Manchester Metropolitan University is a community that is creative, confident, passionate, and proud – attributes we share with our great home city.

Our strategy captures the collective aspirations of our staff, students, and partners, and the energy that defines our University.

OUR PURPOSE

Transforming lives through the power of education and research.

OUR AMBITION

We will harness our creativity and confidence to enrich our students’ lives, raise the impact of our excellent education and research, and project its application to Manchester and the world.

EXCELLENT EDUCATION

We will deliver an excellent education and a great university experience for our students, which transforms their lives and leads to successful careers.

We will focus on delivering high-quality programmes that generate outstanding results across key student and graduate metrics by 2030, through cutting-edge on-campus teaching and digitally-enhanced learning across the whole curriculum.

We will be known for our active learning community, delivering a broad-based educational experience linked to graduate and employer need.

We will deliver an excellent student experience, supported by sector-leading facilities and infrastructure, high-quality support, and access to services.

We will maintain a diverse portfolio that includes undergraduate, postgraduate and Degree Apprenticeship provision, supporting the needs of business and employers.

We will continue to recruit students from the widest diversity of backgrounds, from the UK and abroad, with the greatest potential, applying our principles of inclusion and equality to support them to succeed and we will have removed differential gaps for progression, award and graduate outcomes.

Our world-class academic workforce will be supported by technologies, infrastructure, a sector-leading employee value proposition and promotion opportunities, to deliver excellent and innovative teaching, defining us as a top employer.

RESEARCH WITH IMPACT

Our excellent research and knowledge exchange will help to address the grand challenges of our time, delivering local, national and global impact.

We will develop those areas of research where we have the greatest strength and opportunity. By 2030, we will have several research areas with significant critical mass that are internationally recognised as amongst the best.

Our research will drive our international reputation, so we can attract and retain high-quality staff. It will also inform our educational offer.

We will grow research funding, reflecting our areas of research excellence, so our activities are intellectually and financially sustainable.

We will apply our research strengths to regional, national and global challenges, in partnership with industry, government, public bodies and other external organisations.

We will deliver an exciting, inclusive, and supportive research environment for our postgraduate research students, supported by diverse external funding.

GREAT PLACE TO WORK

Our compelling Employee Value Proposition will ensure we recruit, retain, develop and reward talented people at all levels.

Our excellent terms and conditions will mean colleagues see us as a top employer. Our search and recruitment processes will attract a talented, committed and diverse workforce.

Every colleague will be able to contribute fully to our success. They will know what we expect of them and enjoy training and development opportunities to advance their careers. We will recognise and reward strong performance and all employees will benefit from excellent facilities, technology and support.

We will listen to colleagues to shape our strategy, policies and responses as well engaging and consulting with trades unions and employee fora.

To improve our focus and effectiveness, we will minimise administration, reduce complexity, and simplify our processes.

INCLUSIVE AND DIVERSE CULTURE

We will promote equality and celebrate diversity.

Senior leaders will champion an inclusive culture that engages students and employees in developing, implementing, evaluating and monitoring our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion priorities and plans.

We will implement mechanisms to attract a diverse workforce and continue to prioritise the recruitment of students from every background who have the potential to succeed.

We will remove differential gaps in student progression, award and graduate outcomes, achieving external recognition of our commitments through both established equality charters and our Access and Participation Plan. We will share our equalities data transparently and use it to shape our policies.

We will leverage our strengths to support student success and research that benefits society. This will include working with businesses and partners to develop career opportunities for our diverse student population and demonstrating leadership in how we apply our research to tackle inequalities and shape a fairer society.

LEADERSHIP IN SUSTAINABILITY AND CLIMATE CHANGE

Through our education, research, partnerships and campus, we will be a beacon of sustainable development practices, making a positive difference to climate change, society, and the environment.

This will include maintaining our leadership position in national and international sustainability rankings.

Our programmes will equip students to shape a more sustainable future and we will work with employers to identify the sustainability skills needed in graduates. We will embed these skills, alongside education for sustainable development, into formal and informal learning and development, making students more employable.

Where we have relevant strengths, our high-quality research, education, and partnerships will support the aims of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and contribute to the world’s sustainability agenda.

We will embed sustainability into our campus, and the way we work. This contributes to reaching our carbon targets and maximising social value. Our carbon management plan will keep us on track to reduce our carbon emissions related to fuel and energy use to zero — and our carbon emissions related to our value chain to net zero before 2038.

Our leadership in sustainability will not only add value to our local, national and international engagement activities, but support our city-region on its journey to net zero carbon by 2038.

*Scholarships available for international students. 

United Kingdom, island country located off the northwestern coast of mainland Europe. The United Kingdom comprises the whole of the island of Great Britain—which contains England, Wales, and Scotland—as well as the northern portion of the island of Ireland. The name Britain is sometimes used to refer to the United Kingdom as a whole. The capital is London, which is among the world’s leading commercial, financial, and cultural centres. Other major cities include Birmingham, Liverpool, and Manchester in England, Belfast and Londonderry in Northern Ireland, Edinburgh and Glasgow in Scotland, and Swansea and Cardiff in Wales.

The origins of the United Kingdom can be traced to the time of the Anglo-Saxon king Athelstan, who in the early 10th century CE secured the allegiance of neighbouring Celtic kingdoms and became “the first to rule what previously many kings shared between them,” in the words of a contemporary chronicle. Through subsequent conquest over the following centuries, kingdoms lying farther afield came under English dominion. Wales, a congeries of Celtic kingdoms lying in Great Britain’s southwest, was formally united with England by the Acts of Union of 1536 and 1542. Scotland, ruled from London since 1603, formally was joined with England and Wales in 1707 to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain. (The adjective “British” came into use at this time to refer to all the kingdom’s peoples.) Ireland came under English control during the 1600s and was formally united with Great Britain through the Act of Union of 1800. The republic of Ireland gained its independence in 1922, but six of Ulster’s nine counties remained part of the United Kingdom as Northern Ireland. Relations between these constituent states and England have been marked by controversy and, at times, open rebellion and even warfare. These tensions relaxed somewhat during the late 20th century, when devolved assemblies were introduced in Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Nonetheless, even with the establishment of a power-sharing assembly after referenda in both Northern Ireland and the Irish republic, relations between Northern Ireland’s unionists (who favour continued British sovereignty over Northern Ireland) and nationalists (who favour unification with the republic of Ireland) remained tense into the 21st century.

The United Kingdom has made significant contributions to the world economy, especially in technology and industry. Since World War II, however, the United Kingdom’s most prominent exports have been cultural, including literature, theatre, film, television, and popular music that draw on all parts of the country. Perhaps Britain’s greatest export has been the English language, now spoken in every corner of the world as one of the leading international mediums of cultural and economic exchange.

The United Kingdom retains links with parts of its former empire through the Commonwealth. It also benefits from historical and cultural links with the United States and is a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Moreover, the United Kingdom became a member of the European Union in 1973. Many Britons, however, were sometimes reluctant EU members, holding to the sentiments of the great wartime prime minister Winston Churchill, who sonorously remarked, “We see nothing but good and hope in a richer, freer, more contented European commonalty. But we have our own dream and our own task. We are with Europe, but not of it. We are linked, but not comprised. We are interested and associated, but not absorbed.” Indeed, in June 2016, in a referendum on whether the United Kingdom should remain in the EU, 52 percent of British voters chose to leave. That set the stage for the U.K. to become the first country to do so, pending the negotiations between the U.K. and the EU on the details of the separation.

Land

The United Kingdom comprises four geographic and historical parts—England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The United Kingdom contains most of the area and population of the British Isles—the geographic term for the group of islands that includes Great Britain, Ireland, and many smaller islands. Together England, Wales, and Scotland constitute Great Britain, the larger of the two principal islands, while Northern Ireland and the republic of Ireland constitute the second largest island, Ireland. England, occupying most of southern Great Britain, includes the Isles of Scilly off the southwest coast and the Isle of Wight off the southern coast. Scotland, occupying northern Great Britain, includes the Orkney and Shetland islands off the northern coast and the Hebrides off the northwestern coast. Wales lies west of England and includes the island of Anglesey to the northwest.

Apart from the land border with the Irish republic, the United Kingdom is surrounded by sea. To the south of England and between the United Kingdom and France is the English Channel. The North Sea lies to the east. To the west of Wales and northern England and to the southeast of Northern Ireland, the Irish Sea separates Great Britain from Ireland, while southwestern England, the northwestern coast of Northern Ireland, and western Scotland face the Atlantic Ocean. At its widest the United Kingdom is 300 miles (500 km) across. From the northern tip of Scotland to the southern coast of England, it is about 600 miles (1,000 km). No part is more than 75 miles (120 km) from the sea. The capital, London, is situated on the tidal River Thames in southeastern England.

The archipelago formed by Great Britain and the numerous smaller islands is as irregular in shape as it is diverse in geology and landscape. This diversity stems largely from the nature and disposition of the underlying rocks, which are westward extensions of European structures, with the shallow waters of the Strait of Dover and the North Sea concealing former land links. Northern Ireland contains a westward extension of the rock structures of Scotland. These common rock structures are breached by the narrow North Channel.

On a global scale, this natural endowment covers a small area—approximating that of the U.S. state of Oregon or the African country of Guinea—and its internal diversity, accompanied by rapid changes of often beautiful scenery, may convey to visitors from larger countries a striking sense of compactness and consolidation. The peoples who, over the centuries, have hewed an existence from this Atlantic extremity of Eurasia have put their own imprint on the environment, and the ancient and distinctive palimpsest of their field patterns and settlements complements the natural diversity.

Relief

Great Britain is traditionally divided into a highland and a lowland zone. A line running from the mouth of the River Exe, in the southwest, to that of the Tees, in the northeast, is a crude expression of this division. The course of the 700-foot (213-metre) contour, or of the boundary separating the older rocks of the north and west from the younger southeastern strata, provides a more accurate indication of the extent of the highlands.