an employer of choice. Thirdly, we have said repeatedly since March that Teaching and Student Recruitment is the number one priority and this remains true. But it is emphatically not the case that we are abandoning Research, lowering our research ambitions, or reducing in the medium to longer term the necessary level of support to attain those research ambitions. For a short period we must focus elsewhere, but that time will pass. 

Finally

It is perhaps timely to remind ourselves just how good we are. Since March, colleagues in the School of Social Sciences have secured excellent research grant capture of around £2 million in new awards, and published four books. Books have also figured highly in the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures, with one published and another, A Piece of the Action: Race and Labor in Post-Civil Rights Hollywood by Eithne Quinn, being awarded the British Association for American Studies (BAAS) book of the year. Colleagues in the School of Environment, Education and Development have received grant awards of over £540,000 with more in the pipeline, and Alliance Manchester Business School has been awarded a grant to investigate how digital platforms are rapidly reconfiguring urban services and disrupting the way mobility systems are currently organised across cities.

In very difficult circumstances our Social Responsibility work is also making a difference. Despite schools closing, our annual School’s Poetry Competition is a great success this year thanks to the commitment of PhD/MA Students and the Creative Manchester team, and parents have been really pleased with their children having an activity to engage with at home. On the teaching front, just a few weeks ago over 30 Humanities colleagues became Fellows of the Higher Education Academy, an international recognition of their commitment to professionalism in teaching and learning in higher education.

These examples are just the tip of the iceberg. I am aware of so many I could highlight and I look forward to sharing them with you over the coming months. My congratulations and thanks to all the academic and professional services staff who contributed to these successes.

Best wishes,

Keith

Dear colleagues,

I hope you and your families are well and that in spite of these very difficult circumstances you were able to enjoy some form of relaxation over the Easter period. None of us knows how much longer we will have to work under the current arrangements, and I continue to be amazed at how effectively we have coped with delivering transformational change in such a short space of time. Thank you all for your continued commitment and hard work, thus ensuring we can provide the best support to our students and to each other.

COVID-19 financial implications for the University

I hope that you have seen Nancy’s message, outlining the potential severe financial implications of the pandemic for the University and the actions we are already taking or are considering for implementation in the near future. Our President and Vice-Chancellor gave a very clear and detailed update and I urge anyone who has not yet read Nancy’s message to take the time to do so now.

We are not alone in facing this financial challenge; all other universities are facing similar issues and some in the UK and elsewhere have already announced actions. With current analyses indicating that UK universities may lose between 50% and 80% of their international students, and up to 20% of all home/EU students, this could mean a loss for the University of over £270m in just one year. That is a staggering sum of money, similar to the entire income of the Faculty of Humanities. Along with student fees, income has been and will continue to be lost from residences and catering, and from the public bodies, companies and charities that fund much of our research, estates and other work.

Actions already taken, such as freezing any non-essential spend and new appointments, will help us in the short term, and we are in discussions with the Government to look at what actions it can take to make up the shortfall in research funding that has been an underlying issue within the HE system for many years. However, if we are to avoid the more drastic actions that might have to follow a very large reduction in student fee income in the autumn, then we must do everything we can to persuade potential students that The University of Manchester is open for business and has a very strong offering. We will have to wait and see what the impact may be for us following the Science Minister’s announcement that £100m of public funding will be brought forward to this academic year to help protect vital university research activities.

One mitigating action would have been to increase the number of offers made to Home students to offset the anticipated decline in Overseas and EU fees, but Government does not want universities to do this because of the likely impact on lower ranked institutions and, in its support package for universities and students announced today, (4 May 2020), has set a limit of a 5% increase above our current Home number. They will also have the discretion to allocate an additional 10,000 places, with 5,000 ring-fenced for nursing, midwifery or allied health courses. Since we will lose EU numbers that still leaves us with a stretching target that we must meet on the Home undergraduate front and we want to achieve it without a significant drop in grades. On postgraduate taught (PGT), where we are most exposed to a decline in numbers and fee income, it is essential that we have a clear and attractive offering in order to translate our still high level of applications into decisions to join us. If we fail to persuade enough applicants to become Manchester students in the autumn then there is no question that we will have to invoke more unpalatable actions including salary and job cuts. That is why so much focus in the coming months must be on enhancing the teaching offer and on a convincing conversion strategy. However, it is likely to be the autumn before we fully understand the financial impact on the University, and in the intervening time we will all have to live with a high level of uncertainty. I can assure you that my senior colleagues and I are committed to avoiding the worst case outcomes and to keeping you informed as the situation develops.

In next week’s Senior Manager message, Andy Westwood will look in more detail at the Government’s announcement and its implications for Manchester.

Student experience

At the Faculty Core Brief meeting on 22 April, Fiona Smyth, Vice-Dean for Teaching, Learning and Student Experience, highlighted the vital role that student recruitment will play in our medium term recovery from the financial challenges we face. We are all working tirelessly to ensure that The University of Manchester remains an attractive option for students who may currently be unsure about their options for the coming academic year. We want them to be confident in making us their first choice, hence the relentless emphasis on the priority we must give to teaching issues at this time.

We have adapted as best we can and achieved a remarkable amount in the past few weeks in very difficult and stressful conditions. To date, we have prioritised getting through the initial challenges in terms of online teaching, assessment and progression. Fiona’s team has moved quickly to provide as much immediate support as possible. At the same time, our Humanities Incident Team has worked to support Professional Services (PS) and academic staff to ensure they have the IT equipment they need, prioritising those in teaching roles. The whole effort has been co-ordinated on a University-wide basis and in a very challenging global environment which has meant supplies are not always readily available. I encourage you to speak to your Head of Department and Director of Teaching and Learning if you think there is something more you need.

Notwithstanding that heroic effort, we will have to do much more to ensure that we have an attractive offer in place so that whether our students are taught online or on campus, the education they receive meets their expectations and our own high pedagogic standards. I am leading a dedicated taskforce at Faculty level to put in place the additional support that will be needed if we are to continue with significant elements of online teaching during the new academic year. You will soon hear more about our plans for the structure of the academic year, how we intend to enhance the online provision, and what further steps we must take to prioritise teaching.

Recognition

A number of our colleagues in Humanities are directly supporting the University’s and the nation’s COVID-19 response. While I cannot highlight you all here, I would like to mention a few achievements. Professor Tony Redmond from the Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute (HCRI) has been appointed as the medical director of NHS Nightingale Hospital North West, which is able to treat up to 750 COVID-19 patients from across the north-west of England, should the need arise. Our Model Making Workshop technicians in the School of Environment, Education and Development are using their expertise to design and build urgently-needed PPE visors for NHS staff, and our Geography technicians are offering students a statistical programming course. I know that many of you are also volunteering your time and/or expertise to support our students, the NHS and your communities. Thank you.

Finally

At a virtual meeting last week of around 70 of our Faculty managers, I underlined the importance of maintaining morale which, predictably, is at risk of being eroded on a daily basis. Disease stalks the land, the economy is sliding into depression, we cannot meet face-to-face with our families and friends, there is no holiday to anticipate, there are worries over job security and over the changing nature of our work. There does not appear to be much to be joyful about. We will all be dealing with the situation differently because of our varying circumstances and personalities and some of us will be luckier or more resilient than others. Yet we all know from our experiences away from work how important it is to keep in touch with other people, be they family, friends or neighbours. Work is not life and colleagues are not family, but we do have some responsibility for one another’s morale and wellbeing so please continue to look out for one another, be a little more understanding of frayed nerves and aware of the stress points that trigger your own levels of irritation. If you have not heard from one of your team for a while send them a friendly message, if your line manager sounds tired on the phone cut them some slack, if you’re tempted to fire off an angry email pause and leave it for 24 hours, and try to remember to say thank-you. We all know this, but I write knowing I do not always practice it, although I am fortunate to have colleagues who tell me when that happens. We will get through this episode, we will learn from it, and we will go forward but none of us can do it on our own.

Best wishes

Keith

Dear colleagues,

We are living through very strange, stressful and worrying times, and each of us will already have a story to tell about how it has been for us. Each story will be unique and yet the experiences will be widespread. I have spoken to a small number of you in recent weeks and have heard from you about worries over parents who live on the other side of the globe, a funeral sadly restricted to a handful of people observing strict social distancing, the withdrawal of care support in a household with young children, and family members who have lost their jobs. We are sharing stories that tell of fearfulness for the health of our families, concerns about financial security, anxiety arising from loneliness and the removal of most human contact, stress over having to work differently and from home. If ever we all needed a holiday it is now, except that we cannot go anywhere, or do any of the things we might normally do on a holiday. This is very tough and our Government is telling us it is going to get even tougher.

Our personal and institutional resilience is being tested and what I am hearing, especially from Heads of Departments, is that so far we are coping very well. In the last few weeks people have pulled together, worked ferociously hard, engaged in speed learning, and we have done our very best for our students and for one another. That is something of which we can all be very proud. Not everything has gone as well as it might have done as we have struggled at times with the IT, grown frustrated over why decisions appear to take longer than we would like, puzzled at some clunky communications, and felt overwhelmed by the barrage of emails. But mostly we have made allowances for the extraordinary times and got on with it, achieving a remarkable transformation to remote teaching in a very short time indeed. Thank you to everyone, you have done a fantastic job and you really do deserve some time away from the job.

A lot of people have been asking me ‘what next?’ and the only answer is that we do not know, not least because no-one really knows. The American statesman, Dean Acheson, observed that ‘the future comes one day at a time’ which is true (unless you’re watching Westworld) and just as well, but we do need to be thinking beyond tomorrow. As you know, there is only one past (though many histories/memories) and a range of possible futures which, in the current context, each have varying degrees of challenge associated with them. We are spending an increasing amount of time thinking about how to mitigate what you could think of as mild, significant and catastrophic levels of disruption and about how we might emerge from the other end of whichever of these tunnels we enter best equipped to fulfil our long-term ambitions. At this time I really cannot say anything more about our collective thinking as we are very much at the mercy of medical science and political decision-making. So far, we have taken steps to reduce expenditure in-year to mitigate current financial losses and to anticipate future drops in income, and we will update you as and when we have any more certainty about what the days ahead may bring.

My advice for the present is straight-forward. Firstly, focus on our students and the delivery of their teaching - this is unequivocally our number one priority. Secondly, look out for one another within the organisational group where you are placed and please share responsibility for the morale of that group. Thirdly, start thinking about how you might prepare for delivering all or part of your teaching remotely next semester. Even if we are back in a business as usual mode this current experience will be the catalyst in moving towards greater blended learning within a digital campus environment. A number of academics who have research leave approved for next semester might also want to consider postponing it since conditions may still be sub-optimal in which to conduct that research.

Please take some time off in the next week or so as we all have to pace ourselves for what remain difficult and challenging times.

Best wishes
Keith

Dear Colleague,

The Lost Dean

Some of you may know the Lost Dene which is a pub on Deansgate where I have watched a few football matches over my years in Manchester to the accompaniment of a pint or two and some hearty (cheap and probably not high in nutritional value) food. I mention this because while recognising that Dean-spotting is unlikely to be a majority sport, I have not been seen on Campus since before Christmas. Unfortunately I became ill on 2 January with a chest infection that supercharged my underlying asthma condition. In spite of numerous medical interventions, I remain unwell and cannot be exposed to cold or damp weather, travel or risk mixing with people. So, I’ve been experiencing something akin to quarantine at my home in St Andrews. 

You may think that since no-one has noticed that the Dean is missing why do we need him? Good question. Well, firstly we have a great Faculty Leadership Team who know what they are doing, and my senior colleagues have stepped up and filled the gaps, especially Fiona Smyth, the Deputy Dean. Furthermore, I am still working, and I do not mean reading History books, though I have read a couple of short volumes about the Antonine Wall just for fun. It is remarkable how much can be done remotely with the help of an iPad and telephone conferencing. It has been possible to meet most of my diary commitments such as 1-1s and committee meetings, papers have been read and commented on, hundreds of emails have been written and have received responses. In fact, it sounds ideal and if it was not for the inconvenience of illness you might think working at home is preferable and it is environmentally friendly into the bargain. 

Except that it is not ideal. Even introverts like me who can happily spend hours on my own are social beings. Besides, many of our jobs require us to engage personally with others. Sitting in on a meeting by phone, listening and making the occasional comment works up to a point, but not being there makes a difference. I cannot ‘feel’ the mood of the room, I do not know if the individual who is verbally agreeing with me is betraying dissent with their facial expression and body composure. I miss the team-building banter before the start of a meeting, the intelligence picked up in a side conversation with another colleague as we walk to our next appointment, and the exchange about family or health at the end of a 1-1 that indicates growing trust. Then there are the dinners, receptions, informal occasions and chance encounters, all of which build bonds, allow you to explain yourself, break down barriers, let people see another side of you (the frustrated Rangers fan, the doting grandfather, the enthusiast for Modern Country Music etc). All of that adds up to not being able to do an important and enjoyable part of the job. Whatever the future of work looks like, however much Artificial Intelligence facilitates different forms of interaction, we are likely to continue to need human engagement. So, hopefully I’ll be back on Campus some time this month doing all of what I am supposed to be doing. 

Industrial action  

Sadly, the regrettable industrial action by UCU members continues. Activity on picket lines seems to be less than on previous occasions, nevertheless students are being impacted with a number of lectures and seminars being cancelled and concern around exam preparation and support for course work. I know that when the industrial action is over many of you on strike will do all you can to replace that loss, but that does not remove the impact on students now. I’ve received a number of emails and letters from students expressing their dismay, disappointment, frustration and anger at the loss of teaching. You have to wonder whether anyone gains from this? Colleagues on strike lose income, colleagues who are not on strike are impacted, the University and HE sector suffers reputational damage that may have a financial outcome, and students suffer. There are no winners here whatever the outcome. 

Student Experience Project 

You will have seen the recent announcements about proposals for new structures associated with the Student Experience Project (SEP). A formal consultation has now begun with the Campus Trade Unions on the proposed changes across SEP’s Cohort 1 themes, which consider in particular how the Professional Services teams should be organised across the areas of applications and admissions and student recruitment and marketing. I recognise that for those Professional Service colleagues directly affected, and also those who work with them, this process is stressful and that, regardless of the outcome, it will involve significant changes and challenges. I can assure you that what has been proposed by the University is essential and will be beneficial to staff and students. SEP will make student services more convenient to access by bringing more student services online; creating a consistent experience for all and giving students more flexibility, to access personalised services and continue their learning at times convenient to them. It will also enable our staff to spend more time on the things that matter to us and our students, by streamlining and simplifying many time-consuming processes. Every effort is being made to give our staff the very best support throughout this time. Read more about SEP Cohort 1.  

My previous eNews message 

Thank you to those of you who wrote in response to my last message on the so-called increase in precarious employment, most of which was positive. I had conversations with a number of colleagues on this issue and it is good to understand the different positions on this rather than just my own. Unfortunately UCU were less complimentary and we will just have to agree to differ! However, I am sure we can all agree on the need to continue to make progress and I will look for ways to do things better. I received feedback from one colleague who highlighted their own predicament, and I am pleased to say that we have resolved the situation and issued a standard (permanent) contract. So there is at least one very positive outcome. If anyone else has concerns about your situation please speak to your line manager or HR partner. Also feel free to feedback on my recent blog on this topic. 

Best wishes, 

Keith

Dear colleagues,

This week I would like to spend some time on one particular issue that appears to have gained traction within the sector over the last year or so. That is the issue of so-called precarious employment within Universities. I’ve been considering writing on this issue for a while, and I’m conscious that with the announcement of further industrial action this could be seen as provocative. That is not my intention, rather I hope to engage in the debate and clarify some of the issues. I have a specific view which is wholly based on my own experience and the evidence I see as Vice-President and Dean of the Faculty of Humanities.

Another opinion is represented by one of our own Professors, Steve Jones, who wrote about precarious employment in The Guardian last month. You can read his views here under the provocative title ‘UK academics must stand up to stop universities becoming sweatshops’. Really? I doubt if many of us have ever seen the inside of a sweatshop, far less come close to working in one. As a student I worked on the floor of a very hot steel rolling mill and sweat there meant exactly that. Steve assures me the headline was imposed by an editor keen to grab readers’ attention and he agrees that it is not very helpful so on that we have a consensus. In fact, Steve and I have had a number of very useful and productive discussions over the years, and I welcome his efforts to encourage debate. However, I happen to think that his substantive argument that universities have adopted a business model that requires a greater use of fixed term contracts is mistaken.

I imagine we can all agree that in the overwhelming majority of cases, it is very difficult to become established in an academic career. It is also true that fixed term contracts have always been an important entry route within the HE sector. Let me start with some personal background. I finished writing up my PhD at the University of Glasgow in the autumn of 1982 and had no job. To save me from taking employment selling door-to-door insurance, the Head of the History Department found enough cash to keep me on as a teaching assistant for six months. It was the first of many short term contracts which saved my academic career. I won a three year Fellowship at St Andrews, but the salary was extremely low and by the end of the first year we, my wife, our new-born child and myself, were so much in debt that we were literally living hand-to-mouth. At this point I nearly quit, but was saved when the funders agreed to a modest increase in my salary. By the time the Fellowship was coming to an end in 1986 I had two children, a crushing mortgage and, given the depressing state of HE in that decade, no career prospects. And then the British Academy rode in with the new BA Post-Doctoral scheme and I was awarded one in its first year of operation. Three years later I faced exactly the same situation and this time it was an Edinburgh Royal Society Fellowship that kept me in the game. Finally, in 1990 I was appointed to a Lectureship at Stirling University, the first new appointment in the History Department since 1972! At the age of thirty-three I had finally made it.

Now I am not saying, ‘There you are, it has always been tough, you have to pay your dues’. No, it was a grim experience, it left very deep scars, and it was intensely worrying and distressing. When I walk into a room you possibly see an old, well-paid, institutionally powerful Vice-President and Dean, but I know that I got there by the skin of my teeth. To this day I cannot say unequivocally that it was worth it. My point is that I get it, starting out on an academic career can be very hard, especially if it involves periods of temporary employment. In some respects I was fortunate but would not wish on anyone what I went through during those eight long years.

Fixed term contracts have long been part of the academic career, but the situation for staff today is so very much better. This is one of the reasons I find the rhetoric around precarious employment difficult to reconcile with what I have seen and support across this Faculty. Terms and conditions for all of us have greatly improved, due to progressive employment legislation and employers realising that you get better results from treating good people well. I regularly sign off requests to extend contracts or convert temporary posts to standard contracts when permanent roles open up. This is often because activity has stabilised, or because staff are doing such a great job that we want to ensure we keep them.

Yet it is unavoidable that we will have some staff on short-term contracts. Currently there are a larger than normal number of Professional Services (PS) staff in this situation because of all the uncertainties around role changes associated with the Student Experience Project. That has taken longer than originally planned, hence people have been on these contracts longer than anticipated, but we hope to resolve this in the next few months. I regret that is where we are, but it has been necessary.

As for Academic Staff, we have 139 staff with temporary contracts (as of Jan 2020). That is 11% of the total academic workforce. This compares to 16.1% in 2014/15. Of these 139 staff there are underlying reason for their temporary contracts.

We have 77 temporary staff employed primarily to address teaching needs. This happens for a number of reasons. It may be that someone has resigned at short notice and the Department needs time to reflect on what it wants to do in terms of a replacement, a member of staff may be off work for a prolonged illness, it may be that we failed to recruit a suitable candidate but still have to plug the teaching gap, or we may have over-recruited in an area and have to get people in quickly. This last example occurred in SEED in the autumn when we recruited five temporary staff, but have since decided to consolidate the higher numbers and are placing those staff on standard contracts. Another example would be the nine posts in AMBS associated with a fixed term NHS teaching contract and five posts associated with a similar fixed term Teach First contract in SEED. Very occasionally, we deliberately make temporary appointments where there is uncertainty around the likely success of a new degree, but again if the initiative is successful the posts are switched to standard contracts. There are also numbers of individuals who are employed for specific pieces of work where a School faces bulges in work flow, for example marking a set number of dissertations for an agreed price. This is the group of people for whom such an arrangement fits with their own lifestyle or career stage etc.

Another 29 are covering gaps created by individuals who have won fellowships that releases them from normal duties for a period of time, or where a research grant requires very significant portions of their time. A smaller number, 16 in all, are overseas, fractional appointments designed to raise the standards of a local research culture which is a valuable part of our research strategy.

Another 17 staff are covering maternity leave which is an obligation we are happy to meet.

We cannot sensibly build into the workforce planning a number of staff who will provide the anticipated cover across the Faculty – a flying squad of subs, teaching Economics one year and French the next year, is simply not practical.

Finally, as you all know, we employ Teaching Assistants, the vast majority of whom are PGR students. This is done within fair and agreed terms and conditions and is beneficial to the students who earn additional income and gain valuable work experience.

Please let us keep some perspective on our working environment. We work in an incredibly supportive institution and, notwithstanding all the pressures we face, academics still have great freedom to choose how to spend our time. We have a dispute about pensions and there is the usual round of pay talks, but The University of Manchester is not an exploitative employer that engineers precarious employment to suit its business model. We have an outstanding record in converting people to standard contracts where possible, and we treat those on temporary contracts with dignity and respect.

Best wishes,

Keith 

Dear colleague,

“He that has ears to hear, let him hear” is a quotation attributed to Jesus of Nazareth which addresses one of the central issues in communication: listening. Those of you who are reading this message, and you might be surprised at how many colleagues do not bother, have elected to ‘listen’ to what I have to say. I hope I do not disappoint you and that the words that follow are informative and helpful. It is, I recognise, a one-way communication, but it is only one of many means by which we try to talk to one another and we are constantly looking for better ways to do it.

Annual Performance Reviews (APR)

Every autumn the President and Vice-Chancellor, Nancy Rothwell, and the Senior Leadership Team conduct Annual Reviews of all three Faculties and the Professional Services. This is a major exercise that generates a lot of important data and culminates in a three hour discussion in a formal setting where the University and the Faculty senior leadership teams talk and listen to one another. I sit alongside the President’s Senior Leadership Team for each of these and lead on aspects of the questioning of my colleagues and their teams. However, when it comes to the turn of Humanities to be accountable, I am on the other side of the table with the Faculty Leadership Team facing questions about our performance and plans.

You can read our Faculty’s introductory commentary here. As you will see, the two areas the Faculty asked to be placed on the agenda were post-REF research strategy, which is something we have begun to think about, and how to identify and reward excellent teaching which has long been a difficult problem to resolve. These are areas on which we wanted the University to listen to what we had to say. Thankfully, the APR was a positive experience, and the Faculty was congratulated on its strong performance. In one exchange, Graham Lord, Vice-President and Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Biology and Health asked, with tongue in cheek (I think!), if Humanities could contribute more money to the University. I placed a pound coin on the table between us!  

School visits 

Last week, I made my annual visits to all four Schools which is another set piece communication exercise, this time between the Faculty Leadership Team and the Schools. Attendance was patchy, no doubt because many people were teaching, or had other responsibilities that could not be avoided. But it is very likely that some of the people who did not attend are not interested in hearing; they have closed their ears. Unsurprisingly, discussion is difficult in such settings, but we did have a number of very useful questions which members of FLT tried to address. We will continue to review the format to see if there are improvements we might make to the overall experience. 

In addition to hearing from me, other members of the Faculty Leadership Team delivered short presentations. In every case the message regarding performance was overwhelmingly positive, drawing attention to our REF preparedness, the second highest research grant awards in the Faculty’s history, strong external recognition of our high-performing colleagues by the British Academy and the Academy of Social Sciences, an exceptional student recruitment round, investment in student advising, an excellent financial performance, the completion of the AMBS building project, the successful merger of the School of Law and the School of Social Science, great Social Responsibility projects, new initiatives in supporting and developing staff, and impressive rankings, including the Department of Music’s 1^st place in the Times Good University Guide. We have had a very good year and are well-positioned to look forward. 

Of course, not everything is going according to plan. There are some areas where research performance could be better, especially grant income measured against our peer group, PhD completion is still lagging behind University targets, National Student Survey (NSS) has improved but remains stuck in the mid-80s, international student recruitment is over-dependent on one country, many staff are suspicious of change and of senior management and feel overworked and stressed, some parts of the Faculty are running out of physical space, and financial targets are very stretching. These are areas on which we all have to keep working if we are to improve our overall performance. 

Funding issues 

The issue of financial contribution arises because of the unsatisfactory nature of funding for UK HE which is in part due to the failure of the sector to convince Government of its needs. Here is a case where there has been plenty of talking, and yet somehow the message has not been heard. Our problem includes on the income side underfunded research, especially STEM, and home fees that have been frozen since 2010. On the expenditure side of the ledger, we have rising staff costs (cost of living pay increases, increments, promotions and pension increases) and non-staff costs such as utilities. 

Consequently, we have to be more and more efficient, hence the importance of projects such as the Student Experience Programme. Furthermore, we have to contemplate increasing the number of international students as this is the only part of our income that generates surplus. That combination of financial efficiency and growth is necessary even to stand still, and is essential if we are to realise our ambitions be they at Departmental, School, Faculty or University level. Since we had an unplanned over-recruitment this year, we will convert a proportion of that number, some 500 extra international students, into future targets. This will be done alongside investing in the support required of those additional numbers. 

However, looking further ahead, we will need to have a conversation over the next few months about how far we can reasonably push any future increase, and about what support we need to put in place to ensure that neither the student nor the staff experience is degraded. We will provide an opportunity for wider staff engagement on this issue next year so please give this issue some thought, discuss it in your Departments and Divisions and tell us what you think. 

Industrial action 

I will not say much about the industrial action that is about to commence, although the phrase dialogue of the deaf appears to have some resonance with regard to where we find ourselves. It is deeply regrettable that we are in this situation, especially given the higher education sector’s declining reputation in the eyes of politicians, the media and the UK population in general. If you want to know the University’s position on the dispute you can read about it here. Obviously, I and all other Faculty managers have a responsibility to ensure that the impact of any disruption, especially on students, is minimised. However, all of us, whatever our position, have a shared responsibility to try to avoid escalating tensions and divisions within our community. 

Department visits 

As many of you will know, I regularly visit Departments - not to say anything unless prompted, but to hear about what is going on. The agenda for these occasions is left entirely in the hands of the Department, and it is interesting to see the very different styles that are adopted. In the last few weeks I have visited Drama & Film, Music and Art History and Visual Studies. Unsurprisingly, these Departments are better-placed than some others to excel at the ‘show and tell’ end of the spectrum. I have enjoyed sitting in on a drama student class, observing a discussion between drama students and criminal offenders, listening to a jazz ensemble and a concert practice, watching an experiment on how music affects athletic performance, hearing about the archiving of the written and visual artefacts spontaneously created by the public following the Manchester Arena bombing, and being impressed by extraordinary students explaining their imaginative projects in the Whitworth Art Gallery. In addition, I visited the Global Development Institute and heard about their amazing work throughout the world, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. In advance of my visit to Economics I had teased Chris Wallace, the Head of Department, about matching the colourful performances of our SALC colleagues, but there too I learned about great impact arising from research, discussed ambitious developments in teaching, and met with very bright and engaged students. These visits are among the highlights of my job offering a means of meeting more of you and hearing about your work. They are also a welcome escape from routine business meetings.  

Active listening 

Plutarch, the first-century Roman writer and philosopher, wrote, “Know how to listen and you will profit, even from those who talk badly” which can be good advice, though not always. In the context of thinking about communication and leadership, senior Faculty leaders participated in a workshop recently on active listening, a phrase I had not previously encountered. Apparently there are 20 different skills involved in listening and most of us fail to use the whole range. I imagine I am not unique in having been told by close family members that I do not always listen on a variety of topics ranging from what I was supposed to buy at the supermarket, where to find the novel I was reading last week, and unwelcome advice about eating my greens. I know I can also be intolerant, not wishing to hear alternative views on a range of sporting, political, religious and ethical matters where I have arrived at a settled (and correct!) point of view. We all do it. So, as we face divided opinions nationally in the upcoming General Election as well as our own industrial dispute, we might all want to place a little more effort on listening instead of talking. Not easy, but it might be worth it.

Best wishes,
Keith

Dear colleagues,

New session

Here we go again at the commencement of another academic session which happens to be my tenth as Vice-President and Dean of the Faculty of Humanities. I will not reflect on how I think it has gone since it is really for you and others to come to a judgement, but it has certainly been an interesting and testing time with a fair share of ups and downs. 

It so happens that this summer has been the quietest I have experienced since arriving here in the autumn of 2010. I recognise that may not have been your experience and, no doubt, there are some challenges around the corner waiting to knock us off course. Whatever occurs, I want to underline what an enormous privilege it is to have a part in helping to lead this remarkable University and in particular, in leading such a fantastic Faculty of Humanities. We have done great things together and I am confident we will continue to excel in the session that lies ahead. 

Off to a good start

How wet was your summer? I did wonder if the most appropriate summer hit should have been a reissue of  ‘Here comes the rain again’ by the Eurythmics or ‘Why does it always rain on me?’ by Travis (unsurprising both Scottish!), but at least there was some great news for the Faculty. We ended the last session with a very strong financial contribution, having overcome a difficult start due to a shortfall in student fee income. Prudent and creative management allowed us to make all our spending commitments and still meet the contribution to the University for shared costs. Thank you to everyone involved in keeping us on track, especially to our hard-working finance team. Nicola Smith, Head of Faculty Finance, will provide a more complete update in a future eNews but the headline message is that the Faculty remains financially robust. There remain significant challenges for the University ahead, pension costs, Brexit uncertainty, the Augar Review of student fees and the rate at which costs are rising ahead of income, but we at least start the new session in a good place. I expect us to be in a position to make all our budgetary commitments, including further investment in the student experience and in furthering our research agenda. 

Student recruitment is looking very good indeed across the range of undergraduate (UG) and postgraduate taught (PGT), home and overseas. In some areas we have exceeded targets and Schools are making arrangements to cope with that additional load. What is most encouraging about this success is that we have hit our volume targets without making any compromises on quality. Unlike many universities, including some that we would consider to be competitors, we did not make unconditional offers and we did not drop grades, placing us firmly within a small number of selecting institutions. This is precisely in line with the strategy we adopted in 2016 and which some Schools and Departments found difficult to implement. Thank you to all our recruitment, marketing and admission teams and to all of our colleagues involved in persuading prospective students to come here to study. 

Finally, I want to personally acknowledge the incredible achievement of four of our academics who have been awarded the distinction of Fellow of the British Academy (FBA). There is no higher academic accolade in the United Kingdom for scholars in the humanities and social sciences and Professors Peter Gatrell, Rebecca Herissone and David Langslow from the School of Arts Languages and Cultures, and Professor Jennifer Mason from the School of Social Sciences join a very select group of people in becoming FBAs. Hopefully there are more of you who will follow in their footsteps in the years ahead. 

Priorities

As for the immediate future, there are three priorities on which we must focus. The former gaff-prone Vice-President of the USA, Dan Quayle, famously said that ‘For NASA, space is still a high priority’, and at the risk of sounding equally stupid, you will not be surprised to know that our priorities lie firmly in the areas of research and education. Firstly, we are now in the countdown towards the Research Excellence Framework submission in November 2020 with important work still needing to be done on outputs, impact cases and environmental statements. Secondly, we must make significant progress on ensuring that the experience of our students is such that it is externally recognised with a Gold Teaching Excellence Framework award. Thirdly, a major step towards enhancing that high-level of student benefit and satisfaction will be delivered by the Student Experience Project (SEP), a major University-wide transformation with implications for the ways in which many of us work, and about which you will hear much more over the course of the session. Of course, there are many other areas where we will work to improve our performance, but these are absolutely essential. 

Strategy and planning

As we move towards agreement on a new University strategy, we will be considering what the implications are in terms of planning for Humanities. I hope that you will continue to be able to participate in some of that thinking and debate. In addition, we intend to pick up many of the good ideas that fell out of the Our Future exercise and we will consider whether or not they might be implemented locally. As many of you know, there is much truth in Peter Drucker’s observation that ‘Culture eats strategy for breakfast’ and so whatever it is we plan to do, we must also think carefully about how we do it. 

New colleagues

While new staff join us throughout the year, there is always a spike in colleagues arriving at this time which makes it an opportune moment to welcome you all whenever you started. There are a number of new faces among the senior officers of the Faculty who you may meet over the coming months including Hannah Rundle, Director of Faculty Operations, and Geraint Howells who has returned from Hong Kong after a five year absence to take up the role of Associate Dean Internationalisation. 

And finally

At this time of year I usually make an observation on my summer reading which included The Gruffalo, a book that my two-and-a-half year-old granddaughter insisted I read to her again and again and again. The point of the story is that the fearsome Gruffalo, along with all the other predators in the woods, is outwitted by a very smart, little mouse. This led me to wonder about all the dire forecasting we have been doing about the future of universities - surely we are clever enough to deal with the monsters, real and imagined? The University of Manchester is rising in world league tables and the Faculty of Humanities is in good shape - dare we imagine that we will get through the woods unscathed and that it is going to be OK? 

I am looking forward to my tenth year as your Dean and whatever lies ahead of us this session, I hope you achieve your ambition. 

Best wishes,
Keith

Dear colleagues,

I bought my first Eagles album in 1976 (the massively successful Their Greatest Hits) and have been listening to their music ever since. However, I never had the opportunity or the time to see them live until last month when I had the good fortune to be at their farewell concert tour at the Manchester Arena. The surviving early members of the band are even older than me, but they still put on a great performance which got me thinking about one of their lyrics where they sing:

“Time passes and you must move on,
Half the distance takes you twice as long,
So you keep on singing for the sake of the song
After the thrill has gone”.

The song, inevitably, is about love, but it has a wider meaning in relation to inspiration and motivation which might be applicable to other aspects of life such as work. That thrill might be the buzz you get from seeing another of your articles in print, successfully mediating a difficult relationship between two colleagues, watching a student attain a new level of understanding, reconciling the School accounts, participating in a conference, putting the finishing touches to new marketing collateral etc. In other words, job satisfaction and when that thrill is no longer there, the job just gets harder. 

Staff Survey 

Which takes us to the Staff Survey. As you will hopefully have seen in my all-staff email last month, we have now received the Faculty Staff Survey results, and you should now have had sight of your local Faculty Office and School reports. In addition, we will share the results broken down by academic, researchers and PS when they are available.

The first thing to say is that it was encouraging to receive such a high response rate in our Faculty which means that we have a much fuller and more accurate picture of where we need to improve and where our strengths lie.

We can take great encouragement from the positive highlights and areas of strength that are reflected in the scoring and in the free comments, including that 89% of Humanities colleagues are interested in the University; it is not just a job. For many of you there is no question that the thrill of the job drives the enthusiasm, commitment and imagination you bring to it. It is good that we can affirm to one another that we are fortunate and privileged to work at The University of Manchester and to be surrounded by such great colleagues.

However, we also need to acknowledge where we have less positive responses and where responses rates have dropped significantly over the last two years including that only 54% of people felt they had a good work life balance. Most of these changes were mirrored at University level and we will be giving attention to these areas in the coming weeks and months as we develop action plans to address issues most in need of attention. At the heart of many of the more negative comments is something akin to that loss of enthusiasm and a sense of being ground down by the system, a complaint that I hear often in talking with colleagues around the Faculty and in particular with academic staff. I had an especially depressing conversation recently with an academic member of staff with a great track record and a bright future who resigned because the job had simply become impossible. That should not happen and clearly something is wrong.

That sense of energy and enthusiasm draining away is in part cyclical as we tire at certain points in the year. For most academics and many professional staff we are at a finishing line of sorts as examinations have been marked, graduations are upon us and annual leave is in sight. Sadly, summers really are shorter for academics than was once the case, and for those supervising dissertations they are non-existent, which raises a question about how we organise ourselves. It is increasingly apparent that sustaining internationally leading research is inconsistent with year-round teaching activity and highly fragmented work patterns.

But there are also issues with workload, the spread of activities in which we are engaged, and real or perceived bureaucratic overload that feed a problematic narrative of disempowerment and top-down management. So, while recognising that the academic job in particular has changed and will continue to change, we need to better understand what is going wrong with how we work and identify solutions. That will be at the core of how we respond to the more critical outcomes of the Staff Survey and it will be one of the priorities of the Faculty Leadership Team next session.

Strategic Vision and Plan

Following a very extensive engagement exercise in which many of you provided imaginative and useful ideas, we are edging towards a new Strategic Vision and Plan. The University Senior Leadership Team (SLT) are due to present those ideas and outline plans to the Board of Governors on 17 July 2019, with sign-off of the Strategic Plan by the Board of Governors in November 2019. The launch of the Vision and Strategic Plan will take place in February 2020.

I hope you will find the outcomes from this exercise to be an appealing blend of stretching ambition, imaginative thinking and realism. We had a foretaste of the Vision and Plan at the recent Core Brief for all Faculty managers where it was warmly received. You can see the slides from a Colette Fagan’s presentation here. In addition, within the Faculty we are looking at the many lower level suggestions for improvement to see where these might contribute to addressing the issues raised in the Staff Survey.

NSS

By the time you read this we will have received our 2019 NSS scores. This year there was no student boycott to affect the responses and we met the 50% response threshold to be able to publicise the results. Analysis of the results will now be carried out and Fiona Smyth, Deputy Dean and Vice-Dean for Teaching, Learning and Students, will start to work with those areas in the Faculty that need to improve. You will have received an email from me earlier this morning (5 July) providing an overview of our Faculty results.

And Finally,

One of the results of the survey was about work-life balance and the role of managers in helping you to find that balance. Achieving that is not easy and people like me are probably not very good exemplars. But it is summer. Please go on holiday, do something different, ignore the emails for a while, go home early and spend time with your children or in the garden, avoid talking about work and watch a Tequila sunrise. The University of Manchester will get along fine without your 24/7 attention. Returning to the Eagles, they warned, ‘You can spend all your time making money, You can spend all your love making time’.

Have a great summer.

Best wishes,

Keith

Message from Keith - May 2019

Dear colleagues,

So GOT (Game of Thrones for anyone who’s been on another planet for the last nine years) is back! Vengeance, murder, intrigue, betrayal, ritual, sex – just like the world I wrote about in my first book (Bloodfeud in Scotland) which, I suppose, explains why I was hooked from episode one. Then last month I was forwarded an article on CNN about GOT in which I am referenced! You might not think that a boring, old Dean could ever be mentioned in the same article as Cersei Lannister or Daenerys Targaryen but there it is in black and white (and if you do not believe me see you can read it here). The fact that the author of this piece was suggesting I got it wrong is beside the point. At last I have credibility with those family and friends who do not think that a historian has a real job. Sadly, not an impact case but definitely some bragging points (I hope you will forgive this hubris after reading the nemesis to follow - see below).

Budget

Back to earth (in more ways than one) with the business of agreeing a Faculty of Humanities budget. At the time of writing this message we have not yet had our budget challenge meeting to discuss the affordability of our plans now we have an overview of the consolidated University budget, but we know already that we will have to make unwelcome adjustments. The underlying problem for Universities is that the home student fee has remained fixed since 2010 while staff, utility and other costs have risen significantly. Research income has also remained static, although here the issue is more one of performance than available resource. We have increased overseas student income and pushed up PGT home fees, but the gap continues to grow.

Within our draft budget and five year plan we have further increased overseas student numbers and fees along with distance learning provision, but this is insufficient to fully meet our stretching financial target. So far we have protected the staff and student experience by matching student number increases with investment. However, we now have to bear the cost of increased pension contributions which are set to rise again later this year. We are examining a range of options that will further increase fee income, but we are going to have to start looking at savings in ways that may hurt. We will make every effort to target those savings strategically and in ways that cause least long-term damage and I will update you when we have more to report. Of course, Augar has yet to hit us!

Research Institutes

Research institutes provide the structures, resources and the funding to bring together different disciplines and capabilities to meet the challenges of leading research and the external demands of government, business and communities.

We have recently completed the annual review of the Faculty’s Research Institutes which is a largely enjoyable and inspiring experience hearing from the Directors about the range of remarkable projects undertaken by their colleagues. We now have 11 Institutes having added three in the last couple of years. This is possibly a few too many and we will not be creating any more in the immediate future. I have also asked Gerard Hodgkinson, Vice-Dean for Research, to review the contribution of our Institutes to the overall research ecosystem of the Faculty and to consider whether our current means of supporting them is effective. In part this is driven by a need to create a more stable underlying Professional Services support and to position the Institutes better to access very large interdisciplinary research grants.

Postgraduates

It is likely that over the years you will have heard me say that while pursuing large numbers of PhD students makes sense in big science, it is not appropriate in our Faculty. What we want to do is recruit the very best students with exciting research projects and to ensure they are given excellent supervision, training and as much funding as we can reasonably afford. Postgraduates do not do our research for us, they add to the teaching load and, as a whole if not in every case, they are expensive. Furthermore, I think there is an ethical issue around over-supplying the market with postgraduates who have very limited career prospects in sectors that value PhDs.

Unfortunately, in spite of spending ever greater amounts of money on subsidising PGR activity, our numbers continue to fall and we do not always ensure the best experience for those students. In some parts of the Faculty completion is still an issue, although we have persuaded the University to take another look at how this is measured. Given the budgetary pressures we are facing it may be that we will need to cut what we are spending on studentships, accept that this will reduce the overall size of the PGR population, and focus even more on targeting resource on the very best students. We would be interested to hear your views on this topic. 

Materials to help you promote Humanities 

We now have a package of materials available for you to use when promoting Humanities, by which we mean its constituent parts and not only the Faculty, to students, external stakeholders and potential partners. Our Faculty Communications and Marketing team has developed an at-a-glance booklet, two animations (one for students and one for external organisations/partners), and a set of PowerPoint slides which show the key highlights of what we do in Humanities and how we make an impact. You can find these on Humanities StaffNet.

Staff Survey 2019 

Thank you to everyone who took time out to complete the Staff Survey 2019 and to provide us with important feedback that can influence how we approach certain aspects of our work. Although the University overall did not reach the target response rate of 75%, we were not too far off this in Humanities at 70%. Your responses are now being analysed and collated and we will be able to start sharing the outcomes of the Survey in June.

And finally….

Feedback does not have to wait for the Staff Survey to come around every couple of years. We all need feedback of one sort or another, not least because it helps us to be better at what we do as researchers, accountants, teachers, administrators, marketeers or managers. It can also stop us making mistakes, or making a complete fool of ourselves. Of course, speaking the truth (how do I look in this outfit?), or truth to power (boss, you’re hopeless) carries some risks, but I have benefited from being told over the years that I include too much information (teaching), understate the importance of theory (research), focus too much on the negative (leadership/management) and cannot find anything (call yourself a researcher - domestic).

So when recently I came out of a meeting and was pulled aside by Gemma Keaveney, my very reliable and discreet EPA, to be told that ‘the seat of your pants has gone’ she was doing me a considerable service. By contrast, the polite Head of School who did not want to embarrass me and who asked her to deliver the message was, with the very best of intentions, allowing me to plough on regardless of my threadbare appearance. Fortunately, I always have a change of clothes in my office and the rest of the day was saved!

The lesson is obvious. Seek out feedback and do not be afraid to give it, not least to managers and senior University officers. We may not always agree with the feedback we receive, but then we only have ourselves to blame when a chilly wind exposes our failings.

Best wishes

Keith

Message from Keith - April 2019

Message from the Dean

Dear colleagues, 

The Victorian Prime Minister and statesman (remember them?), Benjamin Disraeli, said that “the secret of success is constancy of purpose”, which is worth bearing in mind as the University rolls forward our next phase of strategic planning. Unsurprisingly, in spite of the many different pressures we may face, our extensive engagement process did not reveal a desire or appetite for a significant change in direction.  

Strategic Vision and Plan 

Along with other colleagues in the Senior Leadership Team (SLT), I attended the Board of Governors annual Accountability and Planning Conference which took place for the first time in the new Executive Management Centre. The first half of the conference was a review of our performance and I was quizzed on various aspects of our record of achievements. The second half of the conference was focused on the new Strategic Vision and Plan that had been discussed in Senate a few weeks previously. There was a good deal of enthusiasm for the direction of travel which builds on our existing successes while giving greater emphasis to a number of themes that will now be developed in greater detail.

There will be further discussions and opportunities to engage on the development of the University Strategic Plan over the coming months and it is important that colleagues across the Faculty of Humanities are part of those conversations since we have a good deal to contribute. Last week, our Faculty Leadership Team met with the President and Vice-Chancellor, Nancy Rothwell, and had an interesting discussion about these issues. We talked about there being a need to maintain a strong emphasis on quality, about size and shape, valuing people, social responsibility, innovation and creativity, and particularly on how Humanities can input into a more cross-Faculty approach to innovation. In addition, we will be looking more closely at the many ideas that surfaced during the engagement process last year to see where we can make local improvements to the staff and student experience. 

Faculty Leadership Conference 

In a sector and wider society which are both complex and increasingly subject to change, our own Faculty of Humanities annual conference was themed around ‘purpose,’ a topic which was the focus of many ideas during the recent Our Future vision development. Incidentally, Disraeli was clear on the purpose of a University, commenting that “a University should be a place of Light, Liberty and Learning”. Not a bad 19^th century strap-line! The programme, which brought together around 100 leaders and managers, was formed to help us consider the reason for having a university like Manchester, and to think about how we lead, plan and perform in support of our purpose. We watched short videos about why people chose to come and work at the University of Manchester and why they chose to stay. You can hear more on these videos. We heard short talks from four colleagues: Kevin Gillan; Liz Richardson; Saba Mirshafiei; and Sarah Featherstone, who told us about important innovative projects they were leading, and we enjoyed an ‘in conversation’ event with Patrick Hackett, the Secretary, Registrar and Chief Operating Officer.

However, we also heard from external speakers who brought a wholly new perspective to our thinking. Andrew Staines, formerly the Cabinet’s first dedicated futurist, led an imaginative exercise in mapping out future scenarios; Donna Hall delivered an inspiring account of her transformational leadership as chief executive of Wigan Council; and Richard Gerver was entertaining and challenging in relating his journey from head teacher of a failing primary school to an international consultant on leadership and change.

Of course, there is no point in any of the above if we do not learn anything useful and I challenged everyone present to go and put some of that learning into practice, starting with myself.

Music on campus

One other conference activity I should mention from the Faculty Conference was that Caroline Bithell, Head of the Music Department, led us in a singing warm-up which, in a very short time and with a very mixed ability group, succeeded in making us believe we sounded not too bad. Which leads into Creative Manchester livening up the campus last week by bringing music to students, staff and passers-by. Live music was performed by our University music students and members of the Manchester University Music Society (MUMS) on Tuesday and Wednesday, on Bridgeford Street and in Alan Gilbert Square. I hope you enjoyed the experience as much as I did and you can look out for more musical entertainment over the coming months.

New colleagues

Since my last message, we have appointed a number of new colleagues to the Faculty. I was pleased to welcome Wayne Keating to Humanities this week as interim Director of Faculty Operations (DoFO). Wayne has taken over from Vikki Goddard, who has become the new DoFO in the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health. Thank you Vikki and good luck in the new role. I am also looking forward to welcoming Rory McQuillan in the DoFO role on 1 July, when Wayne returns to the Faculty of Science and Engineering.

Linda Evans, Professor of Education in the School of Environment, Education and Development, has been appointed to the new role of Associate Dean for Academic and Research Staff Development. This role has been created to provide vision as well as operational academic and strategic leadership in the development of an academic and research staff development strategy. Linda will commence her new role on 1 May 2019, for an initial term of three years (until July 2022). 

Also appointed is Professor Geraint Howells, who will be returning to the University on 1 September 2019, taking on the role of Associate Dean for Internationalisation alongside his substantive post as Professor of Commercial Law. Geraint returns after spending five years in the role of Dean of the School of Law at City University of Hong Kong. 

We have also recently announced our new Grade 8 appointments, as part of the New Leadership Model. These followed on from the recent Head of School Operations appointments at Grade 9. 

And Finally

I started with Disraeli and will end with another of his thoughts. ‘Manchester’, he observed, ‘is the most wonderful city of modern times’ which, if still true, places us in a remarkable arena in which to perform and to do great things throughout this next stage of our collective journey. 

Best wishes

Keith

Message from Keith - February 2019

Dear colleagues

Strategic Planning 

In The Hobbit Gandalf says: “It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations if you live near him,” which makes a lot of sense if you live in Middle Earth, but perhaps not if you are in Manchester in 2019. Except that as we commence the annual planning round there are rumours of dragons of a sort somewhere beyond the immediate horizon. Will differences over pay and pensions tip us into another round of divisive industrial relations? Will the Augar Review of post-18 education result in a much-reduced fee income with huge implications for our current business model? Will Brexit, in whatever form, negatively impact on our mission as a university? All of this is there in our thinking as we try to look ahead and model the various scenarios that we might find ourselves having to manage, including the one in which all the dragons appear at the same time. 

Those of you who attended the School meetings in the autumn have heard me talk about this and it is a message we continue to reinforce. The purpose is not to spread fear and induce helplessness, but to raise awareness of the context in which we find ourselves operating. As I have said before, we need to carry on with business as usual while recognising that the 'usual' may be exposed to a series of significant shocks in the coming months. Hopefully, we will have done enough preparatory thinking to mitigate much of what may occur, and we will all at least be unsurprised if some change does become necessary. 

We also need to factor in the development of a Strategic Vision and Plan which will take forward some of the ideas and themes so generously contributed by our people during the Our Future workshops towards the end of last year. The Board of Governors will discuss the high level version in March following which we can all begin to think about what this means for the next phase of our strategic plans. 

Therefore, we find ourselves entering the annual planning round in a curious frame of mind, poised between concern at the tempests swirling around the higher education sector and energised by our own vision and aspiration for a future we wish to shape. Our current planning for the Faculty of Humanities over the next rolling five-year period is shaped by many factors including: increasing distance learning in order to enhance our digital offering and to spread risk; growing international student recruitment as a means of addressing rising costs and fixed income in other activities; assisting academics to achieve greater grant capture; and offering better academic guidance to students. Here we are addressing a range of issues, some of which are University-wide, some are more particular to our Faculty, and then there are School specific concerns that are built into our planning. All of this is based on wide levels of consultation in departments, committees and working groups, involving a great many people.

 Out of this planning exercise will come a set of operational priorities and a budget for next year designed to take us closer to delivering on our goals and realising our vision.  Those deliverables will be achieved by multiple teams working together not simply to move corporate KPIs forward but to attain those stunning achievements that continue to be part of our story. 

Exciting appointments 

Over the last couple of months we have made some exciting appointments in Humanities including Historian, broadcaster and film-maker David Olusoga, who has joined Michael Wood as a second Professor of Public History in the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures. Baroness Bev Hughes, Deputy Mayor of Manchester, has accepted a post of Honorary Professor in Politics, and joined us in January. While working at the University before becoming a Member of Parliament, she led the Department of Social Policy in the old Faculty of Humanities.I am delighted that Professor Frank Boons has accepted the post of Director of the Sustainable Consumption Institute, while Jonatan Pinkse is the new Director of the Manchester Institute of Innovation Research (MIoIR), another key appointment. Alliance Manchester Business School (AMBS) has announced the appointment of Damaris Albarran as the Chair of its independent Advisory Board, with Sky News’ business lead Ian King and equity asset management expert, Amin El-Kholy also joining the Board. 

National Student Survey 

The National Student Survey (NSS) opened this week and students will be able to give their feedback until Tuesday, 30 April 2019. The good news is that there will be no boycott of the survey by the Students’ Union this year, as in previous years. However, we should not be complacent. If your role involves having direct contact with students, please emphasise the importance of completing the anonymous survey. This is the most important way that our students can feed back and influence the future delivery of teaching, learning and student experience and doctoral training. All students who are eligible to take part in the NSS receive an email from Ipsos MORI, which is running the survey on behalf of the Office for Students. Visit StaffNet for more information about promoting the NSS to students. 

Departmental Visits 

I have begun a round of Departmental visits which is one of the most enjoyable parts of my role. These two-hour slots are entirely at the disposal of Departments to use in whatever way colleagues find most helpful. In the last couple of weeks I have appreciated learning much more about what is going on in Planning and Environmental Management (PEM), Religions and Theology (R&T) and Architecture, each of which has its own sub-culture but all of which play a vital role in the life of the Faculty and University. Even in quite small Departments the range of expertise, talent and innovation is astounding. I heard about self-driving cars in PEM, robots and God in R&T, and a tool for mitigating the effects of heatwaves in care homes in Architecture. I also enjoyed visiting the workshop in Architecture where Jim Backhouse and Scott Miller showed me their remarkable modelling, handcrafted and 3D printing. 

Alliance Manchester Business School  

Staff have now started to move into the new Alliance Manchester Business School and plans are underway for a launch event in the summer once all of the work has been completed. The result of years of planning and construction, with a number of bumps along the road, are stunning and well worth the wait. And you may have noticed the opening of several of the cafes and restaurants on the ground floor which is bringing the entire area to life. So far I have only tried out Five Guys where I bumped into the Vice-Dean for Social Responsibility, Andy Westwood, and we discussed the merits of the burgers over others we have sampled. 

Big Screen Queens 

Have you seen the recent films about Queen Anne and Mary Queen of Scots? When you know a lot about a topic it is very difficult not to spoil it by moaning about historical inaccuracies, but in spite of some licence The Favourite definitely gets my vote. As for Mary Queen of Scots, it is hard not to disagree with the eponymous heroine when she asks 'How did it come to this?’ 

Best wishes, 

Keith

Message from Keith - December 2018

Dear colleagues

Our Future

How far into the future can you imagine? Someone commented that ‘The trouble today is that the future is not what it used to be’ which I think I understand. When thinking about our own future, our speculation is likely to be, in part, a product of age. Sadly, the horizon is a good deal closer for me than it was when I was 20, but I can think of a longer future for my children, in their 30s, and my grand-daughter who is two years old.

What the University has been asking us to do in recent months is think about an institutional future which may or may not involve us, given the possibility of retirement or job changes. Some of my senior colleagues have talked in terms of 30 years which I find impossible to consider, not because of my age, but because in 1988 few of us would have predicted the world in which we live now, or even the higher education environment in which we work. On the other hand, we must not be over-influenced by the short term, the here-and-now, even if today that sense of the present is unusually perplexing in multiple ways. So, we will all have approached the question of Our Future differently and we will have offered different versions of this place in which we work and of its mission in the world. Now we have to try and figure out what route to choose. 

Firstly, thank you to everyone who was involved in the University-wide Our Future exercise. We had a good response across the Faculty with more than 1,000 people involved in the discussion sessions, whether a small team session or one of the University big events. You will probably not be surprised to learn that we submitted the most ideas out of the three Faculties. We are never short of opinions in Humanities which is a good thing. 

Those ideas are now being collated and gathered into themed areas. Your feedback, as well as ideas from our students, alumni and other stakeholders, will be considered by the University’s Senior Leadership Team (SLT) when shaping the new University vision – to be launched later in 2019. Once all feedback has been received our Faculty Leadership Team will consider the Humanities feedback, along with some accompanying analysis, to bring out any particularly important areas. Some of these might be ideas that we can take forward now, across the Faculty or within Schools. Others will feed into the generation of our Faculty Strategic Plan next year which you will be able to consider and comment on before it is finalised. 

Proposed merger

Colleagues and students in the Schools of Law and Social Sciences have had an opportunity to feedback their comments on the position paper regarding the potential merger of the two schools. If you would still like to contribute the deadline for feedback is one week today (14 December). The feedback will be collated and discussed by the Working Group before a decision is made by the Faculty Leadership Team in January. That decision will be communicated to staff at this stage, and if it is to merge the two schools the recommendation will go to Senate and the Board of Governors in February/March for approval. I am grateful to all colleagues who have engaged in this process in a positive and constructive manner. 

School visits

I have now completed annual visits to our five Schools and this year we did it a little differently. I was joined by other members of the Faculty Leadership Team – Fiona Smyth, Gerard Hodgkinson, Vikki Goddard and the respective Head of School – to talk about the key successes, performance issues and challenges for the year ahead. We also had some interesting Q&A panels in which we discussed a range of issues including what we are proud of, student experience, REF, completion rates, and equality and diversity, although there was no clear overall theme to the questions. We have received positive reports on the new format - including that the Dean appeared happier! - and if you would like to add your own comments please email humsnews@manchester.ac.uk with any feedback about the visits. 

REF preparation

There is less than two years until we make our submission to the Research Excellence Framework, so enough time to polish work in progress but insufficient time to start anything new. It is especially important that we identify potential 4* work and support those colleagues who are able to deliver at that level. It is equally crucial that impact cases are refined and supported.

However, a number of Units of Assessment are not where they need to be in terms of preparing strong impact cases and some focused work is required to improve their position. Therefore, the Faculty has made additional funding available to develop those impact cases. Furthermore, as you know, the new REF rules require that everyone with research in their contract must be submitted. Consequently, there is no hiding place for those individuals whose performance in terms of quality outputs is sub-optimal and will undermine the hard work of their colleagues.

We are on track to make a very strong REF submission, with some UoAs looking very strong indeed, but 2019 will be crucial in ensuring that we realise the high ambitions shared across the University. 

It happened here

A number of interesting events took place across the Faculty over the last couple of weeks. To mark the 70th Anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights we hosted an event with the UN Deputy High Commissioner. More than 200 people participated, many from our local communities who would not normally engage with University events, highlighting how Manchester is standing up for human rights. Speakers included local schoolchildren, our students and alumni, survivor activists and business, who are all carrying out some inspirational work around addressing various forms of violence and protecting people. I enjoyed attending one of the sessions and was privileged to host a dinner for the participants.

We also co-sponsored a discussion on the future of capitalism and the corporation with the British Academy, hosting an event that brought together Professor Sir Paul Collier, Professor Colin Mayer and Juergen Maier, Chief Executive at Siemens, to share their latest thinking and research on this pressing issue.

Almost a year on since the UK Government published its Industrial Strategy, which was informed by the Industrial Strategy Commission in which a number of our colleagues were deeply engaged, academics, representatives from the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) and the Government collaborated at an event to help inform policy priorities for Greater Manchester’s Local Industrial Strategy.

These events, and others like them, illustrate how central our work is to some of the very big issues of the day.

Another one bites the dust

You may (or may not!) have noticed that another Universities Minister has resigned. His replacement is a historian whose recent books have been on the Battle of Bosworth and Richard III (the nasty, hunchback uncle in Shakespeare’s version). So he knows a lot about skullduggery and how to lose a battle that ought to have been won! 

And finally

As we approach the Christmas break, I would like to thank you all for your hard work and dedication throughout 2018, particularly as we have had to wrestle with some challenging and divisive issues. I hope you all have the opportunity to relax and recharge your batteries over the holiday, and I look forward to meeting more of you in 2019.  

Best wishes,

Keith

Message from Keith - November 2018

Dear colleagues

Celebration of teaching and learning

I recently attended an event which recognised and celebrated the achievement and commitment of outstanding teachers within the Faculty of Humanities. Present were a number of colleagues who were nominated for the University’s Distinguished Achievement Award Teacher of the Year or Teaching Excellence Award for 2017-18. It was encouraging to be part of such a well-attended event with an enthusiastic group of people who are so committed to our students’ learning. The 19^th-century American writer and critic, Margaret Sangster, observed that ‘No-one should teach who is not in love with teaching’ which may be difficult to feel when faced with a huge number of essays or exam scripts at certain times of year, but I know that it is a sentiment with which most of you who teach can identify. 

Higher education sector issues 

There have been some positive developments over the past month affecting the higher education sector. Movement, however slight, on the USS pension dispute is encouraging. There is some relief in that Subject TEF has been postponed for a year, and the outcome that there will be no industrial action resulting from the UCU and UNISON members’ ballots around pay is a welcome development. The budget had little to say about universities, although the clarification on how some of the Science and Innovation spend is to be allocated is largely helpful. 

Nevertheless, the outlook remains gloomy with costs rising faster than income, the pension issue remaining unresolved, newspapers continuing to report negatively on universities, the mood music around the Augar Review of Post-18 Education and Funding is very worrying, and the implications of Brexit are not yet fully understood. At the Faculty leaders Core Brief we had a presentation from Andy Westwood, Vice-Dean for Social Responsibility, on aspects of the above which you can access. 

However, universities have faced tough times before and no doubt will again, but we are well-placed to deal with them. We will continue to plan on a business-as-usual basis while developing contingency plans to address possible reductions in funding. We need to think hard about different ways of working, seeking out new income sources, and making ourselves increasingly agile and resilient in order to embrace the ever accelerating pace of change. I am confident that we have the resources and the talent to address the challenges we may face. In the meantime, we should focus on what we are here to do and what I know you all do so well in terms of world-leading research, an excellent student experience and transformative social responsibility. We also need to look beyond the immediate horizon to what we can achieve, hence the importance of continuing to engage imaginatively in the ‘Our Future’ consultation.

School Visits 

Last month, I began my annual visit to our Schools, beginning with the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures (SALC). This year we are trying a new approach to provide more of an opportunity for people to hear from other members of the Faculty Leadership Team – and less from me! Updates were given by Fiona Smyth, Deputy Dean and Vice-Dean for Teaching, Learning and Students, Vikki Goddard, Director of Faculty Operations, and Alessandro Schiesaro, Vice-Dean and Head of SALC. 

As always, we offer an opportunity for questions. Among the issues we discussed were the University’s support for BAME students, the possible problem in the way in which the University reports interruptions to PhD study, the decision to use the salary savings from the most recent industrial action to support student mental health, and support for EU staff in resolving residency and citizenship issues. 

Initial feedback from the visit was positive and we will be following a similar format for the remaining visits this month when I look forward to seeing colleagues in our other Schools. 

Annual Performance Review  

The Faculty’s Leadership Team will take part in our Annual Performance Review (APR) this week with the President and members of the University Senior Leadership Team. We will be required to account for our performance over the previous 12 months and it is also an opportunity for us to lay out our ambitions for the future. You can access a summary of our own assessment of our performance here. We have been asked to indicate three topics we would like to discuss and have selected the possibility of having a sixth University research Beacon centred on the School of Arts Languages and Cultures, the management of the ever increasing level of student mental health issues, and the problem of getting reliable data that can be intelligently analysed. In due course we will report on any outcomes arising from the discussion.  

And finally... 

As we slowly approach the time when staff and students move into the refurbished Alliance Manchester Business School building, I decided to read ‘Shut Down the Business School: What’s Wrong with Management Education by Martin Parker which was published earlier this year. I am happy to report that this jaundiced polemic offers little of value beyond offering a stress test of sorts and that our investment will not have been wasted!  

Best wishes

Keith

Dear colleagues,

Welcome to the start of another exciting, challenging and, no doubt, busy academic year. Despite the preparations for the start of this semester, I hope you all had time to relax from work at some point over the summer.

For those new to the University, I would like to welcome you to the Faculty of Humanities where you will find many new and interesting colleagues, collaborators and friends. Of course, most of you are likely to identify most strongly with your Department, Division, Research Institute or PSS area, but your School and the Faculty will play a significant role in your careers at Manchester. I enjoyed meeting some of you at the Humanities New Academic Programme last week.

As usual, I was in Scotland for August doing some thinking, writing and having some time off. Among other things, I visited Bute and saw around the astonishing Victorian Mount Stuart House and the atmospheric ruins of St Blaine’s, a remarkable early medieval church. Summer reading had a tenuous travel theme as it included Julia Boyd’s revealing Travellers in the Third Reich, E.L. Doctorow’s The March about Sherman’s destructive march to the sea at the tail end of the American civil war, and Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad, an amusing feminist take on the legend of her husband, Ulysses’, travels. All very good reads.

The higher education sector

There has not been a great deal of change over the summer in the sector. We all know that the pension issue remains unresolved and that the regulatory clock is ticking. There has been some refinement on REF rules, including the surprising reintroduction of individual circumstances. Subject level TEF grows ever closer in spite of NSS continuing to be undermined by student action. The Augar Post-18 Review of student funding grinds on in the background (though now slightly delayed) and we can only await the outcome and deal with the fallout when it happens. There has been a disappointing outcome from the Migration Advisory Committee’s review of overseas students policy. Finally, Brexit hovers above everything, adding a further layer of uncertainty and division. So many challenges and tensions remain, some of which may impact negatively and some of which may cause us to disagree with one another. However, I am confident we can weather any storms and overcome any divisions by working together.

Students

Campus is heating up once more as we welcome our new and current students. I would like to thank everyone involved in the confirmation and clearing process and in helping to bring such high-quality students to Manchester. I am aware of all the hard work and commitment that goes in to clearing and confirmation, including the processes leading up to it, and the many out-of-office hours undertaken, the manning of clearing desks, and the challenge of negotiating, sometimes quite tough, conversations with prospective students following A-Level results day. Once again, this year has been difficult in a very competitive environment as we aimed to fill our student places while maintaining our strategy to improve entry qualifications. Although we do not yet know the final numbers, it appears that we are on course to being close to hitting target without compromising on entry standards.

How can you impact on our future?

You will have seen and heard a lot of information over the last couple of weeks about ‘Our Future’, including an interview in Vikki Goddard’s (Director of Faculty Operations) latest team brief video. This is a project aimed at getting all colleagues involved in conversations about the future of our University and to generate some big ideas about the future direction of travel. During September and October, you will be invited to take part in a team or department discussion thinking about life beyond 2020, the horizon of our current strategic plan. As the HE sector, and the world changes, it brings new challenges and opportunities. We want to harness the full breadth of experience we have at the University to generate some ideas that will help shape our strategic vision. In addition to your local conversations, there will be the opportunity to submit individual ideas through other channels, including an online feedback form and other face-to-face, mass participation staff and student activities. This is a great opportunity to offer your thoughts and feedback to the University Senior Leadership Team, and any ideas relating to Humanities will be shared with our own Faculty Leadership Team (FLT) so that we can look at how we can incorporate them into our own strategic vision. Read more.

Update on SoSS and Law

Over the summer members of the working group have been gathering information and data which has been brought together into a draft position paper. This paper will be used to talk with staff and get their views on the possible merger of the two schools. Engagement activity will take place from 24 September to 14 December when members of staff within the schools will have the opportunity to take part in school, discipline and function-based sessions, as well as being able to respond on an individual basis through an online survey. There will also be planned student and external stakeholder engagement activity taking place over this period. All feedback will be collated during December and sent to the working group, who will present to FLT in January. FLT’s decision on whether or not to put a case for merger before Senate will be communicated to staff in January.

Looking forward

As always, there is much to be excited about in the new session. We have the arrival of some 24 Presidential Fellows in Humanities, the launch of Creative Manchester, the opening of the new Crowne Plaza hotel and Executive Education Centre, and the move into the refurbished AMBS building. We will be introducing legal technology throughout the Law curriculum and a revitalised approach for prestigious visiting scholars applying to work with SoSS colleagues, and we will be moving forward rapidly on our Distance Learning portfolio as part of our wider digitisation of teaching and learning. I am looking forward to seeing these, and many other equally exciting projects, come to fruition.

Best wishes

Keith

Dear colleagues,

So how has the World Cup been for you? Quite possibly you have no interest in football, or even an intense distaste for it, but you cannot be unaware of what is going on in Russia. As a Scot whose country has not been involved in the finals since 1998, it is easy to sit back and simply enjoy the performance of good teams without any emotional commitment. My prediction before the start of the competition was that Germany would win (no bet involved thankfully) and that Belgium would be the dark horse so I still have some credibility. If The University of Manchester was one of the finalists which team would we most resemble? The five times winners Brazil; Portugal with its over-dependence on one player (graphene?); England, the perennial under-performers; Spain with its brilliant, ageing stars unable to adapt their game plan; chaotic, dysfunctional Argentina; little Croatia punching way above its weight; dull, lumbering Russia grinding out results; or youthful, exuberant France?

Strategic engagement

There is much activity taking place currently to ensure our senior leaders are given time to reflect on their roles and to participate in shaping the future of the University, including our vision for Humanities. All of our managers are currently being briefed about the proposed all-staff conversations that will take place in the new academic year as part of the development of the University’s new Strategic Vision and Plan. As I mentioned last month, you will all be invited to discuss the future of the University and to submit your ‘big ideas’ through existing team meetings and forums in September and October. Those leading the conversations will have access to supporting documents which will be made available online this month. Meanwhile, some of our colleagues involved in management recently completed the Inspiring Leaders Programme (ILP) which is aimed at supporting staff to achieve their goals, enhance their impact and expand their professional network. Others will be participating in ILP in the new session.

Against this background, we held our Senior Management Team Away Day last month. One important issue we discussed was whether as an institution we are inclined to be too self-critical, often on the basis of having ‘failed’ to achieve over-stretching targets, while being too modest in claiming and celebrating success. I would be interested to know if you agree with this analysis.

Student recruitment

As you know, graduation will soon be upon us, and I hope that you will take the time to attend the ceremonies for your own students for whom this has been an especially stressful year on account of the recent strike action. Thank you to those many colleagues who worked so hard to ensure not only that assessments and examinations were well-organised but also that our students were not disadvantaged.

Some people think that the summer period is a quieter time in universities due to the lack of students on campus, but many staff will be working tirelessly to prepare for the new academic year. It is a very busy time for staff dealing with prospective students, particularly in recruitment, admissions and marketing. Thousands of students headed to campus last month for our two open days which were very successful and received much positive feedback from students and their families. The business of student recruitment has changed significantly in recent years and we are engaged in a year-round battle with competitors to attract the very best students here to Manchester. We will continue to keep under review our policy of targeting higher qualified students, while deploying every tool and tactic at our disposal to achieve our objectives.

Research Review Exercise

A key focus for a large proportion of our academic colleagues is the Research Review Exercise (RRE) which is an important part of our preparations for the Research Excellence Framework (REF2021). All staff with a 'research and teaching' contract or eligible 'research' contract are expected to participate in the mandatory annual RRE. Those colleagues who have not completed their RRE return are at risk of facing disciplinary action and local managers will be following up on this soon so I urge you to complete your return if you have not done so already.

The expectation is that the new rules in REF2021 will see the strongest institutions in the UK aiming to make almost 100% 4* output returns. All eligible staff will have to be returned with a least one output, therefore removing the option to not return staff with fewer or weaker outputs. The fact that we still have staff who do not have even one 3* publication in the RRE is a very serious concern. 

Those colleagues who have not yet nominated any outputs for review should have received, or will be receiving, an email from their Head of School asking for clarifications to the publications they will be nominating and advising them on their next steps. For guidance on how to propose outputs see the RRE website.

Social media campaign

Throughout July, the Faculty of Humanities is leading a University-wide social media campaign to highlight the enormous strength and depth of ageing research at Manchester. The campaign has already highlighted two key events: MICRA's annual lecture (2 July) and the 47th Annual Conference of the British Society of Gerontology (4-6 July, University Place) with the Manchester Metropolitan University and the University of Salford. This year’s conference is about ageing research in the social and behavioural sciences with the theme ‘Ageing in an Unequal World: Shaping Environments for the 21st Century’. This unique collaboration has received a message of support from all three Vice-Chancellors and Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester.

MICRA is also holding a week-long photo exhibition outside University Place as part of the Greater Manchester Festival of Ageing (2-15 July). Staff, students and visitors will be encouraged to publish pictures and thoughts to social media using the #UoMAgeing along with relevant tags.

Awards and recognition

I was very pleased to see that the work of some of our colleagues in the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures (SALC) has been publicly recognised. Our Professor of Creative Writing, Jeanette Winterson, was awarded a CBE for services to literature in the Queen’s Birthday honours list, while Kamila Shamsie, Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing, won the Women’s Prize for Fiction. This prestigious public recognition can only strengthen our reputation in the whole area of Creativity which is a major focus of research activity in SALC. Also, one of our Law alumni, John Rouse, received a CBE for services to health and social care. 

And finally 

Without in any way planning it, I appear to have been spending time in the company of saints recently. Last month, I finished reading Max Adams’ biography of St Oswald, ‘The King of the North’, a very unlikely saint since he was an Anglo-Saxon warlord. Then I went on holiday to Switzerland and stayed in a hotel in Lucerne opposite the beautiful Jesuit Church whose founder was St Ignatius of Loyola, a somewhat divisive figure. On that same vacation, I read a novel by Conn Iggulden about the Anglo-Saxon bishop, St Dunstan, a man I knew nothing about and another unlikely candidate for sainthood. On returning to my home, St Andrews (named on the basis of an implausible tale about the bones of that apostle), I discovered that one of my favourite bars had been refurbished and renamed ‘The Saint’. Of course, these are simply coincidences, and I have no particular interest in saints, either as a historian of the post-Reformation era, or from a religious perspective, but it is interesting to think about how such flawed people should become role models. St Catherine of Siena, an academic, mystic and ascetic, observed that ‘If you are what you should be, you will set the whole world ablaze’, which is a good way of describing what we try to do through our teaching and research. Fortunately, in some measure, that sense of purpose is something to which we can aspire without having to be saints! 

Best wishes, 

Keith

Dear colleagues

In recent weeks we have been concluding the promotions process which is always a very rewarding experience for those of us engaged in evaluating the work of our colleagues. Someone who is new to the Faculty Promotions Committee for professorial candidates, commented to me that it is truly humbling to see what so many of our colleagues manage to achieve. We have confirmed a number of promotions across all five Schools, with 13 colleagues promoted to Chair, four to Reader, 32 to Senior Lecturer (teaching and research), seven to Senior Lecturer (teaching focused), and three to Senior Research Fellows. In addition, through the Professorial Salary Review process there have been five professorial promotions to a higher zone, and a number of professorial pay awards within zone. I hope you will join with the successful candidates in celebrating their good news when it becomes public.

At the other end of the spectrum, many of us have been involved in appointment committees for Presidential Fellows. There are a few areas where we have been disappointed by the field, but on the whole we are making offers to exceptional young academics, many working on highly innovative research topics that had not even been thought about a few years ago. One Head of School commented to me that we older academics would probably not get an interview today and it is hard to disagree!

Developing our vision

As I mentioned last month, the University has been considering how we will engage staff in the process of thinking about life beyond 2020, the horizon of our current strategic plan. In September and October, there will be a variety of opportunities for all staff to take an active role in thinking about what we want the University to look like in the future. The HE sector, and the world, is changing rapidly, bringing challenges and opportunities. We want to harness the full breadth of experience we have at the University to generate some ‘big ideas’ that will help shape our strategic vision. This will be done through existing team and departmental meetings and forums, as well as through the University’s online forum, ‘the hive’, and other face-to-face activities. We will be briefing all of our managers and leaders over the next few months on what this will involve. More details, and toolkits to support you in running your team meetings, will be released soon. I hope you will see this as a great opportunity to be a part of developing the University’s strategic direction, but also to spend time with colleagues thinking about our vision for Humanities in general and your own discipline. 

Consultation in SoSS and Law 

In recent years we have seen a move across the University to larger, more evenly-sized Schools with FMBH and FSE reducing the number of Schools in their Faculties to three and two respectively. The School of Law is disproportionally small compared to other Schools in the emerging structure and has natural synergies with the School of Social Sciences due to overlapping interests in research and teaching. The two Schools have also responded constructively to the challenges of managing large programmes while enhancing the learning and teaching experience and widening participation. With this in mind, I have asked staff in the Schools of Law and Social Sciences to explore the advantages and disadvantages of the two Schools merging. I want to hear whether people think a merger would support our ambition to generate world-leading research, promote an excellent student experience, be impactful through social responsibility, and whether or not there would be any management, administrative and financial benefits of merging. I also want colleagues to share their views on any risks they might envisage in the event that we do merge the two Schools.

At this stage, no decision has been taken on what will happen and I am genuinely interested to hear what staff think the benefits and risks would be. Collaborative consultation and engagement sessions will be run by the Schools from now until the end of September and a paper will be produced by a working group and presented to the Faculty Leadership Team in early October. 

Faculty governance structure 

At the start of the 2018/19 academic year, we will be moving to a new way of working in Humanities with one single Faculty Leadership Team (FLT) fulfilling the responsibilities of the existing Dean’s Advisory Group, Senior Management Team, Humanities Policy and Resources Committee and the Change Management Group.  

FLT will be responsible for ensuring that as a Faculty we have plans and processes in place to set and achieve our strategic goals, to undertake our responsibilities for ensuring sound financial management and compliance arrangements are in place, and to be a key decision-making forum. In order to be effective it is important that the process for staff across the Faculty to escalate ideas and opportunities, as well as to help mitigate the risks we are facing, is straightforward and visible. FLT should be open to proposals from all Schools and Faculty Offices; we need to ensure that mechanisms to facilitate two-way discussion operate more effectively.  

Some Schools will amend, or have already amended, their governance arrangements to directly align with the new FLT model.

Meetings of FLT will take place every other Monday afternoon from 17 September 2018 and the membership will be myself, the Director of Faculty Operations, our three current policy Vice-Deans, Heads of School, and the Faculty Heads for HR, Finance and Communications and Marketing. 

Fee review 

I talked in my last message about the fact students are very much at the centre of the fee review announced by the Prime Minister. If you are interested in finding out more, you can read a good summary of the political complexities surrounding the review by Andy Westwood, Vice-Dean for Social Responsibility.  

And finally

At the end of a University meeting a couple of weeks ago, a colleague in another Faculty pulled me aside to say how much she had enjoyed and learned from watching a video of a talk I had given to PSS colleagues. It was a very nice surprise, being somewhat different from the more critical comments I usually receive, and gave me an upward lift in the midst of what had been a rather downbeat week. Managers are constantly told about the need to maintain positive messaging, and to deploy praise to reinforce confidence and to motivate. But leaders need to hear it too, and not just from their own managers, but from you. So how about taking the time to let your office manager, Head of School, HR Partner, school accountant, School Director of Research, Institute Director etc know that you appreciate and value what they do? It won’t cost you anything but it will help them to get through another tough day.

Best wishes,

Keith

Dear colleagues

I had a weekend in London with some of my family recently and was fortunate in being able to attend ‘Hamilton’ the musical, and visit the Churchill War Rooms. These were two remarkable individuals, actors in extraordinary times whose lives continue to inspire long after their deaths. Listening to recordings of Churchill’s famous speeches was especially moving. As I survey the current stage on which we play out our parts, I take most comfort from the humour of his injunction to KBO (keep buggering on) in the face of difficulties. I imagine many of us have felt that is what we have been doing in recent months. 

My last message was sent whilst we were in the middle of industrial action. As a sector, we were in a very difficult place and that was compounded by persistent media attacks. Now it appears that for the present UCU and Universities UK have reached agreement to end the industrial action and to seek again to resolve differences over the very real challenges with the pension scheme. This compromise, however, is not a solution, but like many of you I am relieved that a way forward has been agreed that ends the disruption of our students’ studies, the damaging division of our community, and the reputation of the University. The strike has had an impact, and we will continue to feel the repercussions of that until exams are marked and any appeals are completed. I know that many of you are working tirelessly to honour the promise that no student will be disadvantaged by the strike and I would like to thank you for that effort. Let us hope that UUK and UCU can arrive at a lasting agreement that satisfies the legitimate concerns of all parties and ensures that students are not subjected to further disruption. 

Students are very much at the centre of the fee review announced recently by the Prime Minister. The fee review contains a very real threat to University funding, especially in the humanities and social sciences as there is a view in Government that student fees in these disciplines exceed the cost of teaching them. I attended a meeting at the British Academy to discuss how that body, which represents our disciplines nationally, might best advocate on our behalf when responding to the review. Balancing the interests of students, universities and the burden on the public purse alongside satisfying political expectations is going to be very delicate and there is a real possibility of the outcome negatively impacting on this Faculty. 

On the issue of funding and balancing competing demands, we have successfully completed a very tough budget round. We are sticking with our agreed strategy to drive up student quality at admission even if this costs us financially. The University supports this position, but there will be little slack in the system next year. Thank you to all those involved in the long and complex task of preparing the budget and to those whose hard work generates the income that funds all of our activities. 

Nevertheless, there are investments taking place, most notably the Presidential Fellowships, of which there are thirty-four across the Faculty. The University of Manchester is a great place to work and we are at the forefront of research in many areas. With over 1,000 applications for these posts it is clear that we are recognised as an employer of choice. I do not envy those who are involved in shortlisting, but this is a problem I am happy for us to have. Meanwhile, we continue to reinforce our academic strength with a range of outstanding appointments at every level from Lecturer to Chair.  

We are also making sure we attract the very best students. In April, a number of our staff and students were involved in an offer holder day hosted in London. In effect, we were taking Manchester to London. Over 100 prospective students from the south of England attended who had neither the time nor money to travel to Manchester. The feedback from the event has been resoundingly positive. We will be tracking the conversion rate from the event, but the recruitment teams already know it has convinced many of the students who were wavering over a decision to come to Manchester. This is just one of a number of imaginative initiatives being put in place to support recruitment. 

We have some good news on the league table front with the University achieving its highest ever place in Complete University Guide, rising to 18th in the UK. Among the highlights for us, Manchester appears in the top five for Anthropology (3rd), East and South Asian Studies (3rd), Italian (4th), Music (2nd) and Town & Country Planning and Landscape Design (5th). Congratulations to colleagues in each of these areas.

I attended two very interesting University events this week led from the Faculty of Humanities. On Wednesday we held the official opening of the Manchester China institute which is already rolling out an ambitious research agenda. Among the activities was a debate about Mobikes which spilled into discussion about opportunities for China to export technology to the West and how Manchester is becoming an ever more attractive destination for Chinese visitors and businesses. You can read more about this on HumNet. On the same day I was present at a fascinating public debate and private dinner involving Jim O’Neil and George Osborne, two honorary professors in the School of Social Sciences. 

Finally, the University has begun thinking about how we will engage staff in the process of thinking about life beyond 2020, the horizon of our current strategic plan. There will be more news about that soon. However, with all that is going on in HE these days I find myself reflecting on another of Sir Winston Churchill’s observations that ‘It is a mistake to try to look too far ahead. The chain of destiny can only be grasped one link at a time’.

Best wishes, 

Keith

Dear colleagues, 

Industrial action

I have reached an age when many of my friends are retiring, or are talking about it, and while I have no immediate plans to spend more time in my garden, I too have been giving the matter greater thought. That, of course, is a natural outcome of the ageing process in which we increasingly focus on a retirement secured by a good pension. But retirement and pensions are at the forefront of many colleagues’ minds regardless of age because of the extremely difficult position in which the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) finds itself. Long, protracted negotiations by professional, well-meaning people have failed to reach an agreement that meets the needs of all the stakeholders. Consequently, many universities, including our own, have seen industrial action by the University and College Union (UCU) members over the last week in protest at the proposed changes to the USS pension scheme. 

For many of you taking such action has been a difficult choice because, understandably, you are very concerned about your pensions. At the same time, you are equally concerned not to disadvantage your students. That concern for our students is shared by all of us and we are working to put in place fair and reasonable mitigation. Nevertheless, many students are confused, worried and angry and it is not difficult to sympathise with those reactions. I also appreciate the profound disappointment and resentment many colleagues have over the proposed pension changes. Unfortunately this is not an issue we can resolve easily or as a single institution, it requires a sector-wide solution. However, there are no ‘bad guys’ in this situation. Instead there is a very challenging problem that demands we make every effort to work out a solution. Universities UK (UUK), which is acting on behalf of employers which are part of USS, met with representatives of UCU last week and is meeting with the arbitration service ACAS this week.  UUK has released a statement giving the latest update.  This is a horrible predicament in which we find ourselves, and we must all hope for an early resolution that delivers the secure and affordable pension you deserve and that allows our students to get on with their studies without further interruptions.  

International ranking

The QS World Rankings were released on Wednesday. Measured alongside 1,129 universities around the world, Manchester scored highly in each of the areas measured – arts and humanities; engineering and technology; life sciences and medicine; natural sciences; and social sciences and management. The University was in the UK top ten for each of these and was also ranked in the top 100 for 37 individual subjects. I wanted to make a special mention of Geography and Sociology who have improved their position up to 17^th and 20th respectively. Education and Social Sciences and Management also saw improvements. Development Studies, Anthropology and Accounting and Finance all continue to be in the top twenty. This is a great achievement. I’m delighted that Arts and Humanities has improved its overall position moving up 8 places to 40^th in the world. 

Creative Manchester

I am delighted that the University is investing £3.3m in a new project called Creative Manchester. This funding will support our ambitious strategic vision in the arts, cultural and creative industries locally, nationally and internationally. Crucially it will help to develop more partnerships and collaborations with business and cultural organisations to support growth in the creative sector. It will enable us to create new and imaginative courses, recruit additional academic staff and enhance our facilities. This initiative, which is led by the School of Arts Languages and Cultures (SALC) is deliberately aligned with the UK Government’s Industrial Strategy and with the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s Creative Economy Research agenda. 

Review of Post-18 Education and funding

So it’s official. The great will she/won’t she debate over the Prime Minister’s intentions has been resolved. Not the one about Brexit, the other one about the funding of Higher Education. We have a Review which will seek to resolve the dilemma of how to fund an excellent and highly competitive University sector without shifting costs unjustly onto students.  Easy, facile solutions have been suggested from every shade of political opinion, but the problem is difficult and any solution carries inherent risks for us as a University and especially for our Faculty. 

Trying to find a balanced view of what is going on can be difficult. The Press has its own depressing agendas with the right and the left vying to see who can give universities a good kicking, and the THE is tiresome in its relentless campaigning, but you might find Wonkhe a useful way to keep up to date as the world swirls around us. All you have to do is sign-up. 

Budgets and five year planning

Money is tight this year, largely due to under-recruitment in a number of areas which has resulted in a drop in fee income following our commitment to raising entry standards. However, we are working hard to ensure this does not affect operations in the current financial year. We are now in the initial stages of constructing a budget for 2018-19 along with the five year financial plan and early signs indicate that this will be difficult. We are determined to maintain our strategic objective of raising the entry qualifications of our students in order to drive up quality indicators across the student experience. Naturally that comes with a risk and a potential cost. Since we have to meet our obligations for contribution (shared costs) to the University and we have ambitions for investment there is a significant challenge in balancing the various tensions within the system.  

Data protection

This is not a very exciting topic, but it is important! I recently completed the University’s data protection training, which everyone working at the University should be doing every two years to comply with guidance from the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). However, the uptake amongst academics and researchers has been very low with only 30% completing the training. PSS completion is much better at around 80% but everyone in the Faculty needs to complete the training as it is mandatory. It is not difficult and it does not take very long so please just go and do it before someone thinks up a punitive measure to make us do it. The training is one of the key planks in the University’s programme of compliance for the new General Data Protection Regulation which comes into force on 25 May, and thus is essential for safeguarding the University and the work and documents of individuals. Read more. 

China

Last week I hosted a dinner discussion in the Oriental Club in London for a number of our alumni. The theme of our evening was around understanding the emergence of China as a global power and we had a lively discussion led by our colleagues, Professors Pete Gries, Yang-wen Zheng and Yaojun Li. The development of our new Manchester China Institute, led by Director Pete Gries, is progressing quickly and anyone interested in finding out more can now be directed to the new website, where they can hear Pete talk about the new Institute.

And finally 

Did I mention the Calcutta Cup?

Best wishes, 

Keith

Dear colleagues,

Celebrating Humanities

The University and the Faculty of Humanities continues to make progress in achieving our ambitions which is reflected in a number of positive developments and results. We have many interesting and impactful research projects underway, we have innovative and inspiring teaching and we have a very supportive and knowledgeable team of Professional Support Services staff who underpin a large majority of our work.

Good news and publicity

In addition to the media spotlight on Universities generally, we have had some very positive coverage including the news that Manchester City Captain, Vincent Kompany, has graduated with a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) – great publicity for Alliance Manchester Business School.

Two of our Humanities colleagues were honoured by the Queen in the 2018 New Year’s Honours list. Professor Diane Coyle was made CBE for her services to Economics and the Public Understanding of Economics, while Honorary Professor and entrepreneur Vikas Shah, of Alliance Manchester Business School, was made an MBE. Congratulations to them both.

An important development for the University, and Humanities in particular, is that Maxine Peake has become an Honorary Professor of Literature and Performance and will be working with our colleagues in the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures (SALC). Maxine, who was born and lives in Manchester, is a highly-acclaimed theatre actress as well as being the star of many films and TV productions. Such a high profile appointment will help us to further develop our creative and cultural partnerships, as well as benefitting our students who will have the opportunity to work alongside such an experienced and popular actress. This comes on the back of the recent announcement that Manchester is to become a UNESCO City of Literature, which is a huge opportunity for Humanities.

Employability

The University is back at No. 1 as the most targeted university by employers in the latest High Fliers Graduate Market report 2018 which is great news, especially for student recruitment. The University has also reached Number 30 on this year’s Inclusive Top 50 UK Employers list which shines a light on best practice across all strands of diversity including age, disability, gender, LGBT, race, faith & religion. Such positive external affirmation underlines how great The University of Manchester is as a place to study and work.

Manchester China Institute

Recently we announced the launch of our new Manchester China Institute which will be led by Professor Peter Gries, who joined us last summer from the USA. The Institute has been supported by a £5 million donation from honorary graduate Dr Lee Kai Hung, a prominent businessman in Greater Manchester and Hong Kong. Simone Corsi has now been appointed Manager of the Institute, which will initially focus on Chinese politics and culture. China continues to be our most important market for overseas student recruitment and is increasingly significant to us in developing research partnerships.

Inspiring Leaders Programme

As was highlighted in one of the President and Vice-Chancellor’s recent updates, the University recently launched the Inspiring Leaders Programme. This programme currently involves members of the University’s Senior Leadership Team, Heads of Schools and Professional Support Services Directorates and leaders of discipline areas, teaching, research and social responsibility. It is hoped that that this programme will enhance the leadership capacity of the organisation and encourage a wider engagement of staff across the University, as well as a mutual exchange of ideas and sharing of problems and solutions. By supporting our current leaders to build a consistent understanding and approach, together we will be able to create a real shift.

Is the University a business?

The start of this year saw another flurry of media reporting on universities, with the formation of the Office for Students being overshadowed by controversy about Government appointments. There has also been a Cabinet reshuffle which resulted in ministerial changes that have a direct bearing on the future of Higher Education, with a review of student fees now a certainty. We cannot escape the continued spotlight on universities, and some of that conversation strikes at the very purpose of what universities are here to do and how they should do it.

Young people and their parents, who often fund their studies, are increasingly looking for value for money when considering application to university, or in evaluating the experience. Faced with borrowing on a significant scale to fund their studies, students ask which university or programme will deliver the best return on their investment. That investment is not just financial, being also about time and effort, and the return is not only financial either but includes the additional opportunities different courses or institutions provide. The value prospective students attach will vary depending on the course they choose and what they want to do after university. Unsurprisingly, the public, the media and politicians are asking similar questions, and whether we like it or not, public opinion increasingly considers universities a market not unlike many others. Across our Schools and Faculty, therefore, we need to look at how we respond to that agenda which will not go away even if a review sees a reduction in the price of fees. We need to deploy our collective expertise and experience to take control of how we respond in a way that shows we are the best the market has to offer, whilst at the same time satisfying our own academic and professional needs.  I’m looking at ways to engage with all colleagues on this, and am looking forward to finding out more about what you think this means for the Faculty.

New Head of School

Professor Brian Heaphy has been appointed to the role of Head of the School of Social Sciences. Brian, who is Professor of Sociology, will take up this post on 1 August 2018 for a period of five years. Chris Orme will continue in post until 31 July 2018. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Chris for everything he has achieved within the School and his contribution to the Faculty.

National Student Survey

The National Student Survey (NSS) opened this week and students will be able to give their feedback until 29 April. Staff who have regular contact with students are vital to increasing response rates. We are aware that the Student’s Union is planning to boycott the survey again this year, so if your role puts you in direct contact with students please take the opportunity to speak to them about the importance of completing the NSS. It is anonymous and the most important way that our students, as a collective body, can influence the current and future delivery of teaching, learning and student experience and doctoral training. Visit StaffNet for more information.

And finally

As some of you may know, I chair the University Programme Management Board and I have responsibility for coordinating change management projects across the University. Most of these changes are driven by external pressures such as technological innovation or policy shifts, and by the need to be more efficient in our use of scarce resources. In thinking about and planning change, we need to take account of staff capacity to cope with change and to manage change.

Yet even when the intent is to reduce pressure and workload the perception and the reality can be the opposite. Indeed, we have often asked how we can find ways of doing less in order to do better – a question that has yet to receive a single, meaningful response. Confucius suggested that people should ‘Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life’. As a young academic, I could identify with that view of my research and teaching, and many academics will still experience that sense of vocation some of the time.

However, I recognise that for many colleagues, academic and professional, the experience of work can be less positive and that the challenges are growing. So, I repeat the question – what can we do less of? Please talk about it in your research groups, teaching and office teams and departments. Send your suggestions to your line managers who will pass it on or email to facultyadministration@manchester.ac.uk. Confucius, of course, was speaking from a position of privilege to educated elites – very few people can chose a job that does not involve work. But we ought to be better at making work more enjoyable and more fulfilling more often.

Best wishes

Keith

Dear colleagues, 

Conspiracy theorists might be forgiven for thinking that there is a concerted political attack on universities at present. In recent months there has been negative commentary on student debt, vice-chancellors’ pay, teaching standards, freedom of speech, Brexit studies, ethnic diversity and employability. So far we have not been blamed for environmental change or rising interest rates, but who knows where the next assault will come from given the current frenzy? The point is that the UK higher education sector is coming under immense political pressure and this is likely to continue. Getting onto the front foot and demonstrating our societal and economic value is more important than ever and we all need to give this some thought. 

M2020 update 

As you will know, the Voluntary Severance (VS) scheme, taken together with other actions, has met the objectives of the planned staffing changes in all areas in the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures and in Alliance Manchester Business School. Hence it will not be necessary to introduce a compulsory redundancy process in these areas and staff are no longer ‘at risk’ of redundancy. All staff in these areas and the trade unions have been informed of this position. Recent months have been difficult, particularly for staff in affected areas, but we can now focus on the future and on our ambitious and important goals for the University. I am committed to ongoing, meaningful dialogue and engagement with staff at all levels as we continue to work together to deliver the strategic vision for the University. 

School visits 

Last month, I began my annual programme of visits to our Schools, visiting colleagues in the Schools of Arts, Languages and Cultures, Social Sciences and Law, and this week I visited the School of Environment, Education and Development and Alliance Manchester Business School. These visits give me an opportunity to meet staff within Schools and update them on how the Faculty and Schools are progressing against our key targets for research, teaching and learning and social responsibility. I am able to recognise some of the many highlights and successes of the past year and to outline the priorities we will be addressing over the coming year. The University continues to perform extremely well - 34th in the world in the QS world rankings 2017 and 5th out of the UK institutions (33rd in the world) which feature in the QS Graduate Employability Rankings 2018 - in spite of the huge external political and financial pressures alongside the impact of a series of important change programmes. We have some challenges which we must address – postgraduate completion, recruiting higher quality students, student attainment and satisfaction, and research grant income. It has been encouraging to see many of you attending this important forum as it is a key opportunity to ask questions. 

Annual Performance Review 

The Faculty’s Senior Management Team participated in our Annual Performance Review (APR) last week, a three-hour grilling by the President and members of the University Senior Leadership Team on any aspect of our activities over the previous 12 months. It is also an opportunity for us to lay out our ambitions for the year ahead. A huge amount of preparation goes into this process and the amount of data tabled is staggering! The two topics we selected for extended discussion were the Faculty’s size and shape since we must continue to examine our student quality and composition (home/international, undergraduate/postgraduate, and campus/distance) alongside issues of optimal scale of research groupings within the context of our overall activities, and staff engagement. The APR discussion was constructive and useful and the SLT recognised the good performance in the Faculty while noting, and agreeing with, our areas for improvement. You can find my summary introduction to the APR document (written before the conclusion of the M2020 staffing changes) on the central document store.  

Time Flies

Last week a colleague from another university and I were filmed being interviewed at a public event in Glasgow. This hour and a half ordeal was part of a series in which senior academics of our generation were asked to reflect on the progress of Scottish History over the course of our working lives, which in my case is four decades if the undergraduate years are included. The intention is to capture and archive our thoughts, presumably before we die or cease to make sense! Given that this period encompassed two Independence referendums and huge political and cultural change, it has been an interesting journey for historians of Scotland. It was very strange to find oneself a subject of historical enquiry, but it was a useful exercise in thinking about what we had achieved as researchers and teachers and to comment on successes and disappointments over such a relatively long period. Regardless of age, you might find it interesting to indulge in a similar private exercise, setting aside the short-term personal career goals and the imposed institutional objectives, to ask yourself what it has all been about. 

Finally 

Congratulations to those colleagues in the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures who were part of the successful bid to have Manchester recognised as a UNESCO City of Literature which will create further opportunities to work with our partners in raising the profile of the arts and culture within the city region.

Best wishes

Keith

Dear colleagues,

I never cease to be astonished by the extraordinary variety of what goes on in the Faculty of Humanities. In the last few days I have joined a large audience at the 125th anniversary of the founding of our Department of Geography; a fringe meeting at the Conservative Party Conference at which Diane Coyle debated the merits of the Government's Industrial Strategy and the Northern Powerhouse with Greg Clarke, Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and others; and an in-conversation event between Ian McGuire and the writers John Banville and Mike McCormack at the Manchester Literature Festival. Sadly, I missed the opening of the Work and Equalities Institute, the talk by George Osborne, and I am still trying to find time to visit the John Rylands exhibition on the Reformation. I know there are many other fascinating events going on, all of which underlines the remarkable nature of this community and its dedication to learning.

Annual Performance Review: looking ahead 

During the past 12 months, we have had lots to celebrate including the launch of the Manchester Urban Institute, £18m in funding from the Economic and Social Science Research Council (ESRC) to provide a minimum of 41 postgraduate studentships each year for six years, three award-winning authors joined the Centre for New Writing, the Schools of Law and Social Sciences were each awarded the Bronze Athena SWAN Award, the Destination of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE) survey showed a 3.3% increase for the Faculty, rising from 73.5% to 76.8% in positive destinations, Yaron Matras (SALC) was awarded a highly prestigious British Academy Wolfson Research Professorships, and we have just heard that Claire Alexander, Colette Fagan, Rachel Griffith and Vera Tolz have been made Fellows of the Academy of Social Sciences.

Next month, as a Faculty, we will have our Annual Performance Review (APR). This is where we discuss with the President and University Senior Leadership Team (SLT) the Faculty’s performance in 2016-17 and outline our priorities and challenges for the year ahead. As part of the planning for 2017-18, we will address operational priorities and activities that contribute to achieving the Faculty’s strategic goal of re-shaping for the future, look at activities to improve engagement with staff, and address concerns evidenced in the Staff Survey. We will continue to seek ways to enhance research quality and academic impact in preparation for REF2021, addressing the need to find the right mix of academic time to help drive up quality. We will emphasise the ongoing enhancement of the academic student experience for all of our students. 

Given the squeeze on University funding, exacerbated in recent days by the freeze on student fees, we need to increase and diversify our income. We will continue to develop ways to generate increased income from international student recruitment, transnational education and distance learning provision, while taking into account the impact of the various change programmes and reviews currently underway, as well as the financial impact of strategic decisions regarding student quality. It is important that we generate this income to cover existing costs and to invest in new initiatives. 

Student recruitment 

This year our strategy was to improve the quality of intake by sticking to stricter entry grades. Although specific tariff data is not yet available to verify an improvement in average tariff, we are confident of a positive outcome. It was a challenging year due to various factors, and as a result we will fall short of our undergraduate and postgraduate taught targets in some areas, but by attracting the highest quality students we are putting ourselves in a positive position to enhance our reputation and achieve our ambitions. Similarly, our focus for postgraduate research has been to improve the quality of our PGR intake for 2017. We are hopeful that, despite falling short of our PGR recruitment target this year, we will continue to see an improvement in the quality of the researchers joining our Faculty. 

REF2021 

HEFCE published its initial decisions on REF2021 last month, which includes some changes to the weightings including an increase of 5% for impact at the expense of outputs. Read the latest report. We will shortly be undertaking a deep review of REF readiness, seeking to explore below the headline data to examine each of our 19 Units of Assessment (UoAs). This is an extremely important exercise and I would like to thank all of you who are engaged in preparing for these meetings. 

M2020: proposed redundancies 

You should have heard that a decision has been made by the University Board of Governors to move to compulsory redundancy for a small number of PSS staff in the Faculty Office of the Faculty of Science and Engineering. Affected staff will leave the University next June unless redeployment opportunities can be secured in the meantime and every effort is being made to secure that outcome. As for the position of staff in the Alliance Business School, the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures and the Faculty of Biological, Medical and Health Sciences, the University is waiting to see whether those ‘at risk’ staff who have applied for voluntary severance will accept the terms offered to them. I am aware that this continues to be an unsettling time and that staff morale has been impacted in the affected areas. However, the University remains hopeful that we can avoid the need for Compulsory Redundancy.

You will know that members of the UCU have voted that they are prepared to take industrial action, possibly on Monday 23 and Tuesday 24 October. Every effort will be made to ensure that there will be no significant disruption to operations at the University and particularly to our students should there be any industrial action. 

 Staff changes 

Finally, I would like to thank a number of colleagues for their hard work and leadership over the last few years as they take on new roles. Tim Allott has done an excellent job as Head of the School of Environment, Education and Development over the past three years and will step down at the end of this month. Martin Evans has been appointed as the new Head of School from November 2017. Emma Rose has left her role as Head of School Administration in Law this week and will be the Faculty’s Head of Teaching, Learning and Student Experience from Monday. And looking further ahead, Chris Orme recently announced that he will be stepping down from his position as Head of the School of Social Sciences in June 2018. 

I would also like to congratulate Fiona Smyth on becoming the Faculty’s new Deputy Dean, a role previously held by Colette Fagan. Fiona will continue in her role as Vice-Dean for Teaching, Learning and Students alongside the new position. Interviews took place this week for Colette’s previous role as Vice-Dean for Research. 

Finally 

Yes, Scotland failed to qualify for the World Cup again so there is no need to bring the matter up!

Best wishes

Keith

Dear colleagues, 

Welcome back to the start of a new semester. I hope you found the time to enjoy some annual leave. In my case that was back in Scotland where the weather was not at its best! Still, there was time to mess around and to read a few books. I can recommend Matthew Syed's 'Black Box Thinking' and Niall Ferguson's 'Civilisation: the West and the Rest' which has been sitting around in my study for years, but Mikhail Bulgakov's 'The White Guard' did not do it for me at all. The remainder of the (short!) time was spent moving valuable administrative tasks forward, or catching up with some research. I had a journal article published in August and the buzz I get from seeing something in print after so much effort never lessens. Most of you will, no doubt, have had a similar mix of rest and working on a range of tasks for which there is less time during the rest of the year. For some colleagues, involvement in admissions, or the grading of masters' dissertations, or attending a round of conferences means the summer can be very busy indeed. 

New colleagues

I would particularly like to welcome those new staff who have joined the Faculty. It is always one of the more enjoyable events of the year to welcome early career Academic staff at the Humanities New Academics Programme (HNAP), when I have the opportunity to talk about the University and the Faculty. This year there are 49 on HNAP, evidence of how we constantly bring fresh energy and ideas into the organisation. It is also good to welcome those new senior Academics and new Professional Support Service staff (PSS) who have joined us recently. You are now part of a great University, and I hope you all fulfil your ambitions in your time within the Faculty of Humanities. Of course, we also value the loyalty and commitment of those of you who have been with us for some time and who are eager to get started on another academic year. 

And while we welcome new colleagues to the Faculty, I would also like to thank Deputy Dean and Vice-Dean for Research, Colette Fagan, for all her hard work and commitment to the Faculty over the last few years. Colette has been an outstanding member of the Faculty's Senior Management Team and a great personal support to me. She takes up her now role of Vice-President for Research on the 2 October. 

The higher education sector 

The summer has not been a very positive experience for HE in the news. Since the election, there has been a race to the bottom among politicians and journalists to attack universities. The criticism of student finance is levelled against the sector without any intelligent discussion of alternative ways to fund universities. It is also being framed entirely by the worst-case scenario cost to the student with no awareness of the actual cost of providing that student with a good university experience. The increasingly toxic atmosphere is also being fuelled by the sensationalist discussion of Vice-Chancellors' pay in which the sector has not been helped by extreme examples of some VCs whose remuneration is difficult to justify. 

At the same time, the reputation of UK university teaching continues to be undermined by ill-informed commentators drawing on their own personal experiences. The National Student Survey has been brought further into disrepute by the student boycott and consequently the recent results are problematic for many institutions, including The University of Manchester. There has been ministerial criticism of grade inflation without any understanding of what is driving that trend, and the widening participation agenda is often discussed as a Higher Education issue with little attempt to understand the broader context. 

Meanwhile, Brexit moves forward without any greater clarity around access to research funding, or the impact on our EU staff, and we still await the final version of the Research Excellence Framework even though submission is now only a few years away. There is a looming pension crisis which will affect many of us and carries the threat of disruptive industrial relations. The issue over the relationship between visas for overseas students and immigration statistics rumbles on unhelpfully. So, not much to worry about out there!  

M2020

I know that there are very different views across our community on the merits of the announcements about reductions in roles made by the University in May, and in spite of long hours of consultation with the campus Trade Unions in which considerable concessions were made, a ballot on industrial action is underway. The Voluntary Severance (VS) schemes for PSS and for Academics have now closed. In the PSS we did not receive the number of applications we had hoped for in at least one area and we will prepare the case for Staffing Committee to recommend to our Board of Governors the use of a compulsory redundancy (CR) process for a small number of roles in these specific areas of the PSS, which will be implemented only if we are unable to find redeployment opportunities for affected staff.  

We are currently assessing the VS applications from Academics in the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures (SALC) and in the Alliance Manchester Business School (AMBS) while drawing up contingency plans for implementing CR. If we do not have the necessary numbers in the required places we will proceed to ask the Board for approval to proceed to CR. Hopefully, this will not be necessary as we all want to move on from what is a very difficult and bruising, though necessary, experience. 

Student recruitment

 Over the last few months the very hard work of conversion has continued in order to meet demanding student recruitment targets. As you know, this was made more difficult by our decision to hold a strong line on entry grades and by external issues, including changes to the A-Levels, a fall in school leaver numbers and very aggressive behaviours by some of our competitors. Early indications suggest that we will have achieved our strategic objective of raising entry grades while meeting most of our number targets at undergraduate and postgraduate taught level. It will be some weeks before we can confirm our recruitment numbers and Professor Fiona Smyth, Vice-Dean for Teaching, Learning and Students, will report on this at more length in an October issue of eNews. Thank you to those Faculty and School officers, Academics and PSS, who worked so very hard to ensure that we will have a large, high-quality intake this year and who are already turning their minds to the next campaign.  

Embracing change 

I have made the point on a number of occasions that we should get used to the idea that change is the norm, and we need to get better at anticipating, managing and exploiting it. Some 2,500 years ago the Greek philosopher, Heraclitus, wrote that 'Nothing endures but change', and that is even more true today. So, whether it is implementing the Student Lifecycle Project, reforming the curriculum in the School of Law, aligning to the new Research Excellence Framework rules, bringing together a new Faculty Senior Leadership Team, adjusting to IT transformation, learning new research methodologies, or planning for life after Brexit, we cannot stand still. Therefore, I cannot promise you that there will be no more change. What I will endeavour to ensure is that, as far as is possible, we place the welfare of staff and students at the heart of what we do in pursuit of our ambitions.  

Looking forward 

As always, there is a great deal happening in the months ahead. We are launching the new Work and Equalities Institute, the Department of Geography is celebrating its 125^th birthday with a series of special events, the new AMBS Executive Education Centre with adjoining hotel will open in the spring of 2018, the University will launch a scheme to appoint 100 Early Career Academics, we will kick-start our new China Centre following the arrival of its new Director, Professor Peter Gries, we anticipate intimating a new initiative linked to the creative industries, and we are optimistic of a positive outcome from the submission of the renewal bid for the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) North West Consortium Doctoral Training Partnership (NWCDTP). Alongside all this activity, dozens of new courses will be launched and hundreds of research papers and books will be published. We are all a part of this exciting and energetic journey and we all have a part to play in our future. I hope you have a rich and rewarding year ahead.

Dear colleague,

M2020

Unsurprisingly, issues arising from the M2020 programme continue to dominate much of our business at this time. In recent weeks I have attended a session of the consultation meetings with the trade unions, led a discussion of the projects involving all of the Faculty of Humanities managers, joined Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor, and Fiona Devine, Head of Alliance Business School, at a Q&A session with AMBS staff at their School Board meeting, participated in a debate on the subject at Senate, and taken part in many other meetings at different levels across the University. It is important that we have these discussions and, while strong opinions have been expressed, they have been conducted in a mutually respectful atmosphere. Further meetings and discussions will carry on in the weeks ahead, not least because the consultation period continues. Meanwhile, the Voluntary Severance scheme has been opened and for those at risk in those areas of the PSS in which restructures are planned, the closing date is 31 July. Academic staff who are at risk have until 29 August to seek advice from their line managers and HR partners and to make what will be important decisions about their future.

TEF

As you know, the University of Manchester was awarded silver in the TEF which, though not a poor result, is disappointing given our ambitions. As a Faculty, we have made very significant progress in improving the student experience in recent years both in and out of the classroom, and we have come some distance in promoting parity of esteem between research and teaching. Nevertheless, it remains the case that we do not recruit sufficient numbers of high-quality students, that we need to improve retention rates, good degree attainment and employability, while NSS consistently tells us that there remain aspects of our teaching that are leaving our students disappointed. So, silver is fine, and I would like to thank those who helped us achieve this, but we will be aiming higher for the next TEF and that means we have a lot to do over the next couple of years.

REF

Thank you for completing your RRE returns and an even bigger thank you to those colleagues who reviewed the submissions. Currently we are on course to meet our targets, although there are caveats around the precision of the exercise so our optimism must remain very cautious. The results of consultation on the REF are expected in late September, following which planning will be calibrated to whatever changes are announced. In the autumn, the Faculty will undertake a major internal review of the preparation of all of our Faculty's Units of Assessment proposed submissions to Panels C and D. In the meantime, for those of you who are researchers, I hope the break from teaching (which is too short!), allows you time to enjoy a holiday and make progress on whatever projects you have underway. Hopefully, by the time the new session begins the rules for the next REF will be clearer.

2016-17

We have had some great achievements during the past year including: the launch of the  Manchester Urban Institute in February; a number of high-profile appointments to senior positions including John Bercow,  Sir Howard Bernstein, Sir Mark Elder (who was also made Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour) and George Osborne; it was announced that the award-winning authors Kamila Shamsie, Will Boast and Honor Gavin will be joining the Centre for New Writing; Alliance Manchester Business School (AMBS) rose significantly in the Financial Times Global MBA Rankings, jumping eight places to 30th in the world, and it is now ranked as one of Europe’s top ten business schools, and third in the UK; AMBS was also given a further five years of accreditation from AACSB International; Carol Smart, a feminist sociologist and currently Professor Emerita of Sociology, was awarded a CBE; work has been progressing to transform the Samuel Alexander Building and the Alliance Manchester Business School, while important refurbishment took place in Humanities Bridgeford Street to provide additional space for the School of Social Sciences (SoSS); Law and SoSS secured bronze awards for the Athena Swan Charter.

We were very successful in attracting ESRC funding for doctoral training, making us partners in one of the largest Doctoral Training Partnerships in the UK, as well as partners in the two new Centres for Doctoral Training; our Humanities Strategic Investment Fund is supporting new research and teaching partnerships between members of our schools and leading universities in the US (Chicago for example), Brazil (FGV), India (JNU) and Australia (Melbourne). This year we have secured a number of major prestigious and international research awards, including EU funding for James Rothwell (SEED); Stefan Bouzarovski (SEED), Natalie Schlomo (SoSS) and Hilary Pilkington (SoSS). One of four British Academy/Wolfson Research Professorships was awarded to Yaron Matras (SALC), and we were chosen to receive a major new award from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) for Andrew James and colleagues in AMBS collaborating with the Faculty of Science and Engineering.

Over the course of this session, we have had changes in the Faculty’s Senior Management Team (SMT) with the appointment of Vikki Goddard as Director of Faculty Operations and Nicola Smith as Head of Faculty Finance. Further changes are imminent as Marianne Webb joins us as the Head of Communications and Marketing (from 7 August), while Stuart Jones will take over as the Associate Dean for Postgraduate Research (new academic year) and Andy Westwood as the Vice-Dean for Social Responsibility (new academic year). I am also delighted to report that Martin Evans will take over as Head of SEED from November.

I would like to thank those members of SMT who are demitting office in the next few weeks. Maja Zehfuss and Ken McPhail have made huge contributions in their respective roles as Associate Dean Postgraduate Research and Vice Dean Social Responsibility, but also to the wider leadership of the Faculty. Maja will be embarking on a much deserved period of research leave while Ken is heading off to take up the role of Director of Research in AMBS.

And finally

As this is my last Message until October, I would like to thank you all for your hard work during the past 12 months. Although the work of a University does not stop over the summer, hopefully most of you will be able to take a break at some point and relax after a very busy year.

Best wishes,

Keith

Dear colleagues, 

The last few weeks have been difficult following the M2020 announcements and there will have been increased anxiety as people absorb the implications for themselves or people they know. As Vice-President and Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, I fully support the University's proposals, although I recognise that some of you will disagree with them. There has been a great deal of discussion, formally as part of the University's discussions with our Board of Governors and consultation with the Trade Unions, and in meetings between management and staff, but also in the many private conversations that will have taken place. Thankfully the tone of those discussions has largely remained civil and mutually respectful. 

As you know, we have ambitious aims for the University and for our Faculty, but at present we are some way behind key competitor institutions. Within Humanities we have a number of projects associated with the M2020 Programme. The AMBS and SALC projects are designed to increase the quality of the student intake with a view to improving the overall student experience and outcomes. In SALC the context is one of increasing competition for a shrinking market in certain disciplines, while in AMBS the planned reduction in student numbers is in recognition of the difficulty in attracting the current volume of students at a higher quality. Consequently, we must reduce the number of academic staff roles in AMBS and SALC. In addition, the University has proposed a reduction of finance PSS within the Faculty.

In neither case are we responding to underlying financial concerns - this is about increasing quality. It is also important to underline that the planned hire of around one hundred early career academics has nothing to do with replacing existing staff, but will allow us to invest in new areas where there are research or teaching opportunities and to invest in the future. 

While  consultation with the Trade Unions continues in relation to the proposed reductions of posts in AMBS and SALC, the University believes it is the right time to open the Voluntary Severance (VS) Scheme for applications from ‘at risk’ staff. We hope that this announcement may begin to remove some of the uncertainty and anxiety. 

As the M2020 programme objective is to increase excellence, I must emphasise that applications for VS will be considered on the basis of the University’s core mission and requirements. This means that applications will not be accepted where an individual holds a critical skill which is not available elsewhere in the area, and/or where their loss would impact significantly on the University’s core activities.  

Staff in AMBS and SALC who are eligible to apply for VS received information about their options this week and support for staff ‘at risk’ will continue during this unsettling time. In the first instance, if you wish to discuss any concerns or questions, please contact your line manager. Your local HR Partner or Trade Union Representative is available to support you as required. It is very important that you seek good advice and support at this time so that you can make a decision that is in your own best interests.                                                           

For the latest updates on M2020, visit the Staffnet M2020 pages and the M2020 page on HumNet which provides more information and regularly updated frequently asked questions relating to AMBS and SALC. If you do not understand this information or require further support then please seek advice from your immediate manager or HR staff in the first instance, or email m2020@manchester.ac.uk. 

It is very important that during this time, especially in SALC and AMBS, we do not lose sight of the many positive things that are happening across Humanities. A significant number of our colleagues will have received news of promotion in recent weeks, new appointments continue to be made, grants are being won, books and articles are being published, conferences are taking place, student recruitment is closing in on targets, exams are being graded, and engagement with our range of stakeholders, local, national  and international continue.

We are a remarkable community of staff and students whose achievements and successes we must continue to celebrate.

Best wishes,

Keith

Dear colleagues, 

Board of Governors Conference

The Board of Governors' annual Accountability and Planning Conference took place last week when members of the Senior Leadership Team and the Planning and Resources Committee faced questions on the University's performance and gave an indication of future plans. We heard an excellent presentation from Nicola Dandridge, Chief Executive of Universities UK, who outlined the higher education landscape which, she said, was facing levels of unprecedented change. 

Members of the Board commented positively on the transparent and helpful use of management information, the strong teamwork of SLT and the quality of discussion. There was a recognition of the considerable success on many fronts, but also of areas where performance was less satisfactory. We discussed the financial gaps that would need to be bridged if we are to fund our ambitions. 

Among the highlights were posters from graduates who had been supported by the Manchester Enterprise Centre, located in AMBS, in starting up their businesses. Another highlight was a Barber Shop Quartet formed our by Music students.

Budget 

As was indicated above, the University and the HE sector in general is facing huge financial pressures which we have built into our modelling and which has resulted in further increases in our contribution targets over the next year if we are to meet our ambitions. At the same time, we are sticking to our resolve to raise the standards of our student intake in order to improve the overall learning and teaching experience for students and staff. Obviously, this will have cost implications which we will address. We have completed the first round of budget discussions within the Faculty and at this stage we are reasonably content with the outcome. We now proceed to the budget challenge phase when the University will examine the financial plans of all parts of the organisation, following which we may have to make further adjustments. I will update you in due course.

Building US relationships 

In March, the President and Vice-Chancellor and I welcomed to the University the Acting Ambassador at the US Embassy in the UK, Lewis Lukens. Mr Lukens gave a presentation to students and staff from American Studies and to American scholarship holders on the special relationship between the US and UK, following which he fielded a succession of penetrating questions from our staff and students. This was a great opportunity to showcase some of our important work and build links with the US and in a private meeting I was able to discuss with him some of our ambitions. The US is a strategic priority for the Faculty and building strong collaborations with universities there is a key focus of our activities.

New two-step login process 

Have you ever encountered security issues with your private computer? Similar problems face the University and we have to take steps to ensure better cyber security. You will see communications shortly about a new two-step login process which will come into place in June for all staff logging on to emails. IT Services is due to launch a campaign this month to highlight the new process, which will be mandatory to all staff and is part of a wider cyber security programme to protect sensitive data from theft or accidental loss. I would encourage everyone to read the updates that you receive so that you are well-prepared for the start of the new two-step login process. Once this comes into effect, to access your email you will have to enter your username as usual but will then be required to complete a second step where you will be asked to enter a code that will be sent to your mobile, or landline if you do not use a mobile. Read more in the full article.

Stellify 

A qualification from The University of Manchester is already a great way for our students to stand out among employers. However, to further distinguish themselves from other graduates in such a competitive environment, our students need to show that they have gained extra-curricular experience alongside their academic studies. 

With this in mind, Stellify has been launched to encourage students to create a distinctive identity for themselves based around five key attributes, these being Embracing learning without boundaries, Understanding the issues that matter, Making a difference, Stepping up and leading, and Looking to the future.

Find out how you can encourage our students to do more through Stellify to ensure they have the best opportunities when they leave the University.

Staff Survey 2017 

When I completed the Staff Survey this year, I did so in the knowledge that my views would be considered and acted upon. Being a part of the post-survey planning process, I know that a lot of time was spent analysing the 2015 feedback, at School, Faculty and University levels, and many activities and new ways of working were put in place in response to staff views. I would encourage everyone to take 15 minutes out of their working day to fill out the survey to ensure that their views are heard. With just over one week to go until the survey closes, the current University response rate is 62% and the Faculty response rate is 56%. We are aiming for a University response rate of at least 75% so that we know that the feedback we are analysing covers the views of as many staff as possible.

Fulbright Distinguished Chair award 

I am pleased to announce that the Faculty will welcome a Fulbright Distinguished Chair from 2018. The Distinguished Chair award is amongst the most prestigious appointment in the US Fulbright Scholar programme. It is awarded by a select number of international universities to eminent American scholars with a distinguished publication and teaching record. Applications for the Fulbright-University of Manchester Distinguished Chair award are now open and can be made online through the Council for International Exchange of Scholars (CIES). You can read more in the full article.

Best wishes

Keith

Dear colleagues,  

I was in the US at the end of February, visiting an unseasonably warm Washington. As you might expect, it was difficult to be there without being aware of the political context. I passed a man on a square behind the White House who was proclaiming that Donald Trump is Jesus Christ, having fulfilled the promise of the Second Coming. No-one in the small crowd seemed very surprised! I also watched a TV interview with a woman who asserted repeatedly that Donald Trump is worse than Adolf Hitler. So, not much of a grasp of theology or history in evidence which in the so-called post truth culture is where we come in. Clearly there is an issue around the extent to which academics are divorced from large swathes of the population and our mono-culture is something that perhaps needs addressing, but we have an important role in promoting rigorous enquiry and as seekers after truth. As George Orwell put it, 'In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act'. Of course, one could draw a line from some of the nonsense about 'alternative facts' to aspects of postmodern thinking and relative versions of truth which has its origins inside Universities, particularly within humanities! 

As for the business of my trip, I represented the University at the University Research Association (URA) Conference which was largely about major science research facilities and where the tone regarding political change was one of muted caution. 

I also had the opportunity to meet with representatives from the British Council, RCUK, the Science Innovation Network and the Institute of International Education where we had valuable discussions on the research landscape in the US and how best to engage with it. It was especially helpful to get further insight into the Fulbright Distinguished Chair scheme about which we will shortly be making an announcement.

Strategic budget and planning meetings 

As I outlined last month, there is an immediate focus on the strategic budget and planning meetings which are set to take place between the Faculty and our Schools throughout March. Contribution targets have been agreed by the University’s Senior Leadership Team (SLT) and work is underway to generate the financial models in each School that will allow us to meet them at a Faculty level. 

These targets are challenging and have been set at a level that enables the University to meet the 2020 vision and ensure financial sustainability. To achieve this ambition they include new income streams around Distance Learning and philanthropy. We have work to do within the Faculty to ensure we have effective strategies to deliver in these areas and we will be progressing these over the next few months.  

Student Surveys 

We are now in the midst of the annual National Student Survey (NSS) for undergraduates, and the Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey (PTES) and Postgraduate Research Experience Surveys (PRES) are due to open on 6 March and 3 April respectively.

As you know, student surveys in general, and in particular the NSS, are the most important way that our students, as a collective body, can influence current and future delivery of teaching, learning and student experience and doctoral training. They are an opportunity for students to provide anonymised comments and feedback on all areas of our student-facing activities. 

The results of the surveys are used to help inform developments within the Faculty and wider University and are regularly used by the President and Vice-Chancellor in Annual Performance Reviews as indicators of our Schools’ performance. 

If you are in a role which brings you into direct contact with students, please take the opportunity to speak to them about the importance of completing the surveys.

Staff Survey 

Sticking with surveys, you may have already seen the publicity about the biennial Staff Survey, which opens on Monday. The survey, which is again being run by an external agency, Capita, is an opportunity for you to provide confidential feedback on your experiences of working at the University and tell us what you think about key issues. 

Within the Faculty and University, senior leadership values your opinions and feedback and we consider the results of the staff survey when developing our strategic priorities. From the last survey in 2015 we introduced a number of measures to focus on how we manage change, to address work-life balance, and to improve communications across the Faculty, all a direct result of your feedback. In the next few days, you will receive an email asking you to complete the survey, which should take no more than 15 minutes. 

New appointments to the Faculty Senior Management 

We will be welcoming a number of new faces to the Faculty Senior Management Team over the next few months, as we have successfully progressed recruitment to a number of key roles. 

We will be welcoming a new Director of Faculty Operations in early May when Vikki Goddard will be joining us from the University of Salford where she is currently Chief Operating Officer, having previously been the Registrar. Vikki has served in a number of other senior administrative roles at the University of Liverpool, where she was Director of Planning, and the University of Bradford. She brings a wealth of experience to inform how we manage and deliver our Professional Support Services (PSS). Vikki will take over from Dr Andrew Walsh, who has been Acting Director of Faculty Operations since November. 

We will also welcome a new Head of Faculty Finance, Nicola Smith, who will be joining us on 3 April. Nicola has previously held the role of Head of Faculty Finance in the former Faculty of Life Sciences (FLS) and will take over from Philippa Woods who has been Acting Head of Faculty Finance since the Autumn. Philippa will return to her role as Head of Financial Reporting and Analysis for the Faculty. 

We are also currently recruiting a new Head of the School of Environment, Education and Development, a new Head of Communications and Marketing and a Vice Dean for Social Responsibility, as Ken McPhail is taking up the role of Director of Research in Alliance Manchester Business School in the summer. 

I was invited to present an update on the Faculty to the Board of Governors a couple of weeks ago and one of the questions I was asked was about the very high turn-over of senior staff. The answer, which was provided by the President, was that Humanities produces so many talented leaders that other parts of the University and other organisations poach them. I think this is correct and it is true not only at the level of Senior Management Team (SMT), but also at other levels throughout Academic and PSS activity, particularly at what is often described inelegantly as fourth tier. On that point, I have long recognised the importance of this group of colleagues in providing leadership, and over the next few months we will be developing and rolling out plans to reinforce support for colleagues working at the level of heads of division/discipline and as school directors.

Best wishes, 

Keith

Dear colleagues,

Policy 

So, 2017 was only in its second week and the Higher Education Bill ran into trouble in the House of Lords in what could be the first of many Opposition amendments to force compromises by the Government. We shall see, but it looks as though universities will continue to be very much at the heart of public debate and media interest. The latter has seen further concern over the so-called ‘Snowflake Generation’ of students which, as far as I know, is not a significant issue for us. We are also seeing the emergence of some of the Prime Minister’s plans for the UK’s exit from the European Union as she prepares to invoke Article 50. Clearly this is of significance that goes well beyond the HE sector, but we will continue to monitor the situation closely, and to do all in our powers to lobby on behalf of Universities and those staff and students impacted by change. 

Planning and budgeting 

Planning is underway ahead of the annual Board of Governors’ Accountability and Planning Conference in March, at which the University’s Senior Leadership Team will report on progress against our targets, and outline our future activities in support of delivering Manchester 2020. As you will know from the President’s recent messages, a major challenge we face in meeting our ambitions for 2020 is in keeping pace with global competitors who are upping their game and making progress on their own strategic ambitions. We need to improve our performance and make significant investment while addressing the financial implications of costs that are rising faster than income. 

Therefore, as we enter into the annual planning and budgeting round, we need to think hard about how we as a Faculty can achieve our ambitions, chiefly by continuing to raise the quality of our research and teaching. Some of that thinking is requiring us to consider where we might generate additional income, for example through distance learning and philanthropy, but we must also address issues of efficiency in our use of resource, be it human, material or financial.

US

I have recently returned from an interesting visit to Harvard University with the University President and other colleagues from the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health and our own Faculty of Humanities. We were there to discuss the unique devolution of the health budget to Manchester and the opportunities this creates for doing things differently. 

As in the UK, the US is struggling with the spiralling costs of health care and there is a growing recognition of the wider social determinants of ill-health. There is considerable enthusiasm at Harvard and we hope to be able to put together a joint interdisciplinary team to explore these issues further. 

We were there immediately after the inauguration of the new President, Donald Trump, during which time the new administration was rolling out significant policy changes. It certainly made for lively comment in almost every meeting we attended! 

I am due back to the US later this month when I will be visiting Washington to attend the University Research Association (URA) Conference on behalf of the University, as well as undertaking a round of other meetings with strategic partners and some of our alumni. 

The US remains a strategic priority for the Faculty and, as I have highlighted in previous messages, building strong collaborations with universities there is a key focus of our activities. 

Awards

Our own Alliance Manchester Business School (AMBS) has risen significantly in the Financial Times Global MBA Rankings which have just been announced. It jumped eight places to 30^th in the world, and it is now ranked as one of Europe’s top ten business schools, and third in the UK. You can read more about this announcement here. 

Furthermore, one of the world’s premier university ranking bodies, Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), has named AMBS a ‘Global Elite School’ when it comes to employability and research excellence. The QS Global 250 Business Schools Report 2017 identifies the top 250 full-time MBA programmes from around the world, and ranked Alliance Manchester Business School 11^th in Europe for research excellence, and 16^th for employability. 

And finally, it was good to see one of our academic colleagues from the School of Social Sciences recognised in the New Year’s Honours list. Carol Smart, a feminist sociologist and currently Professor Emerita of Sociology, was awarded a CBE. Carol joins a long list of others within Humanities and the University who have been recognised for their research and other activities.

Best wishes, 

Keith

Dear colleagues,

Thank you for opening this message and reading it. Though the number of people reading it has increased recently, with around 43% of people opening the newsletter each week, you are still in a minority of staff who take the time to open Faculty eNews on a regular basis. I am not entirely sure why so many people do not take a few moments to scan it, but it is highly likely that they are the same people who complain about not knowing what is going on! This year there have been a number of changes to the format and content of eNews, and the Internal Communications Team are always looking for ways to make sure it contains more of the stories and information that colleagues want and need to hear, so, please do get in touch with them via humsnews@manchester.ac.uk with any suggestions as to how it can be improved.   

Can I also ask you for a small favour? As one of the people who does read eNews, please can you recommend to a colleague that they have a look at it, and spend a few moments browsing through the items where they might find something of interest. Thank you.

Faculty Leadership Conference 

At the end of last month, senior staff from across the Faculty gathered for our annual Faculty Leadership Conference, with a theme this year of ‘Responding to strategic challenges and opportunities’. We heard an illuminating presentation from Nick Hillman, Director of the Higher Education Policy Institute, who has recently joined the University’s Board of Governors. As an alumnus of the Faculty, he made some interesting references to his time studying history at Manchester, and gave a great insight into how national policy is shaped within Government. We had an inspirational workshop delivered by Drew Povey, Headteacher at Harrop Fold School in Little Hulton. Drew, who has transformed the School from ‘the worst in the country’ with a multi-million pound deficit to one rated as Good by OFSTED, led a high-energy, engaging and informative session outlining how he transformed the school. We heard from Tim Westlake (Director for the Student Experience) about the Student Lifecycle Project, the £25 million University-wide project to transform the way we manage our contact with students, and from Diana Mitlin (Managing Director, Global Development Institute) and Bertrand Taithe (Executive Director, Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute) about the opportunities for staff arising from the new Global Challenges Research Fund.

As I said at the conference, our ability to face the challenges and opportunities that are coming our way will be determined largely by the leadership we can deploy, whether that is in managing a School, mobilising a student recruitment team, or in motivating a research group; by the extent to which we develop and support one another in effective teamwork; and by our willingness to explore options and ideas through an open flow of communication within our community. I am in no doubt that we will respond and will continue to be successful in delivering world-class research, outstanding learning and student experience and social responsibility.

British Academy event 

I recently hosted an event for the British Academy Fellows and Postdoctoral Fellows within our Faculty. In Humanities we have 18 Fellows among our current or former staff, and we took the opportunity to bring them together with our current British Academy Postdoctoral Fellows. It was good to see those at the beginning of their academic careers engaging with esteemed colleagues who are at the top of their profession. It should also be one of our ambitions to grow the population of Manchester-based academics in both categories.

10,000 actions 

You will have received an email last month inviting you to take part in 10,000 actions, the biggest environmental sustainability initiative in higher education. The idea is that if every member of staff completes one positive action, we would have over 10,000 actions, making a difference for environmental sustainability. 

The programme itself is online, takes about an hour to complete, and consists of information videos about different areas of sustainability, based on which you can create an individual action plan. 

I would like to encourage all members of staff, both academic and PSS, to take part in the programme. You can hear why the President thinks it is so important in this Humanities-specific film, and take part at 10,000 Actions.

Visitors 

We had a number of interesting visitors in November. Sir John Cunliffe, Deputy Governor, Financial Stability at the Bank of England, returned to what is his alma mater for the first time in 40 years to talk to students in Economics and in English, the subject that he studied at Manchester. Alliance Manchester Business School hosted two events involving Simon Stevens, Chief Executive of NHS England, and Matthew Barzun, US Ambassador to the UK, both of whom delivered lively and provocative talks. I had the opportunity to meet all three and to discuss with them a range of issues, as well as to tell them more about the University. The Ambassador's military attaché described Manchester as “truly awesome”, which seems about right.

And finally 

I did read that book, 'The Last Professors' by Frank Donoghue, mentioned in my last message. It was published in 2008, and while it made some telling points about the changes that have overtaken universities in the US, its doomsday prophecies are somewhat exaggerated. However, a few days ago I was asked by a prospective recruit what the role of a Professor is at The University of Manchester. Perhaps that is something we might want to discuss in future? 

As this will be my last message before the Christmas break, I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all the best for the festive season. I hope you all take the opportunity to take a well-earned break, and come back refreshed in the New Year. Happy Christmas!

Best wishes, 

Keith

Dear colleagues,

The University Foundation Day took place in October and was, as always, an inspiring event at which remarkable individuals were recognised for their achievements. Among them was Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of Oxfam International, who delivered the Foundation Day Lecture entitled ‘Advancing Women’s Rights in an Unequal World: A personal perspective’. Winnie talked about her career as a Manchester student, engineer, freedom fighter, parliamentarian and activist in a manner that was interesting and challenging. She encapsulates many of the values and grapples with many of the issues that are core to what we espouse and seek to understand in the Faculty of Humanities. She is a great example of the kind of world-changing graduate we hope to equip, which is a far cry from the narrow skills-based, employability agenda of our politicians. 

School Visits

Last month, I started my annual programme of visits to Schools, which I am now part-way through. I have recently visited colleagues in the Schools of Social Sciences and Arts, Languages and Cultures, and over the coming weeks I will be visiting our other three Schools. These visits give me an opportunity to meet staff within Schools and update them on how the Faculty and Schools are progressing against our key targets for research, teaching and learning and social responsibility, and to recognise some of the highlights and successes of the past year. I also use these sessions to draw attention to shortcomings in performance and to outline the priorities we will be addressing over the coming year. It is an important forum in which you can ask questions on issues I have addressed, or on any other relevant matter. 

Annual Performance Review

The Faculty Senior Leadership Team has recently had its annual performance review with the President and other members of the University’s Senior Leadership Team. This is always an opportunity for me and other senior colleagues, including our Heads of Schools and Vice-Deans, to discuss the Faculty’s performance and to outline our priorities and challenges for the year ahead. During the meeting, the Faculty was congratulated on what was a very strong performance. We also explored some of the areas where we continue to struggle to improve in line with the University's ambition, most notably research income and NSS. Not surprisingly, the entry grades of our students, and their impact upon other teaching measures, was a point of discussion, and there was considerable debate about the future size and shape of the Faculty. This is a key area on which we will continue to focus throughout this year and beyond. 

International Staff Information Sessions

I know that since the referendum decision for the UK to leave the European Union (EU), there has been some anxiety and uncertainty among EU colleagues. To support staff with concerns or questions, the University is running a number of information sessions with an immigration law expert to provide support and advice for international staff on issues associated with UK residency and citizenship. The sessions will take place in November and relevant colleagues should have received details directly. 

Beyond the University, there was some good news recently, when it was confirmed that EU students starting in 2017-18 will have guaranteed financial support for the duration of their studies; an area of concern is the apparent drive to reduce the number of international students. I am sure we all look forward to hearing further details of how this will play out. 

Faculty Leadership Conference

Later this month we will be holding the Faculty’s annual Leadership Conference for senior managers. The theme this year is Responding to strategic challenges and opportunities. Given the external pressures we face, together with the need to deliver a step change in performance to support the achievement of the ambitious Manchester 2020 agenda, I am sure it will prove to be an interesting and challenging event in equal measure. 

Fashion

I attended an excellent debate recently on the fashion industry, organised by our Social Responsibility and Business Engagement teams. This event brought together academics (including Stephanie Barrientos from SEED and Julie Froud from AMBS), employers from the fashion sector and students to discuss 'Fashion: a force for good'. It proved to be a very good example of how research and business can benefit from greater engagement within the SR space. Hopefully we will have more such events in future. 

Finally…

I have just started to read a book by Frank Donoghue with the worrying title 'The Last Professors: The Corporate University and the End of Humanities'. I'll let you know in the next eNews if we have a future!

Best wishes, 

Keith

Dear colleagues,

Here we are again at the start of a new academic year. I hope you managed to take a break from work over the summer. I certainly enjoyed my time back in Scotland, including a sunny few days on the remarkable island of Arran. My summer reading was mixed. I finished off The Establishment, Owen Jones' tedious polemic; abandoned Amitav Ghosh's Ibis trilogy half way through the second volume; enjoyed immensely Kazuo Ishiguro's brilliant novel, The Buried Giant which deals with issues of forgetting and remembering; and learned something about how not to lead from a biography of England's King John, he of Robin Hood fame of whom a contemporary wrote 'Foul as it is, Hell itself is made fouler by the presence of King John'. 

Of course, for colleagues across the Faculty working in admissions, the end of summer was anything but restful, particularly those dealing with UG Confirmation and Clearing activity. We had a relatively successful recruitment cycle, and while we did not quite meet our overall targets for the number of students, we did raise our entry tariffs across many areas. This is an important strategy for the Faculty, and University, as we endeavour to raise standards. It is something we will continue to do across the entire Faculty in this recruitment cycle. 

No-one can fail to notice the difference to the Campus when the surge of undergraduate and new postgraduate students turn up around this time of year, bringing with it challenges for staff managing Welcome and settling new students into the University. We should not underestimate the work involved at a local level to ensure a good experience for all. But those large numbers do raise questions about our shape and scale that we need to think about, especially in the context of raising the quality of our intake and enhancing the overall learning and teaching environment for students and staff. Are we too big as a Faculty? It is a question that the Senior Management Team of the Faculty has been thinking about off and on for some time, but we must now engage in a serious debate and reach decisions about our future direction. Can we afford to be smaller given the importance of student fees to our income? On the other hand, can we afford to be this big when a consequence of our large scale is a dilution of quality? These issues need to be discussed in your Schools and at Discipline level.

 One area that might be affected by scale is the NSS. We saw some strong NSS results, but the overall picture for the University and Faculty is disappointing with no progress being made. Fiona Smyth, Vice-Dean for Teaching, Learning and Students will discuss this in more detail in next month’s eNews, but some of the key highlights included the six courses which achieved 100% overall satisfaction: BA American Studies, BA Ancient History and Archaeology, BA Archaeology, BA Modern History with Economics, BA Geography with International Studies, and BA Social Sciences (Politics and Philosophy). 

Sticking with students, you might have noticed a story about a newly identified condition that affects classroom behaviour. Apparently all those students on their iPhones and iPads etc while you are lecturing are suffering from FoMo (Fear of Missing Out), which arises when they feel cut off from what is happening in social media. What next, I wonder? Of course, there is now a good deal of research on the effects of technology on cognitive processes, although in reading a book review of Simon Garfield's Timekeepers. How the World became Obsessed with Time, I came across the following quotation: 'Young people are ...swept along in the whirlpool of time; wealth and speed are what the world admires and what everyone strives for. All kinds of communicative facility are what the civilised world is aiming at in outpacing itself'. This was written by Goethe in 1825! 

For most academic colleagues, however, the summer is a time when you are able to concentrate more on research, and I hope you had a fruitful time gathering data, writing or attending conferences. I know that this time is too short and we need to get better at protecting research time because it is so valuable. I managed to squeeze in some writing, but had to suffer the blow of an article being rejected. This is not a new experience, it happens to most of us from time to time, but it is never a good feeling to be told that something you laboured over is not good enough. Naturally, I disagree, but as researchers we live and die by peer review and it can be brutal. I relate this disappointment not to elicit sympathy, but merely to encourage colleagues, especially younger colleagues, not to be too disheartened. You just have to take the criticisms on board, get some help, and try again. But do not take the easy way out and look around for an easier route to publication. 

The big research news over the summer months was the Stern Review of the recent Research Excellence Framework. Many of the recommendations appear very sensible but, if adopted, there will be significant operational challenges and, of course, there will be winners and losers. What is most frustrating is that already we are well into the next REF cycle and we still do not know the rules of the game! Colette Fagan, Deputy Dean and Vice-Dean Research, will comment at greater length in another edition of eNews in a couple of weeks. 

The summer also brought some good news for colleagues in PGR who had been involved in submitting a bid to the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) in February this year. They found out that a consortium of Universities, including Manchester, Keele, Lancaster and Liverpool were successfully accredited as an ESRC North West Social Science Doctoral Training Partnership (NWSSDTP). This builds on the platform provided by the current North West Doctoral Training Centre (NWDTC) and will award studentships to six cohorts of postgraduate researchers between 2017 and 2022.  The University of Manchester was also part of the two specialist Centres for Doctoral Training (CDTs) awarded in this round, making it the only university to have been successful under each of the DTP and CDT calls. These successes are a testament to the hard work and commitment of our staff and the achievements of the previous cohorts of postgraduate researchers. 

Our new Associate Dean, Internationalisation, Oliver Richmond, took up office last month and will be leading what is an emerging and exciting strategy for the Faculty. Over the last year we put in place or strengthened relationships with the University of Melbourne, Indiana University, the University of Amsterdam and Renmin University in Beijing. In September, we were visited by a delegation from the University of Copenhagen and this week, I am taking a delegation from the Faculty to Copenhagen to meet our counterparts and to discuss opportunities and collaborations. Especially in the context of Brexit, it is vital that we strengthen our European relationships. 

In July, I was in Beijing where I met with the China Scholarship Council, Beijing Normal University, our partner in the Confucius Institute, and with Hanban, the body that oversees the worldwide activity of all Confucius Institutes. We recently welcomed a delegation from Hanban to the University to visit our new Confucius Institute building on Waterloo Place. This follows an investment from the University and our partners, the Office of Chinese Language Council International (Hanban) and Beijing Normal University. The move comes in the Confucius Institute’s 10th year of operation. With a focus on Chinese learning and teaching, promotion of contemporary China, education exchanges and engagement with China, the Confucius Institute forms a part of our Faculty China Strategy. During the opening we were given a tour of the new building by the new Confucius Institute Director, Dr Aaron Moore, which has been renovated to include traditional Chinese artefacts. I will be hosting a celebration of the Confucius Institute’s achievements over the last ten years at its official anniversary event in early November. This will see our own Professor of Public History, Michael Wood, and Oxford Professor of Chinese Politics and History, Rana Mitter, in conversation with the Confucius Institute Director about the role of media in shaping perceptions of modern China and its history. 

And just finally, you will have noticed that this week’s eNews message looks slightly different. The Faculty Communications Team have reviewed how we communicate news, events and stories across the Faculty and have redeveloped eNews, which from this week will now be distributed weekly on a Friday – my message will appear in the first edition of each month. I hope you enjoy reading the news and stories across our Faculty; with more than 1,900 academic and PSS staff, we certainly have a lot of stories to tell.

Best wishes, 

Keith