Universally Manchester Festival – a community day for all

Each year we throw open our doors for our local friends and neighbours to discover the variety of work we do here at the University. This free day is jam-packed with fun activities for all the family, including interactive demonstrations, musical and drama performances, and behind the scenes tours.   

Our Universally Manchester Festival offers an inviting, informal space for visitors to meet our staff and students and community partners, and for us to take part in conversations that connect and inspire. 

Sustainability Action Month

Sustainability Action Month is our biggest sustainability event of the year involves four weeks of interactive activities and events to enhance understanding of the climate crisis and showcase easy ways to embed sustainable practices at work, on campus, and at home. We share practical hints, tips, and solutions that we encourage you to embed in your everyday lives at work, on campus, and at home.  

Talk 200 lecture and podcast series

Talk 200 is a lecture and podcast series from the University to mark our bicentenary: 200 years of making a difference. We’re reflecting on our past, celebrating our present and looking to the future – and Talk 200 invites listeners to be part of the journey.  

The series comprises a mix of in-person and live-streamed lectures and recorded podcast episodes. Our podcast host, Manchester aficionado, author and University of Manchester alumnus Andy Spinoza, is joined by a diverse line-up of guests from our community. Topics include health, digital and AI, climate change, equality and justice, and more. 

Great Science Share for Schools

The Great Science Share for Schools is a pioneering campaign dedicated to fostering scientific curiosity and education among young learners (5-14 years). The campaign is centred around an annual programme of activity culminating in a large-scale sharing event on the second week of June each year.  

The GSSfS has been granted the prestigious patronage of the United Kingdom National Commission for UNESCO in 2024. This recognition underscores the event’s profound alignment with UNESCO’s values, solidifying its status as a beacon of excellence in science education. 

Greater Manchester Poverty Action partnership

The University of Manchester has a partnership with Greater Manchester Poverty Action (GMPA), a recognised leader on poverty in the UK and exists to end poverty in Greater Manchester and beyond. They deliver independent, evidence-based activities to address socio-economic disadvantage. 

UNESCO City of Learning

The city of lifelong learning approach is a movement of people, services, and place, to connect, validate and nurture learning, to support the city economy and to promote high quality and inclusive learning, for all aspects of our life. 

Manchester has become a UNESCO City of Lifelong Learning, in recognition of outstanding efforts to make lifelong learning a reality for all, with the University of Manchester as a strategic partner. The University of Manchester is proud to be leading on digital skills as part of Manchester City Council’s lifelong learning approach. 

NCCPE Platinum Watermark

Our University has been awarded a Platinum Watermark by the National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement (NCCPE) which is the highest honour that can be granted to an institution. The award recognises our exceptional contribution to public engagement which includes the way we work to engage society with activities in research, teaching and culture. We received praise for our efforts in making campus more welcoming and accessible for community use, involving partners and communities in shaping the research and teaching at the University, and our significant commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion. Find examples of our local, national and international public engagement work here. 

Manchester Purple Wave

The Purple Wave is a UoM Sport initiative designed to bring our community together to celebrate physical activity and shared experiences. It’s all about participation, not elite performance – just having fun, making friends, and being active with like-minded people. As part of this, people can become a Purplewave fundraiser, raising money at events like the Great Manchester Run. Over the years, hundreds of wonderful fundraisers have raised tens of thousands of pounds to support good causes right here on campus. From rebuilding the Paterson Cancer Research building to providing disadvantaged students with scholarships – brilliant Purple Wave fundraisers have helped make some amazing things happen for our community.

The Whitworth Gallery of Sanctuary status

The University’s Whitworth gallery is the first gallery in the North-West of England to proudly join the hundreds of local councils, schools, universities, libraries, and cultural institutes who have Sanctuary status, pledging to create a culture of solidarity and inclusivity, and welcome people from a forced displacement background. The Sanctuary Awards recognise and celebrate the organisations who go above and beyond to welcome people seeking sanctuary.

Tackling street harassment of women runners

Dr Caroline Miles and Professor Rose Broad from The University of Manchester are involved in ‘The abuse of women who run: experiences, perceptions and fears’, a project working with Greater Manchester Police and Merseyside police. The research involves analysing police data on recorded incidents of abuse experienced by women runners as well as surveys with women runners about their experiences. Following this, there will be events to raise awareness and share key learnings to help tackle street harassment.

One World Together

One World Together, co-founded by the University’s Global Development Institute, Dr Nicola Banks, is an innovative social enterprise rooted in principles of trust, solidarity and equity. It shifts money and decision-making power to the organisations closest to communities. With partners in Manchester, the North-West of England, Kenya and Zambia, One World Together brings local voices and experiences to the forefront of the movement, deepening their supporters’ understandings of poverty and inequality and of why local actors are so important to overcoming these.

Manchester Museum repatriation project

Our Manchester Museum has been working with the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) and the Anindilyakwa Land Council on a landmark repatriation project, returning 174 cultural heritage items to the Aboriginal Anindilyakwa community of Australia’s Northern Territory. The process of returning these items has supported Anindilyakwa cultural strengthening and revitalisation.

Public health and the SDGs

The University has developed a series of open-access courses on public health and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs are a key part of the United Nations’ work to improve lives and protect the natural world. Public health is integral to these aspirations, in helping to improve people’s health while protecting the health of our planet and the natural world that we are all dependent on. This series of courses aims to give an introduction to the public health issues that are relevant to the SDGs, and the role of public health in taking action to achieve the goals.

KIT:BAG

A partnership dedicated to tackling the impact of textile waste in the football industry has been launched between The University of Manchester and RÆBURN Design – a leading sustainable fashion studio.  The new project, KIT:BAG by RÆBURN, will work with local sportswear suppliers and the local community to transform surplus football shirts into unique reusable tote bags, while educating them of the environmental impacts of textile waste and how we can extend the life of our garments. It aims to provide a fun, responsible way to keep kits in circulation while shining a light on the large-scale problem in the industry.

Founders and Funders

Founders and Funders: Slavery and the building of a University is an exhibition at the University’s John Rylands Research Institute. It explores how profits from slave trading, ownership of enslaved people, and manufacturing with slave-grown cotton funded the cultural and educational development of Manchester. Core to the exhibition is research conducted by a diverse team of emerging scholars who undertook the Race, Migration & Humanitarianism: Legacies of Slavery and Colonialism in the Modern World module as part of their MA History. This is an important step on a journey we started with the initial research into our University’s links to slavery, in conjunction with seeking the views of staff, students and alumni.

Addressing gender disparity in Kenya and Uganda

Elimisha Msichana Elimisha Jamii na Astronomia (Swahili for “educate a girl, educate the entire community with Astronomy”) is a project founded by Faculty of Science and Engineering PhD student Ann Njeri. The project is addressing the issue of gender disparity and inequality in education amongst girls in rural Kenya and Uganda through outreach, mentorship, scholarships and targeted STEM workshop programmes which are guided by long-term student tracking and monitoring.

Alternative Football League

Co-founded by the University’s Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health PhD student Beth Barnes, the Alternative Football League (AF League) is the North West’s only fully inclusive football league for women, non-binary and transgender individuals. AF League have three leagues across Manchester and Liverpool with 30 teams and over 400 players. They aim to use football as a platform to improve the mental health of women and non-binary people throughout the UK with their very own mental health and inclusivity workshops.

Maretório

Maretório is a project focussed on making space to facilitate meaningful communication about climate change for those vulnerable, coastal communities in Brazil who may be most affected by it. University of Manchester team members have collaborated with other institutional partners to create educational resources and children’s games to empower local people to engage with climate change as they view it and using language that is personal and relevant to them.

Tackling COVID-19 in Kenya’s slums

Funded by the Global Challenges Research Fund, a cross-disciplinary team, including researchers from the University of Manchester, have improved Covid outcomes in Kenya’s slums. The project aimed to identify local knowledge and attitudes surrounding Covid and implement an effective public health campaign. All work on the ground was conducted by trained local field workers, in cooperation with community health volunteers, local officials and village elders, ensuring messages were communicated through trusted personnel with knowledge of the local area and language. The findings from the study highlighted that consistent and targeted health campaigns in informal settlements can facilitate compliance, engagement and understanding alongside ongoing public health campaigns. 

Dentistry across continents

The Sri Lankan Civil War limited the influx of medical knowledge into the region for almost 30 years. Since then, healthcare practitioners of affected areas have been striving to update their practice to provide modern treatments for the local population. In 2011, the University of Manchester set up a continuous professional development (CPD) team in Sri Lanka, providing lectures to help improve healthcare knowledge and practice. Our academics visit each year and with support from our University and the Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT), have helped with capacity building, skill sharing programmes, student exchange opportunities and school community engagement projects.

Multilingual World

Multilingual World is a podcast hosted by Dr Serge Sagne, a lecturer in linguistics and current lead of the Linguistic Diversity Collective where he explores  multilingualism and linguistic diversity across the globe. The video podcast features Dr Sagna in conversation with leading academics, and multilingual speakers living in Manchester where they discuss their relationship with language, identity and their experience learning, transmitting, and using languages in Manchester. The podcast production is supported by Creative Manchester. Visit and subscribe to the Multilingual World YouTube channel here.

Creating prosperous communities

We’re unique among UK universities in having social responsibility as a core goal in our strategic plan, Our Future. Our vision for prosperous communities is to increase economic well being, develop new sectors, innovate, and improve productivity for all people and all areas of our city region. We’re using our knowledge and discovery to enhance innovation in key economic sectors of the national and regional economy through initiatives and also working in partnership and sharing our knowledge and expertise locally and nationally to advance prosperity by prioritising University engagement on national and regional economic policy developments.

International Mother Language Day

We participate in the UNESCO’s International Mother Language Day every year, celebrating the cultural diversity and multilingualism in Manchester. The events to commemorate this day are focused on language and are led by our libraries, community groups, neighbouring schools, poets, and writers.

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.

Age-friendly Greater Manchester

To mark the UN’s International Day of Older Persons we have created a booklet which showcases the different ways older age is experienced in Greater Manchester, alongside an accompanying animation. This booklet offers a guide to a more immersive, flexible, creative and participatory approach for engaging with those within the category – enabling policy communities, academics, and others to gain a richer, localised and more personal understanding of what it means to be an older person. The project also responds to research and campaigns that have found representations of older age often fall back on medicalised, stereotypical accounts of what constitutes older lives.