Talking Science Competition

Each year, the University’s Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health (FBMH) hosts the ‘Talking Science Competition’ where second year undergraduate students and above are invited to share their ideas on how science can create a healthier, fairer and greener world, creating a unique opportunity to talk about a subject that really matters to them.

University Living Lab

Our University Living Lab applies the expertise of students to real-world sustainability challenges through developing student research projects with external organisations to help meet sustainability goals.  Through the University Living Lab, the University has saved CO2 through active travel, shaped municipal climate change policy, increased biodiversity and enabled ethical consumption whilst empowering and equipping the future workforce of a net zero world. In 2022, the Living Lab was nominated for The Earthshot Prize for practical action on climate change.

School Governor Initiative

The University has one of the UK’s most extensive programmes of work with local state schools and colleges. In accordance with the University’s access and participation plan with the Office for Students, we deliver a School Governor Initiative that helps staff and alumni to find volunteering placements as governors in local schools.

Manchester Museum’s Carbon Literacy Toolkit

We launched the first ever museum-sector-specific Carbon Literacy toolkit as part of Roots & Branches, a partnership between Manchester Museum, Museum Development North West (MDNW), and The Carbon Literacy project. The toolkit helps museum professionals and volunteers undertake training, to then certify as Carbon Literate. This foundational work supports staff, volunteers, and partners to build their understanding of climate action, so that they can make informed sustainable choices. The project also encourages museums to develop organisational pledges to act against climate change.

Early Career Race Network

Based at our University, the Centre on the Dynamics of Ethnicity in collaboration with RACE.ED has developed the Early Career Race Network. The organisation aids early-career scholars specialising in ethnicity and race through regular online and in person workshops that provide support in navigating a career in academia.

Q-Step data partnerships

We partner with small local charities in Manchester right through to major government departments through our Q-Step programme.

This places students on internships in organisations that require data skills and analysis and we’ve collaborated on projects with the Office for National Statistics on global, national and regional datasets used to measure progress on SDGs.

Student learning partnerships

We’re committed to empowering students with the knowledge, skills and opportunities to address all of the SDGs through partnerships with public, private and civil society organisations.

Our University Living Lab platform connects student projects with external organisations to address the SDGs.

Our Volunteer Hub acts to advance partnerships between hundreds of charities and our student volunteers.

And many academic programmes offer service-learning partnerships, where external organisations benefit from practical student interventions in areas such as dentistry, optometry, pharmacy, business and legal advice.

Justice Hub

Our Justice Hub allows students to explore and apply various arms of the law to make real change in our communities.

The Hub runs a free legal advice centre for economically disadvantaged people in areas such as family, housing and immigration law.

During the pandemic, our Justice Hub set up the Virtual Vacation Scheme, which aimed to simplify some very complicated areas of law impacted by the pandemic, and created an accessible and informative method of legal help for the community through workshops, videos, briefings and webinars.

Manchester Innocence Project

As part of our Justice Hub, The Manchester Innocence Project (MIP) is one of only 13 organisations outside of the US to join the Innocence Network.

Law students volunteering with MIP have the opportunity to take on live criminal appeals for those who maintain their innocence.

Species conservation

Our Manchester Museum Vivarium is dedicated to the conservation of reptiles and amphibians.

We recently partnered with Panama Wildlife Charity PWCC on non-invasive research and conservation education involving local communities in the Santa Fe National Park in Panama.

This led to a world first in 2021: one of the world’s rarest toads, the Harlequin Frog, was successfully bred in captivity outside its country of origin, at our museum.

We also curate a world-famous FrogBlog and deliver a digital Learning with Lucy conservation programme for schools.

Manchester City of Trees

As part of our partnership with the local NGO, Manchester City of Trees, students can use our Volunteer Hub to sign up for one-off or weekly tree planting sessions or even become a Citizen Forester.

Our student volunteering is supporting their mission of planting one tree for every person across Greater Manchester, creating a healthier and more sustainable city region.

Making labs greener

Leading the way in achieving the University’s pledge to eliminate avoidable single-use plastic usage, staff in our School of Biological Sciences are reducing single-use plastics in the lab through adoption of a 6R approach.

This has included:

• refining protocol and optimising waste management;
• reducing single-use items;
• re-using materials, plastic containers and gloves;
• using recycled material;
• replacing plastics where possible with glass, paper or wood.

Ocean warming and shark survival

Our undergraduate students have assisted a study into the effects of warming ocean waters on the small-spotted catshark embryo’s freeze response: a technique whereby the embryo stops moving so that predators won’t detect them.

The research found that with a 5°C water temperature increase there was a seven-fold decrease in the length of time the embryos froze for in the presence of a predator stimuli, indicating that as oceans warm, many shark and ray species may reduce in number due to increased predation.

Roots and Branches

Our Manchester Museum has been awarded Arts Council England and National Lottery Project Grant funding for an ambitious two-year partnership project in collaboration with Museum Development North West and the Carbon Literacy Trust. The project will accelerate the museum sector’s ability to respond to the climate crisis.

The Museum will host the ‘roots’: creating a nationally significant co-working hub of cultural environmental action that will bring together museum staff, educators, environmentalists, artists, researchers, third sector organisations and students.

Student campaigning and activism

Our Students’ Union set up Climate Justice Fortnight, an initiative exploring the different ways that climate injustice manifests itself, and how we can tackle it.

There are Teach-Ins throughout the fortnight where students and academic staff collaborate on delivering content on these issues in their current class times.

Students also organise activities and actions through societies such as the People and Planet Society or Extinction Rebellion Youth; get involved in sustainability leadership roles such as the Students’ Union’s Ethical and Environmental Officer; take on  environmental representation roles in halls of residence; and attend events and campaigns such as the youth strikes for climate action.

Climate action in study programmes

Our students are taking on the challenge of climate change across hundreds of undergraduate and postgraduate modules in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and engineering.

In addition, every undergraduate student has the opportunity to take Climate Change and Society, a unit offered by our University College for Interdisciplinary Learning, which explores the politics of climate change action and analyses the challenge from the perspective of multiple stakeholders and different nations.

Want Not Waste

Want Not Waste is a student-run, zero-waste shop on campus, supported by the University to grow from a small stall operating out of our Students’ Union, to owning its own independent unit.

They’ve also developed a series of online resources to foster a community of knowledge sharing and inspiring pro-sustainable choices.

From 10,000 to 50,000 Actions

In 2016 we launched 10,000 Actions, the biggest environmental sustainability initiative in the UK higher education sector, with 50% of our 10,000+ staff accessing the platform.

In autumn 2021, we’re launching a revamped 50,000 Actions that expands the platform to the whole of our student body.

Sustainable Cities MOOC

Our academics have contributed to a free massive open online course (MOOC) developed with Lund University, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability.

83,000 students around the world have used this to explore key trends of urbanisation and sustainability and apply this in advancing sustainability in cities around the world.

University Living Lab

Our University Living Lab applies the energy and expertise of students to real-world sustainability challenges by developing student projects with external organisations linked to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Equity and Merit Programme

Our Equity and Merit Programme supports the brightest minds from some of the least developed countries in Sub-Saharan Africa – Ethiopia, Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe – to develop skills for sustainable development in their home countries.

Thanks to funding by the University and the generosity of our donors, more than 300 international students have completed master’s programmes with us.

Reducing inequalities through our cultural institutions

Following the 2020 Black Lives Matter movement, our gallery’s Whitworth Young Contemporaries was motivated to create an Other Utopia zine which connected art, ideas and communities to challenge white narrative of its collections.

Our Museum’s Our Shared Cultural Heritage youth project, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, utilises a range of engaging activities and events to explore and celebrate the shared histories and cultures of the UK and South Asia.

Race Archives and Community Engagement

Our University Library hosts the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah RACE Centre – an open access library and outreach facility, based in the city of Manchester’s Central Library.

The Centre specialises in the study of race, migration and diversity, empowering communities with the information and knowledge they need to challenge racism.

Student Action for Refugees

Our students are involved in volunteering and campaigning with the Manchester branch of Student Action for Refugees (STAR) to support those in need of refuge in the UK.

EDI interdisciplinary course unit

Our new interdisciplinary unit, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI): Your Role in Shaping a Fairer World, is open to all undergraduate students and empowers them to take responsibility for promoting inclusive approaches to study and work.