Vice-Chancellor's Easter Message

Dear student,

I wanted to send you a short message as we start the Easter break. I’m hoping that a lot of you have already started switching off, if you can, for at least a little bit and are appreciating the chance to pause and reflect.

Something I know a lot of us will be reflecting on is the tragic loss we experienced, as a community, last week. As members of a large University, there are times when we do, regretfully and painfully, experience the untimely loss of a student. Bereavement is never easy and although we are providing as much support as we can to the family and to people who knew them in Birmingham, the pain of losing someone prematurely is profound and long-lasting. My real sympathies are with everyone affected. As ever, you can access support via Your wellbeing or your Personal Tutor.

Since I started as VC in January, it’s been lovely to speak to everyone who has come up to me to say hello and tell me something about themselves and what Birmingham means to them. In a university this size, I sadly can’t get to know everybody, but I’ve enjoyed meeting as many of you as I can in three short months.

Early last week I met some of the brilliant and enthusiastic students on our Dubai campus, and on Friday enjoyed hearing from the finalists in the Vice-Chancellor’s Challenge about their creative ideas to tackle a global challenge from the UN Sustainable Development Goals. As we shared a couple of weeks ago, I’ll also be holding some open office sessions soon – there are still some times available to sign up and talk to me about anything to do with Birmingham. Later this year we’ll also be hosting a student experience question time where everyone can come to talk about how we create the best environment for education and for University life.

I hope to speak to many of you soon, but in the meantime I hope you have a good Easter vacation. Keep connected with others – especially if there’s anyone you know might need some support – and try to take a break over the next couple of weeks.

With best wishes,

Adam