The University of Manchester is a truly global institution, with a reputation for education and innovation that resonates across the world.
We are unique in British higher education in having social responsibility as one of our three core strategic goals in Our future: The University of Manchester’s vision and strategic plan, sitting equally alongside our commitments to research and discovery and teaching and learning.
Social responsibility describes the way we’re making a difference to the social and economic wellbeing of our communities through our teaching, research, and public events and activities.
Our social responsibility activities capture our unique Manchester spirit, motivating communities to research, teach and share their ideas and students to study with us.
Watch our short film: What is social responsibility at the University of Manchester
The quality and scale of our impact against the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has been ranked first in the world in the Times Higher Education University Impact Rankings in 2021. We want our knowledge and expertise to contribute to sustainable development and social justice for everyone.
The 17 SDGs are the world’s call to action on the most pressing challenges and opportunities facing humanity and the natural world, and we’re playing a leading role in tackling them. As one of the world’s leading research institutions and the UK’s only university to have social responsibility as a core goal, The University of Manchester is playing a leading role in tackling the SDGs in four ways – through our research, learning and students, public engagement activities and responsible campus operations.
International businesses, charities, governments and universities turn to Manchester for our expertise. Whether it’s leading the European renaissance in biotechnology or helping to train midwives in developing countries, we provide the spark for positive change.
Our research engages with the world’s biggest questions – that’s why we bring together the best people in these fields to help us to find the answers. We’ve a history of attracting world-leading minds to work with us, from Niels Bohr and Arthur Lewis to our latest Nobel laureates Andre Geim and Kostya Novoselov, whose pioneering work with the one-atom thick wonder material graphene has established Manchester not just as the centre of research into its application.
More international students study with us than at any other UK university, with 160 nationalities coming together on campus, making us one of the world’s most international universities.
Our graduates are highly sought after by top graduate employers all over the world, able to offer work-ready knowledge and experience as well as a high quality academic qualification, thanks to skills development built into our degree programmes. Further personal and professional development opportunities are offered to all students through Stellify, our premier programme for engaging students in our commitment to social responsibility.
We’re at the heart of Manchester, a world-class city that shares our pioneering, boundless spirit – indeed, Manchester was the 2016 European City of Science, and hosted the EuroScience Open Forum in the summer of that year.
Manchester’s industrial and cultural heritage is mirrored by the achievements of some of the University’s most celebrated names: Rutherford, Turing and Burgess to name but a few. Today, we’re among the world’s most innovative universities, and we’re making one of the largest investments in facilities ever seen at a UK university, with £750 million spent so far and a further £1 billion to follow by 2022.
