Vice Chancellor’s Office Blog
Read the first in a new series of blogs from the Vice Chancellor’s Office, as we head into the first term of a new academic year. The first instalment is from Vice Chancellor Professor Mary Stuart.
The new academic year
I hope everyone has had a good summer, whatever you have been doing – working, researching but I also hope getting some time to relax as well. So what have I been up to over the summer? I did not go away this summer as there was a lot on with NSS results, confirmation and clearing and preparing for the new academic year. However, I also did some work on my 21st century lab project and a new publication will be forthcoming and launched at the House of Lords in November. I also was lucky enough to get to see some very interesting interpretations of ‘As You Like It’ and ‘The Taming of the Shrew’ in Stratford. As you all know I am a theatre nut!
September is starting with a bit of a bang in our country and we are still, as I write, living with a lot of uncertainty. The University, however, is well planned for whatever we might experience. You have to plan even if things do not turn out as some would think.
This year, as I have already highlighted in my talks at the end of last year, our focus will be on core business; the student experience and research. For our work on the student experience we will be building on our work on ‘One Community of Students and Staff Together’, ensuring we conduct ourselves professionally in all circumstances, working hard to enable our students to succeed to their very best, enhancing our student satisfaction.
In research we will be working on the final, vital preparations for our REF submission in December 2020, helping our new group of Professors settle into the University, enhancing our Research Centres and Institutes and continuing to grow our research income. If we get both of those things right then the University will continue to be in good shape and highly successful whatever is happening elsewhere.
More from me next month!
Here’s to the start of term – go well colleagues!
Mary
Read more on the VCO Portal pages, including a blog post by Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research), Professor Andrew Hunter, on our REF preparations.