"Dear colleagues,
 
"2021, what a tough year it's been. Some good moments, obviously, as the summer got brighter, and we were able to get out and be more active, but I know this has been a pretty tough year for people.
 
"You've told me about worries for the health of family, friends and yourselves as well. With those of you who are doing home schooling probably will never forget that experience for the rest of your lives. But you know, we've also achieved a huge amount as a community through this, this toughest of years and to be University of the Year for Teaching Quality is an extraordinary and wonderful thing, and it's something that every single person owns on this campus.
 
"Every single person has made a contribution to us being in that position to supporting with, working with our students and so many others.
 
"We've achieved so many things. The stories and contributions of volunteering have continued to really amaze me through this year. So frequently I'm out meeting people outside the university, and they tell me about so-and-so or such-and-such-a-group that's done something wonderful for a local school or local community, something that you've done in the city or in our county, which has been so incredibly, incredibly important. We've opened new buildings, IBRB, the Arts Centre, I've been to several things in the Arts Centre, the wonderful new cinemas and the Faculty of Arts building with the wonderful Harry Potter staircase, that when you see it, you will know what I mean if you haven't already seen it. Into which, people have been moving in the last period of time.

"Together we've done some amazing and wonderful things and thank you all for all your work and contribution over the course of this period of time. One of the things that is really important is collectively, we've managed to keep the money right. As an independent charity that is incredibly important. The government is not going to bail us out. If we get ourselves into a financial problem, it’ll sit on us, but we haven't. You have taken us in a different direction with great ideas about how to generate money, but also how to save money. And thank you for what you've done, and I'm delighted that we've been able to issue that 'Thank you' payment as a way of saying thank you for all the fantastic work you've done in this period.

"And now, oh, it's getting darker again, isn't it? The Plan B comes in. There's all this talk of Plan C, and I know people have said to me, what can I do? I feel I don't have power in this space, but I think you do. We know that on our campus we have extraordinarily high levels of vaccination. Both students and staff, double vaccinated in incredibly high numbers. And now we can see not only from our surveys, but also from the data in our vaccination centre so many people getting the boosters as well. So of course, you all getting your boosters is a wonderful and fantastic thing. But what can you do? Not just get your boosters, talk with people about it. It is clearly the case that we have in our community outside the university, a significant number of people who are unvaccinated and they're not listening to the government. But maybe they will listen to you. So do talk about how important it is for us all as a community to have that safety and security for everybody being vaccinated, everybody being made safe, will bring to us.
 
"That move towards Plan B has had a big impact on a number of people. I know working from home is back for so many and it's a mixed emotion working from home. As you've been telling me, going back to work on the kitchen table, not always a great thing. Back to working in the bedroom. And we've got lots of colleagues, of course, who do come into work every day, they have to work on campus every day and have gone from coming to a campus that was starting to get really buzzy and lively again into something extraordinarily quiet, which is the way it has been for the last couple of days. And then we have colleagues who will be coming in over the Christmas/New Year break itself to look after our students, to support the campus and to keep us going. And for you, thank you so much for your contribution in this period.
 
"There are things to look forward to next year. Our summer will be a quite extraordinary period. The finale of City of Culture, including the Resonate Festival, of our own, on our campus, we will have a graduation village for all those graduates who want to come back for the catch up ceremonies. Those students who've missed out on their graduation ceremony will be able to come back and enjoy that over the summer. We'll have the Commonwealth Games, the athletes and activities here, the International Children's Games and, well, just maybe that staff party that I talked about 20 months ago. Much to look forward to in the new year.

"For now, whenever your period of leave is, over the Christmas/New Year period, I hope that you get some time to rest and to relax. Thank you all so much for what you've done over the course of this last twelve months and best wishes for the festive season."
 

Professor Stuart Croft
Vice-Chancellor
21 December 2021