Public and Community Engagement
The º£½ÇÂÒÂ× has a long history of public and community engagement, working with local, regional and national partners to create extraordinary experiences. We combine our expertise and passion with our physical and digital spaces to co-create unique and inspirational events that resonate, inform and entertain.
We are a university that engages with society to bring positive benefits for all. We work in partnership with the people of º£½ÇÂÒÂ×, Greater Manchester and the global community to educate, inspire, empower and transform lives. Through our civic commitment, we bring value to our city region and respond to society’s challenges in ways that are relevant to our city, and the wider UK and international community.
We work collaboratively for the benefit of local, regional, national, and global stakeholders, capitalising on our key areas of strength in education, research, enterprise, and industry partnership.
During the 2024/25 academic year, we...
Delivered 470 public events, projects and activities with over 402,000 attendees
Landed 82% of the activity in partnership with external organisations
Contributed over 1,550 hours of staff and student time to engagement activities
Cultural and Civic Activities
Together with º£½ÇÂÒÂ× City Council, Arts Council England and The Lowry, we deliver º£½ÇÂÒÂ×’s strategy for culture, creativity and place.
- Suprema Lex
We are proud to be an anchor institution for º£½ÇÂÒÂ× and as a civic university supporting our students, our local community and our wider city-region. We've joined forces with the four other higher education institutions and mayor Andy Burnham to commit to a Greater Manchester Civic University Agreement that will generate real-world impact in terms of social, economic and environmental change area.
Services for the community
We provide a number of services to support the needs of our local community in º£½ÇÂÒÂ× and Greater Manchester. These can mostly be accessed for free or at low cost:
- Clifford Whitworth Library
- Counselling Centre and Service
- Podiatry Clinic
- SILKS Law Clinic
- Sports Injury Clinic
Manchester Science Festival
For over a decade, we have been the lead educational partner for , a biennial event organised by the Science and Industry Museum to create innovative, inspiring and educational experiences around Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM).
Whether it is our Game Lab, a unique immersive programme of science inspired gaming experiences, our virtual reality Chernobyl, going underwater with our AquAIRium or getting inside the human body with Gut Feelings, the experience is always unique!
TEDx º£½ÇÂÒÂ×
TEDx º£½ÇÂÒÂ× is an initiative led by our postgraduate research students that fulfils the principle goal of TEDx events: to spread ideas worth sharing.
In 2022 we brought people together to experience a TED-like event that employed the skills of our students and individuals from all disciplines within the university and beyond. The programme featured 10 speakers from within our own staff and PhD community, together with other academic experts and entrepreneurs from business and community organisations, who showcased their exciting new ideas within the theme of Rejuvenation.
ESRC Festival of social science
This is a national festival that brings together social scientists from around the UK. º£½ÇÂÒÂ× partners with the University of Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University to produce a local event programme to showcase recent developments in social science research. Past events have explored contemporary themes, including ageing and health, education, virtual reality and AI, and climate change.
The festival aims to engage the wider community through interactive workshops, exhibitions, participatory research, and debates. We use this platform to showcase our research and to seek feedback from our local community to help us shape future research agendas.
AHRC Being Human Festival
Being Human Festival is a national celebration of the humanities occurring each November. Hundreds of free events take place resulting from collaborations between universities, researchers and cultural partners with the aim of creating an exciting programme grounded in local communities and connected to the needs of each area.
This festival exists to help us understand our own experiences; of history, art, culture, philosophy, language and literature, and celebrate the study of the human world.
Sounds from the other city
An annual celebration of new music, performance, and art based in and around º£½ÇÂÒÂ×'s historic Chapel Street, Sounds From The Other City has been a firm underground favourite since 2005; delivering a unique annual event that champions local promoters and celebrates the off-kilter beauty of º£½ÇÂÒÂ×, the oft-overlooked ‘other city’ to Manchester.
The º£½ÇÂÒÂ× has supported the festival since 2011 with a formal agreement for student placements and volunteering programme since 2017.