Dental students in the teaching lab.

Community-based teaching and service learning

Community-based teaching

Our teaching is making a contribution to our local communities.

As well as producing knowledgeable, skilled, socially responsible graduates, the University’s teaching and learning approach is outward-facing, providing benefits for the local community.

Students are supported to:

  • provide services in local healthcare
  • give free legal advice
  • volunteer and work with voluntary organisations
  • offer not-for-profit consultancy for businesses, local government and the third sector.

Practice-based degree courses in medicine, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, teaching and social work, enable our students to provide support to a range of local healthcare, social and educational organisations.

Our Manchester Leadership Programme combines academic study and volunteering to ensure students learn the importance of leadership and gain an insight into some of the key challenges facing 21st century society.

Our Legal Advice Centre has a base on campus and in east Manchester. It provides a service to the local community by providing free legal advice from undergraduate students who are supervised by legal practitioners.

Our MBA students also undertake pro-bono not-for-profit consultancy projects in the local community.

Service learning

Service learning is a combination of community involvement, academic study and practical experience. It combines two of our core goals – teaching excellence and social responsibility.

Service learning aims to connect a university to its local area, strengthening the bond between members of the university and local people.

Students go out into the community to groups, organisations and schools to learn as part of their degree while providing necessary services to local people.

Service learning is credit-based and built into the curriculum, with students completing activities during their academic study time.

It’s a mutually beneficial approach that increases students’ employability and social awareness, and delivers essential healthcare and services to local communities.

Service learning case study: Humanising dentistry

One example of service learning is the concept of ‘humanising dentistry’. Service learning is built into the dental curriculum and united with combating dental health inequalities in Manchester.

Dental health inequality is a major issue in the north-west. Through service learning, dental students provide essential treatment to those in greatest need as part of their training.

The aim is to improve the dental health of some of the most vulnerable members of our communities and create graduates committed to socially responsible practice.

The MacJannet Prize recognised this programme for Global Citizenship in 2018, as did our Making a Difference Awards.