University of Manchester working in partnership with Greater Manchester Citizens

The University of Manchester works with Greater Manchester Citizens, an alliance of community, faith, education, health and third-sector organisations, to support community organising and action on issues affecting people across the region. University colleagues contribute insights, participate in research collaborations and engage in alliance-wide discussions addressing priorities including youth mental health, hate and discrimination, social cohesion and support for people on low incomes. The partnership helps connect communities with regional decision-makers and supports collective action towards more equitable outcomes across Greater Manchester.

Relaxed Graduation Ceremony

The Relaxed Graduation Ceremony offers an alternative way for students to celebrate their achievements in a setting designed to make a traditional ceremony more accessible. It includes a smaller cohort of graduates, a quieter atmosphere, inclusive design elements and a dedicated Quiet Room, followed by an informal reception.

Graduation should be a celebration for students, but for many people the format can feel overwhelming. The ceremony has also shown the value of designing access in a way that is open and inclusive. To increase participation the project was not restricted only to students with a formal diagnosis or existing support pathway. By advertising the ceremony to all students, the project avoided placing the burden on individuals to prove they needed support, while still improving access for disabled and neurodivergent students. 

Challenge Accepted

Challenge Accepted is the University of Manchester’s ambitious fundraising and volunteering campaign. Whether you give your time, expertise or philanthropic support, you are part of the Manchester community making a difference. The campaign is crucial for delivering our strategy to 2035, From Manchester for the world. We’re uniting alumni, donors, staff, students and civic, industry and community partners to tackle the world’s toughest challenges and transform lives locally and globally. Our entire university community can help create meaningful action and channel collective power into change – including colleagues, students, alumni and our partners.

Do you want to take on the challenge? Find out how you can get involved! 

Martin Harris Centre: Breaking Barriers

The Martin Harris Centre: Breaking Barriers initiative developed from an initial dementia friendly project into a wide-ranging programme to improve accessibility, inclusion and community engagement. The Martin Harris Centre now delivers relaxed performances with British Sign Language interpretation, intergenerational music activities, school partnerships, and regular outreach in SEND and community settings.

Read the full case study and watch the accompanying film.

UK-Kenya Partnership: Advancing Intersectional Gender Equality

CARA (Council for At Risk Academics)

We are a founding member of Cara (the Council for At Risk Academics) and offer up to ten Cara Fellowships each year. Our Cara Fellowships provide sanctuary and financial assistance to academics worldwide who cannot safely continue their work due to conflict, oppression, or persecution. Additionally offering support through personalised guidance about visas, advice about accommodation and help with planning for the future. 

Building Bridges Project

Through the Building Bridges Project, we organise community gatherings across different venues in South Manchester to explore how to foster social cohesion and tackle hate crime. These events aim to bring together diverse communities, creating safe spaces to listen, share experiences, and build understanding. These local gatherings have enabled community members, including asylum seekers and Muslim residents, who were particularly affected by the unrest, to share their stories, hopes and fears, exploring how grassroots leaders can lead challenging but constructive conversations within their communities. To support this work, we facilitated mediated dialogue training for 20 local leaders involved in the project. The training, delivered by the Peace Collective, helped participants develop the skills needed to hold respectful and inclusive discussions on complex social issues. 

SEED Changemakers

SEED Change-makers is a student-led  initiative developed by the University’s School of Environment, Education and Development (SEED). It empowers undergraduate and postgraduate students to drive meaningful change. The programme provides a dynamic platform for students to transform their passions into impactful action through leading and collaborating on innovative social responsibility projects. For example, students launched the Give It, Don’t Bin It campaign to reduce waste left behind in student accommodation during move-out periods, and they have hosted thought-provoking lectures on active citizenship and rethinking sustainable community support.  

EDI programmes for staff

We offer five EDI Leadership programmes, aimed at developing a diverse pool of leaders by equipping colleagues from groups that are statistically underrepresented in leadership. These programmes include: 

• Aurora: For colleagues who identify as women  

• Disability Leadership Training: For disabled academic, research and PS colleagues 

• LGBTQ+ Leadership Training: For LGBTQ+ academic, research and PS colleagues 

• Stellar HE: For Black, Asian, and ethnically diverse PS, academic and research colleagues  

• 100 Black Women Professors Now (BWPN): For colleagues who identify as women (+non-binary) from African / African Caribbean or mixed Black diaspora. This includes academic and research colleagues, and PhD students. 

Music in Mind

Our Creative Manchester research platform partners with Manchester Camerata on Music in Mind, a programme that uses music and improvisation to help people living with dementia to express themselves and communicate with others. It also trains and supports care workers to deliver the music workshops independently, so the programme can continue benefitting local communities. Music in Mind has since been awarded a grant to evaluate the impact of an online version of the programme and how it could be integrated into the fundamentals of the care practice in the future. The programme has also been taken abroad, to benefit partners in Sweden, Taiwan and Japan.

Klemzer in the Manchester Community

The Klezmorim of Manchester is a community klezmer musicking group organised by the co-directors of The University of Manchester Klezmer Ensemble. The project aims to bring accessible, modally diverse, and wide-reaching intercultural musicking encounters to Greater Manchester by collaborating regularly with local community groups.

Driving urban transportation

Academics from Manchester Urban Institute at The University of Manchester have co-designed solutions that help to mitigate social exclusion with regards to public transport provided by the Greater Manchester Bee Network. They have co-produced a blueprint for community engagement and provided actionable recommendations to inform the development of more socially equitable services.

Once a Month

Once a Month, created at the University of Manchester, is a student-led volunteer initiative tackling period poverty. They host monthly packing sessions to supply charities with period products and publish a monthly newsletter on topics such as menstrual health and the gender pain gap. The project’s success has led to its expansion across UK universities. 

Peer Support Awards

The Peer Support Awards offer an annual celebration of the incredible dedication and achievements of Peer Mentors, PASS Leaders, and Student Coordinators in the Peer Support community. The event recognises the pivotal role Peer Support plays in aiding first-year students though their transition into university life through guidance from student volunteers in higher years on the same course.

Partnership with The Access Project

The University’s Faculty of Humanities has partnered with The Access Project, an organisation that supports young people from under-resourced backgrounds to raise their aspirations, access top universities and achieve social mobility.

Partnership with Stone Group

In IT Services we have a strong commitment to reducing our impact on the environment. In a move to support local youth and promote digital equality, IT Services at the University in partnership with IT Provider, Stone Group, has donated laptops to the RAFAC 1263 (Rochdale) Squadron.

Bicentenary inclusive recruitment campaign

The Bicentenary inclusive recruitment campaign is an initiative contributing to our social responsibility objectives by diversifying the talent pools we recruit from. Designed to reduce unemployment and promote regional socio-economic development, this initiative reflects our commitment to creating a meaningful and lasting impact within Greater Manchester.

Volunteer of the year awards

Many of our students volunteer either here in Manchester, or elsewhere nationally or internationally. Through our annual Volunteer of the Year Awards, we want to take time every year to thank these volunteers for the skills, commitment and tens of thousands of volunteers hours given.

Staff volunteering

We have an employee volunteering policy which provides all employees with the opportunity to request up to three days paid leave to participate in a volunteering activity of their choosing. We understand how important it is for staff to be able to give back to the wider community, whether that’s here in Greater Manchester, or further afield.

University’s Sustainable Development Goals annual report

Each year we launch a report which highlights how we are addressing key issues facing humanity as set-out by the United Nations.  As the UK’s first university to have social responsibility as a core goal, we’ve developed a strategy to tackle the SDGs in four inter-related ways: through our research, learning and students, public engagement and operations.   

Our latest SDG report shows that the University published over 22,000 pieces of research on the SDGs in the past five years, which is 4% of the UK’s entire share of publications. It details teaching and learning programmes that address the SDGs, such as our ‘Creating a Sustainable World’ interdisciplinary unit. 

Summer school for Women in Logic

The University’s School of Social Sciences hosts a four-day Summer School on Women in Logic every year. The programme is aimed at 16- to 18-year-old women and girls from widening participation backgrounds, with the goal of addressing the underrepresentation of women in logic and philosophy, while also encouraging more widening participation students to pursue philosophy as a field of study. 

The Chrysalis Family Centre

The Chrysalis Family Centre has served as the setting for a fruitful collaboration between the University and local refugees and asylum seekers, fostering both language skills and community building. The initiative, spearheaded by our politics department, began as an English-language conversation project. Every week, students meet with refugees and asylum seekers at the Chrysalis Centre, offering them a chance to practice English and engage with the broader community. As the Chrysalis Family Centre continues to thrive, the collaboration between Manchester students and local refugees remains a powerful testament to the positive impact of community engagement. 

Manchester Christmas Dinner

The Manchester Christmas Dinner project started in 2013 with a vision: “No care leaver will be alone on Christmas day.” The initiative aims to provide young care-experienced people, usually around 50, with a memorable Christmas Day experience. It offers a warm and welcoming venue, delicious food, engaging activities facilitated by friendly hosts, and, of course, presents. The initiative received a Making a Difference Award for its outstanding professional services in social responsibility. 

University of Manchester Physics Outreach

University of Manchester Physics Outreach (UMPO) is a student-led project that aims to increase the diversity of student participation in STEM-based subjects (primarily physics) through engaging outreach activities. These include workshops for both primary and secondary schools, and science demonstrations at markets in the form of ‘science busking’. The project received a Making a Difference Award for its outstanding contribution to widening participation. 

Manchester 10/10

The Manchester 10/10 programme is a collaborative student-staff project designed to empower and build a sense of belonging for Black/Black-mixed undergraduate students through tailored events and opportunities. Designed in partnership with Black Heritage students, the events support students to build their peer, professional and academic networks and develop the confidence to engage with all that the Manchester student experience has to offer.