Message from the Vice-Chancellor

Hello everyone

I think it is fair to say this last week has been quite tricky for everyone in the Liverpool City Region with the announcement of tighter restrictions. Whilst this is a situation that none of us would have wanted I have noticed and observed that in many ways it has, for the most part, brought us closer together as institutions, organisations, services and as individuals.

There is no doubt the situation is complex and far from straight forward but my belief is where we have worked together it has brought the best out of us. We need to keep doing this.

I hope you are all okay and managing to cope with the present set of circumstances. What I do know is that as a university we are trying our very best to work with the pressures of restrictions and infection rates in our region.

At LJMU we have a brilliant incident management team guiding us through the daily, even hourly, changes in rules to make sure that our students and our staff are able continue to work and study in a safe environment. We will, of course, continue to do this.

Our student leaders, the President and her team, are doing a fantastic job helping and supporting our students. They are responding to student concerns in a compassionate, friendly and reassuring way.

What I see is so many people in our LJMU community doing a wonderful job in difficult circumstances to do what is best for the university. I thank you for this.

For most of the time I'm a 'glass half full' kind of person. I always try to see things positively and find a way through situations to see the future in a more optimistic light. Like most of us, given the current circumstances, it is rather trying my ability to accentuate the positive in this COVID-dominated world. However, I decided we need to really start to 'bounce forward' and focus on the future (as well as dealing with the here and now). From talking to many colleagues, it is clear we have learnt much over the last six months and people can see lots of opportunities that have resulted from the pandemic to take the university forward.

With this is in mind I ran a session with ELT during the week to generate ideas which I personally found refreshing just to start thinking in a positive way about the future. Clearly, we all have a part to play in this and it will be important to get your ideas and I will think about the best way to do this within our LJMU community

So after another extraordinary week I do hope you have a peaceful weekend when you get there.

Take care and stay safe.

Ian