The University has been awarded the University Mental Health Charter Award from Student Minds – the UK’s student mental health charity. The UMHC Award is a voluntary accreditation scheme that supports universities to understand their areas of strength and development to inform ongoing improvement in mental health and wellbeing, recognising good practice along the way. 

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 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.

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.

Stonewall is Europe’s largest charity for lesbian, gay, bi, trans, queer, questioning and ace (LGBTQ+) people and each year ranks organisations for their LGBTQ+ inclusion practices against other organisations. Up to 500 organisations take part in the annual Index, in which we have ranked in the top 100 for eight consecutive years. This year, our University scored 133 out of 197 in its Workplace Equality Index submission, ranked 7th overall, and also achieved a Gold award for meeting specific criteria around a number of identified measures for LGBT+ inclusion.

Each year, we host the Making a Difference Awards to celebrate the incredible and inspiring work of our University community. The awards highlight the extensive range of social responsibility initiatives of our staff, students, alumni and external partners, and covers categories such as benefit to research; widening participation; environmental sustainability and equality, diversity and inclusion.

Policy@Manchester is our University’s policy engagement institute that connects researchers with policymakers and influencers, nurtures long-term policy engagement relationships and seeks to enhance stakeholder understanding of pressing policy challenges. One of the institutes online collections, Health Inequalities draws on research from across the University, and offers evidence-led insight and policy recommendations on the causes, effects, and solutions to heath inequalities.

Each year our University marks LGBT+ History Month with a variety of events, awareness raising activities and calls to action to mark the contribution and importance the LGBT+ community has had on the University. Events include exploring aspects of LGBT+ inclusion and a screening of a documentary focusing on intersectionality, followed by a discussion. Members of our alumni are also invited to join a panel where they discuss the theme allocated to LGBT+ History Month for that year.

At the University of Manchester we are proud to be part of the City of Manchester team who worked together to achieve the Living Wage City Status. The University is a pioneer and advocate for the Real Living Wage in the City and has been a Real Wage employer since 2019.

• Stonewall Top 50 employer for LGBTQ+ equality
• Bronze Award for Race Equality (use logo)
• 15 Athena SWAN Chartermarks for Gender Equality
• Care Leaver Covenant signed to support care leavers to live independently.
• University of Sanctuary status in support of our work with refugee and asylum seeker students

Our latest Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) annual report shows that:

• 3% of employees disclosed that they are disabled
• 9% of staff declare they are Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic
• 5% of our staff are female
• 8% of staff classify themselves as gay, lesbian, bisexual or other
• 22% of students are the first in their immediate family to gain a degree
• 1.1% of students (407) are from low or lower-middle income countries as defined by the World Bank.

Our Speak Up! Stand Up! campaign and reporting procedures through our Dignity at Work and Study Policy make it clear that we take a zero tolerance approach to bullying, harassment, sexual harassment, discrimination or victimisation by any members of our community.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Our student-run, campus zero waste shop, Want Not Waste, holds a community fridge.

This contains food from unsold meals offered by local business and surplus raw ingredients provided by our catering outlets.

Stocking these items combats local food waste while helping to tackle food insecurity within our own university community.

A significant proportion of our students are from families that fall below the national poverty line.

We offer a range of support to ensure that financial issues don’t present an obstacle for learners, including:

• The Manchester Bursary
• The Manchester Master’s Bursary
• The Undergraduate Access Scholarship
• The Living Cost Support Fund
• The ‘Helpmegetonline’ scheme