Our Pro Vice-Chancellor, Professor Alison Metcalfe, talks about her observations of the Faculty of Health and Wellbeing following her first couple of months at the University. 

Well it’s been two months since I have arrived – I have been meeting lots of colleagues from all over the university learning about how the university functions. In this six weeks I have attended three Professorial Lectures (Tony Blackshaw, Christine Le Maitre and Dave Morley) and learnt about the fantastic research that is taking place, how that can change and transform people’s lives and our understanding of people and their environments, and the effect on the health and wellbeing.  I have also been very impressed by the learning and teaching facilities – whilst recognising there are some areas for improvement, they are generally of a very high standard, some of the best I have used and seen in my university career.

As I have been meeting external partners, they have told me what great students we have here at the Faculty of Health and Wellbeing from an academic perspective and also the quality of care they provide – this is a testament to the quality of teaching and how well the students’ learning is supported. It also explains why so many of our staff were nominated for Inspirational Teaching, Outstanding Student Support and Inspirational Research Supervisor Awards. Several have also gone on to win the university level of awards. I am looking forward to meeting all the winners at a celebration event that is being organised in the Faculty.

There have been several conferences taking place organised by colleagues from within the Faculty, and it’s a credit to those colleagues that such positive feedback is received – thank you to everyone for all their hard work in organising and contributing to the conferences. The feedback is testimony to the successes, and of course special thanks to our students who are often working as ambassadors at these events.

Over the next few weeks I am looking forward to coming along to departmental meetings to meet more colleagues within the Faculty. Please bring along your questions, suggestions and ideas. I am keen to learn about your views and experiences of working in the Faculty and University, so that I can take this into account when thinking about how we continue to build on the great work that is happening.

There is a lot of change for everyone at the moment, with the consultation taking place on the Professional Services Operating Model, which can be unsettling particularly for colleagues working in Professional Services. Can I ask that we all continue to respect and support each other as feedback is obtained on the model of working and its eventual implementation.

I look forward to seeing you over the next few weeks (and please – no more new acronyms 🙂 )

Alison