Dear colleagues, 

I hope you managed to take a break over the summer. Our campus, of course, never sleeps and was bustling over the past months with summer schools, conferences and ongoing research activities.  

Special thanks to all colleagues across Imperial who worked so hard on our student recruitment programme. I’m delighted that we are on track to meet our undergraduate recruitment targets for UK and international students and look forward to welcoming a new cohort of approximately 10,000 brilliant students from across the globe at the end of September. Our Welcome programme continues to get better and better and the spirit of partnership between the university and Imperial College Union is great to see.

It is gratifying to see that our more coordinated approach to widening participation (WP) paid dividends with 28% of our UK undergraduates coming from WP backgrounds, up from 19% last year. A special mention for students at Imperial Maths School in North London who performed very well with a significant number winning places at Imperial, Oxford and Cambridge. I’m also delighted that we attracted a superb inaugural class to Pears Cumbria School of Medicine – Imperial’s graduate entry programme delivered in partnership with the University of Cumbria.

At Imperial, we strive to provide an environment where students can flourish and thrive. Our Class of 2030 programme focuses on this very issue and is a central pillar of our institutional strategy Science for Humanity. This was the focus of our first In Conversation with the President of the new academic year. If you were unable to join the live event, you can watch the recording online. Professor Martyn Boutelle (Associate Provost for Estates Planning) and Hannah Bannister (Chief Student Services Officer) spoke about the redevelopment of key parts of our South Kensington Campus, including the Great Hall and Sherfield Building.  

Thank you to Consul Professor Ann Muggeridge for moderating the Q&A – we will provide answers to those questions we were not able to cover on our website and in a future Staff Briefing. 

Looking ahead to October, we will welcome Professor Peter Haynes as our new Provost and Deputy President. Professor Alan Spivey has accepted the role of Interim Vice-Provost (Education and Student Experience) and will also begin this role on 1 October. I hope you will join us in thanking Professor Ian Walmsley as he steps down from his role as Provost in the coming weeks. We are immensely grateful to him for his huge contribution to Imperial over his many years of exemplary service. 

As the new term begins, higher education institutions like Imperial must navigate more uncertainty. Despite the well-documented flaws in the UK higher education funding model, we must strive to continue to invest in our people, programmes and infrastructure so that we can compete successfully with the best universities in the world – all of whom enjoy significantly higher funding levels than Imperial. We also have ambitions to serve as a powerful catalyst for economic growth as a key contributor to the UK’s STEM-B talent pipeline; through the impact of our world-leading research; and through our innovation, enterprise and partnership activities. It’s no exaggeration to say that it will be difficult for the UK to achieve its growth and productivity ambitions unless Imperial is supported and operating at full throttle. Government proposals for a six per cent levy on tuition fee income from international students risks jeopardising this. I can assure you that we are lobbying strongly to have this proposal taken off the table, not least because it would add £22 million to our costs. This is in addition to the £10 million already incurred by the increase in National Insurance Contributions.

Finally, implementation of our strategy Science for Humanity continues at pace. There are two important consultations we need your help with:  

Your input is greatly appreciated and will help shape Imperial’s future direction. 

Our next In Conversation event will take place on Thursday 9 October, and I look forward to seeing you then. 

Best wishes, 

Hugh 

  

Professor Hugh Brady, President