Dear colleagues,
I hope you have had a good week, and that those of you who took some time off over the half-term break also managed to have some rest and recreation.
I would like to start this week by thanking all of you for your on-going efforts on behalf of Strathclyde. Colleagues from across the University have started 2021 with the same spirit as we displayed throughout 2020 – by always going the extra mile for the whole community. Strathclyders have worked to keep the campus open, to ensure the safety of our staff and students, to provide safe study spaces and new remote learning opportunities for students. We have also improved home working technology for our staff and continued to deliver academic and administrative support across our activities in teaching, research and innovation.
It is enormously encouraging to see the professionalism and hard work of our staff and despite the length of time that we have been working remotely – or on a sparsely populated campus – this commitment has not dimmed. Your continued efforts on behalf of Strathclyde are both acknowledged and appreciated.
An excellent example of working collaboratively to deliver for the University can be seen in our new January start dates for students. This has proved to be extremely popular, with more than 200 new students having registered with us. The Executive Team and I have been delighted with the success of this venture which was made possible by months of hard work by hundreds of colleagues from across the four Faculties and Professional Services. It is just the latest example of applying a team-based approach to deliver on behalf of the University and our students.
Throughout the pandemic, your health and wellbeing have been our main priority. As part of our on-going commitment to listening and taking feedback, next week we will distribute a ‘Wellbeing Survey’. Designed to allow us to understand how the University community is responding to the current situation, it will ask important questions about working from home, our ‘Rest and Recuperation Fridays’ and ‘Meeting Free Fridays’ and your work/life balance. It will give you the opportunity to share with us your thoughts on each of these areas and I very much encourage you to take part. Please look out for it in next week’s Inside Strathclyde.
I would also like to highlight that colleagues in the School of Education have begun populating a MyPlace page to support parents and carers of children and young people who are learning at home. There will be a series of videos offering a range of advice about how to support your child, and new material will be uploaded as it becomes available. I would like to thank those in the School of Education for providing such a valuable resource.
I am pleased to announce that, from next month, I will be hosting the next in my regular series of online staff engagement sessions. This will be the third since lockdown began in March last year.
I will be joined by colleagues from our Executive Team to provide you with information on our University and sector matters, as well as to reflect on how the University community has continued to deliver for our students and other stakeholders against the current backdrop. We will also provide an update on progress against our ambitious Vision 2025 Strategy. There will be an opportunity for questions from colleagues to be taken. If you would like to submit a question for the panel in advance, please reply to this email with your question and we will seek to address these in the meetings.
There are dedicated sessions for each Faculty, the Professional Services areas and Support Staff colleagues, so please make sure you reserve your place at the relevant session for your area.
Once again, many thanks for your continued work on behalf of Strathclyde and please make the most of this week’s Rest and Recuperation day.
Best wishes,
Jim