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Day: 29 November 2017

Jodrell Bank telescope to receive £4m from the budget

Written by Aliya Ismangil on . Posted in News, Science & Tech.

The £4 million to be received, subject to an approved sustainable business plan, will complete the new ‘First Light’ project fundraising goals of £20.5 million. The project aims to showcase the historic scientific work that has gone on at Jodrell Bank, as well as creating a new educational programme. It will build a new gallery that features an exhibition space and immersive auditorium.

The Director of the Jodrell Bank Discovery Centre, Professor Teresa Anderson, said: “This is fantastic news and provides the final piece in the jigsaw to enable us to move ahead with this very exciting project. We are very grateful to all our funders for their support and are looking forward to creating something very special to celebrate the history of this unique place.”

The Heritage Lottery Fund has given £12 million of funding to the ‘First Light’ project. It has attracted the support of the Garfield Weston Foundation, the Wolfson Foundation, the Denise Coates Foundation, the University of Manchester Alumni and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation.

Jodrell Bank is the home of BBC’s Stargazing: Live programme and already attracts 185,000 visitors annually. 26,000 of which are school pupils on educational visits. The ‘Light Project’ is anticipated to increase that number to 32,000.

The Cheshire site, which houses the famous Grade I listed Lovell telescope, has also been recently selected as a UK candidate for a UNESCO World Heritage status. If successful, it would join 31 other sites in the UK, and many more around the world.

First used in 1945 by Sir Andrew Lovell, Jodrell Bank has since been instrumental in the advancement of radio astronomy, the observation of radio waves in space. These waves are often invisible in normal light, and so can give a new view of space and celestial bodies that cannot normally be detected.

Professor Anderson adds: “I’d like to place on record my thanks to David Rutley MP who has been tireless in his support for our plans.”

Manchester University students defend Vice-Chancellor’s pay

Written by Cameron Broome on . Posted in News.

Manchester University students have overwhelmingly defended the pay of University of Manchester Vice-Chancellor, Dame Nancy Rothwell.

With an annual salary of £260,399, a University spokesperson also revealed to The Mancunion that the University President and Vice-Chancellor’s pay “has remained static for the last two years.”

Glynis Breakwell, the Vice-Chancellor of Bath University, announced on Tuesday the 28th of November that she will step down from her position at the end of the academic year.

Earning £468,000 a year, the UK’s highest paid University Vice-Chancellor reignited debates about the pay of University leaders.

University of Manchester student, Luke Dyks, described Nancy Rothwell’s wage as “fair”, suggesting that the University Vice-Chancellor “does a job that requires an equivalent amount of skill and effort as that of a CEO of a FTSE 100 company, yet she gets paid a fraction of the wage.”

Hosting just under 40,000 students, Manchester University is the largest single-site University in the UK with more students in its Faculty of Humanities than the total number of students at Bath University.

Luke Dyks said that Bath’s Vice-Chancellor “seems to have been paid way way over the market price for her work”, with the Physics with Theoretical Physics student adding: “Is she [Glynis Breakwell] worth two times Dame Nancy? Clearly not…”

In August 2017, The Telegraph reported that the average FTSE100 CEO received a salary of £4.5m in 2016, while the ONS estimate an average household’s disposable income in the UK was £26,300 in 2016.

More than 50 UK universities pay Vice-Chancellors more than £300,000 per year including the University of Exeter, University of Southampton and University of Birmingham.

Commenting on the debate, Emma Atkins, University of Manchester Students’ Union Education Officer, said: “The whole debate about Vice-Chancellor pay has been a dead cat on the table.

“Jo Johnson has been fuelling this debate about Vice-Chancellor pay which says a lot. The media has focused on that instead of the damaging reforms to the sector. Also it’s so rich for the government to be complaining that Vice-Chancellors get paid too much when they’re totally silent on the issue when it comes to big business and how much CEOs get paid, their bonuses and tax avoidance.

“It works in Jo Johnson’s favour if universities get attacked because when it comes to reforming the sector people are less likely to listen to them if they protest any changes.”

Alex Tayler, General Secretary of the Students’ Union, added: “although there will be occasions when I am in disagreement with Nancy, I think that she is doing an excellent job in challenging times. It is very clear in my mind that her salary is justified. ”

Despite receiving lots of support from students, there were some who admitted to The Mancunion that they were unaware what the role of a University Vice-Chancellor practically involved.

David Uncle, a third-year Geography student, said that he was “not entirely sure what University Vice Chancellors do” and commented that “Nancy Rothwell’s pay is clearly very high wage but how the University spends its money doesn’t particularly concern me.”

Some students were also critical of the Vice-Chancellor’s salary, with a student who wished to remain nameless telling The Mancunion: “given the cuts to university jobs, her salary is completely unacceptable. We should not be cutting jobs at the university while giving huge pay checks to directors.”

A University spokesman told The Mancunion: “The process for determining the salary of the President and Vice-Chancellor is the responsibility of the Remuneration Committee of the Board of Governors.

“In making a decision on pay awards there is an evaluation of the President and Vice-Chancellor’s performance which includes an assessment from each member of the Board of Governors and a formal review of individual performance by the Chair of the Board. In the majority of years in post the President and Vice-Chancellor has declined these pay awards.”

In a 2015 interview, Dame Nancy Rothwell told The Mancunion: “The UK is one of the lowest paid countries for Vice-Chancellors. Is it fair in any society that people should earn twenty or a hundred or a thousand times more than other people? In my opinion, possibly not.

“But on the other hand, you wouldn’t get reasonable Vice-Chancellors unless you pay a reasonable rate. I’m paid less than the average, for the largest university in the country.”

The University Vice-Chancellor of Bath University who will be stepping down this academic year, Glynis Breakwell, said that she had “served the university to the best of my ability” but has faced further criticism after the revelation that she will continue to be paid in full until the end of February 2019.

Universities and College Union (UCU) leader at Bath, Michael Carley, described any further payments to the Vice-Chancellor as “a reward for failure.”

1 in 5 UK GPs trained abroad, Manchester study finds

Written by tabitha hanks on . Posted in News.

A new study released by the University of Manchester’s Health eResearch Centre found that 1 in 5 GPs in the UK were trained abroad.

4.8 per cent completed their training in the EU, while a further 17 per cent received training overseas, outside of the EU. The research also shows that those trained abroad typically work longer hours and are paid less per patient than UK-trained doctors, and tend to be based in more deprived communities.

The UK is currently facing a severe shortage of GPs; recent figures estimate that 6500 additional GPs are currently needed and this will almost double by 2020.

The health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, promised that 5000 new GPs would be trained by 2020. This promise was made in 2015, however, it takes up to 10 years for a GP to complete training. Furthermore, junior doctors entering GP training are falling short of the 3,250 annual target and stand at just 2,700, making it seem highly improbable this goal will be reached in time.

As fewer graduate doctors choose to train as GPs, the vacancies are being filled increasingly by foreign doctors, trained outside of the UK: in total 21 per cent of GPs in the UK, which is the highest of any EU country excepting Norway and the Republic of Ireland.

Foreign-trained GPs not only make up numbers but also take on the most pressured and least desirable roles in the field. The study shows that overseas trained doctors work in the most deprived communities in Britain. They work longer hours, with fewer GPs per head, and are paid less per patient than the UK-trained doctors.

This research is invaluable in predicting the impact of Brexit on the NHS. Following the referendum, there has been an 83 per cent increase in EU doctors leaving the UK and this trend is expected to continue.

Brexit will mean new restrictions on practicing EU doctors, in particular the requirement for new work permits and visas, which will lower the appeal of working in the UK. With almost 5 per cent of GPs coming from the EU, Brexit could exacerbate the GP shortage and create severe problems throughout the NHS.

The reliance of the NHS on foreign doctors is currently vital for keeping the NHS afloat, yet current attitudes towards immigration and the impact of Brexit on work visas may see a sharp decline in these numbers, leaving huge vacancies in less desirable practices which are unlikely to be quickly filled by newly trained GPs.