Our work on Goal 4

Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.

Goal 4: Quality Education

Goal 4: Quality Education

As one of the world’s leading research institutions and the UK’s first university to have social responsibility as a core goal, we’re tackling the SDGs in four inter-related ways: through our research, learning and students, public engagement activity and operations.

Here’s a selection of our work addressing Goal 4.

Research

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.

#BeeWell: Greater Manchester Wellbeing

Experts from our Manchester Institute of Education are working with the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and all of the city-region’s secondary schools on a pioneering #BeeWell project.

The first of its kind in the UK, this project will survey and create a dynamic online data dashboard on wellbeing, enabling teachers and leaders to use it as part of a continuous cycle of improvement.

This will provide evidence to inform local and national governmental policy for young people’s wellbeing.

 

Learning and students

Global University Social Responsibility MOOC

Our university has contributed to the Global University Social Responsibility Massive Online Open Course (MOOC), which allows users to learn about the general framework of university social responsibility as well as understand effective practices to design, plan, implement, and evaluate their own activities.

Author and broadcaster Jeffrey Boakye joins The University of Manchester

Jeffrey Boakye has been appointed Senior Teaching Fellow in Manchester Institute of Education (MIE). He is a high-profile author, broadcaster and journalist whose book, I Heard What You Said (2022), explores how racism in the classroom can be dismantled. Within MIE, Jeffrey hosts guest lectures and seminars, and takes on learning support roles that provide bespoke mentoring for individual students and trainee teachers.

 

Public engagement

The University of Manchester 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.

Being Human Festival

Being Human is the UK’s National Festival of the humanities, which celebrates how the discipline enriches everyday living and helps us understand a changing world. Each year the festival invites researchers at universities and other research organisations to collaborate with local community and cultural partners to create exciting and engaging events and projects for all to enjoy.

 

Operations

SDG partnerships

We signed the international SDG Accord as part of our ongoing commitment to social responsibility and environmental sustainability. Our Alliance Manchester Business School also signed the Principles for Responsible Management in Education (PRME). We are a founding member of the UK’s Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN).

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.