University of Manchester launches Unit M to supercharge inclusive growth
October 2024The University of Manchester launches a new capability, Unit M, to rethink how it supports the region’s innovation economy.
What does a truly great university look like in the 21st century?
The University of Manchester’s President and Vice-Chancellor Professor Duncan Ivison examines the question at the heart of the University’s 2035 strategy.
Last year, the University of Manchester celebrated its 200th anniversary. It is a remarkable milestone, and the history of the University tracks the extraordinary development of the city in striking ways. The scientific, social, economic, political and cultural discoveries and achievements of University and city are intertwined in so many instances.
Indeed, what makes the University distinctive, I believe, is the combination of the deeply place-based nature of its identity and ethos, alongside its global position and aspiration to be one of the great comprehensive universities in the world.
Along with making social responsibility one of its core goals, this ethos, and the connectivity among the major institutions in the city (including in the Oxford Road Corridor), is one of the main reasons I came to Manchester. There are few universities of this scale and quality in the world that are so embedded in the city that bears its name – and so committed to that civic ethos in everything it does. Moreover, like the great activists, artists, bands, and entrepreneurs it has produced, Manchester has a unique energy and identity.
But what will it require to be one of the great civic and global universities of the 21st Century? This is the question we’re asking ourselves as we enter our third century. Not only what kind of university we want to be, but what kind of university we need to be, to succeed and flourish, by 2035? And it’s generated a lively set of conversations on our campus about our future.
There are, of course, a whole series of external conditions shaping the higher education sector in the UK and globally at the moment: a very challenging funding environment, with limited scope for greater public investment in higher education; a difficult geopolitical environment, in which domestic political concerns about immigration and global tensions are putting pressure on the international education market; and yet increasing expectations that universities must do more for to contribute to the social and economic well-being of the communities they serve.
On top of this, higher education is itself undergoing a series of transformations. We are seeing more university offerings becoming unbundled – more digital, stackable, and modular.
We are seeing higher education institutions become more distributed in nature, forming a greater array of research, innovation, and teaching partnerships locally, regionally, and globally. We are also seeing a greater focus on durable skills, as much as content; giving students the skills that will allow them to keep learning, as opposed to focusing mainly on content – so, a focus, for example, on critical thinking, communication, quantitative and qualitative skills, and social and cultural competence.
And universities are becoming more experiential in provision; giving students more chances to take what they are learning in the classroom and put it into practice in the community, or with a local business, or on exchange, or participate in a field school. And finally, universities need to become engines of social mobility, widening access to our programs for students who have yet to benefit from the growth in higher education – whether because of financial or cultural circumstances, or because they have never felt welcomed or encouraged to attend.
These are all good challenges to have. But it’s important that we don’t merely react to what is happening but define our future by our own lights.
What will the great 21st century universities look like? Fundamentally, we will need to harness our teaching and research – in new ways – to address the challenges faced by our city, our region and the world. We need to organise ourselves around the problems faced by the communities we serve and the wider world, rather than expect them to organise themselves around our disciplines and departments.
I think the great universities of the future are going to have at least four characteristics.
First, they won’t tolerate any trade-off between research and teaching excellence. To be a great research-intensive university means also being a place where students lives are transformed through the education they have not only in the classrooms, laboratories, libraries, and seminars they attend, but also the opportunities they have with our community, industry, and government partners.
Second, great universities will be engines of inclusive growth and innovation, finding ways to accelerate the point between discovery and impact in a myriad of ways. We need to find ways to get our research and teaching out into the world, faster, making a positive difference in our communities. To do this, we’ll need to work more closely with our partners than ever before – other universities, industry, community associations, governments and global organisations. Great universities are great collaborators.
Third, we’ll need to be multidisciplinary in everything we do. Solving some of our biggest challenges will require bringing our disciplines together in creative ways, and especially the humanities and social sciences alongside the physical and natural sciences. Think about AI, for example: there are exciting scientific questions to explore about the potential for AI to enhance so many aspects of our society, but also great dangers too – and so there are profound moral, political, economic, and social questions that are just as complex and urgent to tackle.
Finally, to return to where we began, great twenty-first century universities will be both deeply place-based and global in aspiration at the same time. In many ways, our credibility as an institution of higher learning and research will depend, in part, on our ability to continue to contribute to and serve Manchester. We are inspired by the city in which our students and staff work and learn. And we hope to inspire the city in turn as we set our course for 2035.
Spring Edition 2025
Download Spring Edition 2025 This article was first published in the Spring 2025 edition of the Oxford Road Corridor Zine, available to pick up around town or download here.
£1.7bn innovation district and neighbourhood in Manchester opens its doors and reveals new name, Sister
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Universally Manchester: Celebrating 200 Years of Civic Engagement
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