Masood Entrepreneurship Centre
Our Masood Entrepreneurship Centre is a focal point for enterprise and entrepreneurship in our Alliance Manchester Business School, developing entrepreneurial skills in students, staff and graduates.
Directory of activities
Search these pages to explore a selection of our directory of activities. You can use the keyword search and filter buttons to discover how we are addressing each of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals and the five priorities in our Social Responsibility and Civic Engagement Plan. You can also filter activities by location and function.
searching subjects: Campus
Fostering innovation through study programmes
We deliver undergraduate programmes in Innovation, Strategy and Entrepreneurship, master’s programmes in Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship.
We also integrate industrial experience into a wide range of science, engineering, health and social science programmes.
Living wage
As an accredited Living Wage Employer, our 10,000+ staff are paid at least the voluntary living wage level in the UK set by the Living Wage Foundation.
Innovation GM
We’re working with leading innovators from business, science, academia and local government to develop Innovation GM – a new partnership to form the basis of a collaboration deal with government to create as many as 100,000 new jobs and boost the economy by £7 billion.
Good employment
Our Alliance Manchester Business School has partnered with regional organisations and authorities to create the Greater Manchester Good Employment Charter, which aims to advance decent work and employment standards across our city region.
We have also joined campaigns with Citizens UK to highlight our role as a living wage organisation.
Workplace Ethics Challenge
Our Workplace Ethics Challenge empowers third-year undergraduates with skills and experiences on fairness in work and helps them stand out in a competitive graduate job market.
Work experience bursaries
We recognise there are barriers for some of our students in accessing appropriate work experience.
We offer financial support for full-time undergraduates of all years to undertake career-enhancing work experience for those who otherwise couldn’t have afforded it.
Promoting inclusive and sustainable economic growth through study programmes
Our students are learning about how to promote inclusive and sustainable economic growth, employment and decent work for all.
For example, our undergraduate Management degree has a specialisation in Sustainable and Ethical Business. Our master’s students in Development Economics and Policy learn about contemporary economic theories, applications and methods relevant to developing and transitional economies.
University investments
We have a University policy (PDF) on divesting from carbon- intensive energy industries.
Our entire investment portfolio is going through a staged disinvestment based on carbon intensity as well as fossil fuel reserves and extraction.
Manchester Energy and Environment Society
Our student-led Manchester Energy and Environment Society brings energy-related events to the University.
It also bridges the gap between students and academics working in renewable energy and the environment through networking and sharing knowledge on renewable and low carbon energy.
Venture Further
Our £75,000 annual Venture Further start-up competition is for all current students, researchers and recent graduates.
One of the competition’s categories is for business ideas aligned to SDG 7 – Affordable and clean energy.
Boosting sustainable energy through study programmes
Our Contemporary Themes in Chemistry unit enables students to appreciate the role chemistry plays in tackling sustainability, energy and the environment.
Our Energy, Society and Space in Geography unit examines scientific and political issues associated with energy provision and demand.
Our master’s unit in Renewable Energy and Clean Technology equips students with a detailed understanding of solar, wind and marine energy generation technologies.
Sustainable urban drainage
We utilise sustainable water extraction technologies on associated university grounds off campus.
This includes using sustainable urban drainage techniques to minimise surface water run-off and flood risks in an environmentally friendly way by mimicking natural water systems such as ponds, wetlands, swales and basins.
Water procurement
We sell exclusively One Water on campus, an ethical company that donates all of its profits to fund clean water systems in Africa while costing the same as other water brands.
Female sanitation
We’ve worked with our Students’ Union and current Women’s Officer to initiate and fund a new scheme providing free period products for our students, helping to combat period poverty and ensure sanitation for all.
Tap water
Staff and students can request free tap water to fill water bottles at 41 free dispensers in University buildings and 1,200 bathrooms, 800 of which are publicly accessible.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.