Clean and accessible water MOOCs

With half a billion people worldwide having poor water supplies and two billion with poor sanitation facilities, our two free MOOCs open up access for citizens and leaders around the world to explore what can be done to solve this complex global issue.

Clean water and sanitation study programmes

We deliver cutting-edge teaching on clean water and sanitation. For example, Civil Engineering students take a course unit on water engineering, which covers water and wastewater treatment and resource management.

Master’s students in Environmental Monitoring, Modelling and Reconstruction are offered a unit on water movement that looks at solutions to groundwater contamination.

Graphene water filtration

Our National Graphene Institute Membranes Lab has pioneered a graphene-oxide membrane that can filter salts out of water, making it safe to drink.

This game-changing technology is more efficient and affordable than other desalination technologies and could provide affordable and sustainable clean water solutions to millions of people.

Gender equality policies

Our Equality and Diversity Policy prevents discrimination based on gender and/or sex.

Our Dignity at Work and Study Policy covers harassment and discrimination against women.

Our Report and Support system addresses alleged cases of bullying, sexual harassment or discrimination.

Gender pay gap

Our Gender Pay Gap report measures differences between the average (mean and median) earnings of men and women who work at our university.

The median gender pay gap (GPG) is 11.8%, while the mean is 17.2%, which is caused by the under-representation of women in senior roles.

We therefore aim to increase the number of women who are senior lecturers, readers and professors (currently 32%) until they are representative of the pool of women at lecturer level (currently 47%).

Inclusive work schemes

We recognise and value unpaid care and domestic work, which can often fall disproportionately on women.

We therefore strive to provide a range of policies and schemes that promote shared caring and domestic responsibilities.

These include our Parental Leave policies, provision of our two subsidised campus nurseries, and our new policy to trial hybrid working, which will support greater inclusion and flexibility for our staff.

#LetsTalkLynch campaign

We partnered with gynaecological cancer charity The Eve Appeal to raise awareness of our research into Lynch syndrome and what it means for cancer screening practices.

We created a series of short videos outlining this research, what it means, and the real stories of women and families who have been affected by Lynch syndrome and Lynch-related cancer.

Women in STEM

We have a range of initiatives that empower women and girls to enter predominantly male fields such as science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

Our academics have set up ScienceGrrl – a grassroots network to address the under-representation of women in science and engineering.

A Women in Environmental Science group has been established to create space for environmental discussion among women from diverse backgrounds.

We also host Girls Night Out – a twice-yearly event at our Jodrell Bank Discovery Centre to celebrate and encourage females to pursue careers in STEM.

In partnership with the Manchester United Foundation, our Girls in STEM Day programme invites 12- and 13-year-old girls to campus to celebrate National Engineering Day.

Girl Guides Rwanda remote volunteering

We work in collaboration with Association des Guides du Rwanda (AGR) to provide volunteer opportunities for students to help girls and young women in Rwanda acquire skills for their development and become agents of positive change.

Students’ and women’s rights

Our students started a Misogyny Is Hate campaign, leading to the government directing police to record crimes motivated by a person’s sex or gender for the first time.

Our Students’ Union also runs Reclaim the Night, resulting in around 2,000 women marching in the streets each year to raise awareness of sexual harassment and gender-based violence.

Promoting gender equality through study programmes

Gender equality is embedded across our whole curriculum, and a wide range of our degrees offer course units on gender and sexuality.

For examples, Religion and Theology students assess the impact of changing gender roles on religious traditions, while our MA in Gender, Sexuality and Culture brings together scholars from many different fields to explore feminist and queer theory, sexual identities and gender history.

On Gender

We produced On Gender to identify what we know – and what we need to know – about gender inequality in tackling the big policy agendas devolved to Greater Manchester and other areas, with devolution deals in areas such as ageing, labour markets, education, parenting and sexual violence.

Gender equality in global value chains

Our research into agriculture and apparel sectors in Africa, Asia and Latin America, and collaboration with three large UK retailers, has led to more than 390,000 workers in value chains in low- and middle-income countries directly benefiting from the implementation of gender-equitable strategies.

More than a million workers have been indirectly advantaged through opportunities for women to advance to leadership positions and new strategies from companies that have the potential to reach 33 million workers in 180 countries.

Library and open access

Our University Library is one of only five National Research Libraries in the UK.

It offers reference facilities to north-west sixth-form and mature students and their teachers to help with A-level, vocational and Access course work.

ProjectInc

Our Manchester Museum hosts and partners with ProjectInc, a Specialist College for Creative Education, to make our cultural institutions more inclusive, engaging and creative for neurodiverse young people.

Imagine Me Stories

Our Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health partners with Manchester Metropolitan University and Keele University on Imagine Me Stories.

This is a school library diversity initiative designed to tackle under-representation in UK school libraries by curating diverse resources and promoting better representation in literature for all students.

Great Science Share for Schools

Our Science and Engineering Education Research and Innovation Hub undertakes a range of public engagement campaigns.

These include the Great Science Share for Schools and the Greater Manchester Engineering Challenge, which enhances the University’s work in broadening the pipeline of young people with an interest in STEM subjects.

IntoUniversity Manchester North

We partner with the IntoUniversity Manchester North educational charity to support and engage some of the most disadvantaged young people in Manchester.

IntoUniversity helps young people to attain a university place or another chosen aspiration. 71% of its students progress to university, compared with 43% of students from similar backgrounds nationally.

Educating the region’s school children during lockdown to minimise disadvantage

During the pandemic and ensuing lockdowns of 2020, our partnership with the Tutor Trust charity provided online sessions to ensure disadvantaged students didn’t suffer the risk of falling behind in their education without regular teaching in the classroom.

Students from The University of Manchester make up more than half of those who work as Tutor Trust tutors in Manchester.

Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) and professional programmes

We offer expert-led, free MOOCs and paid continued professional development courses in a wide range of subject areas, including civil engineering, business and management, healthcare ethics and law.

This includes a free Prometheus programme to support executive-level learning and development for UK third-sector professionals.

Inclusive, sustainable and equitable education

Alongside our conventional course units, we offer a range of interdisciplinary units open to all students that ensure inclusive, sustainable and equitable education.

These include Creating a Sustainable World: 21st Century Challenges and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: Your Role in Shaping a Fairer World.

#BeeWell

#BeeWell is an initiative established in Greater Manchester in 2019 by our University, Anna Freud, The Gregson Family Foundation, and Greater Manchester Combined Authority. The programme aims to explore young people’s opinions on wellbeing and the ways in which it can be improved. The findings inform activity across Greater Manchester, with schools, voluntary sector organisations and children’s services working closely with young people to interpret and act on the results. 

Diversifying the school history curriculum

The collaborative History Lessons research project found that young people were keen to learn more inclusive histories, but teachers needed additional support and new resources for a more inclusive curriculum.

From this, we developed Our Migration Story with The Runnymede Trust and University of Cambridge, creating multiple award-winning web resources, lesson plans and classroom activities exploring the opportunities and challenges faced by Britain’s migrant communities.

Green spaces, health and wellbeing

Our Natural and Cultural Health Service is a programme of outdoor activities run by the Whitworth to promote good physical and mental wellbeing.

Staff, students and the public are also encouraged to use our FIRS botanical gardens to bring gardening, wellbeing and botany to more people.

Sports participation

Our Sporticipate programme serves to provide free and low-cost entry-level sport sessions for the University and wider community.

Sports staff also facilitate volunteering by colleagues and students for the good of local organisations.