Fiona Devine and Patrick Hackett – Manchester 2035: Becoming one university
Introduction – A focus on success
Are we all committed to being a leading global university by 2035? Do we fully understand the changes necessary to achieve excellence? Are we ready to take the next step up? Are we going on the same journey altogether? These are some of the questions we must ask ourselves as we think about what it means to be ‘one university’ as part of the University of Manchester’s strategy for the next decade and beyond.
If a one university approach is critical to achieve our ambition, what do we mean by such an approach? If we want to mobilise resources across the organisation, how do university-wide investments sit alongside local ones? How does a seamless service manage local specific needs? How do we ensure all staff feel like they belong and can contribute? How do we foster empower people, foster collaboration and drive innovation across boundaries? How do we realise our collective capacity at scale?
The world in 2035
The world in 2035 will be different of course. We cannot really predict what it will be like. We can hope that current global geo-political tensions have been reduced. We might hope for economic prosperity. We can hope that everyone enjoys good health. We can hope that the anger around immigration has been dissipated. We can hope we have confronted the challenges of climate change. This might be our preferred future. The key will be to shape this future.
If we want the world to be a better place, we will want higher education to have played a critical role in getting there. If the world is going to be different, higher education will need to be different too.
We will need an environment which fosters rigorous and relevant interdisciplinary research with global impact, focused on the most pressing issues of the day. It would be important to contribute to economic regeneration, innovation, growth and productivity, for example.
We will need to offer a highly attractive education experience, delivered in flexible ways, to an increasingly diverse global student population. We will want to nurture socially responsible global leaders. To deliver on research and teaching excellence, we will need great professional services, powered by Al and other new IT, delivered efficiently and effectively. We will need to fund all the collective investments required. This infrastructure will create the conditions for success.
Three potential worlds
In this section, we outline three potential worlds, not necessarily as solutions, but as prompts to encourage you to explore and reflect on what is possible and desirable. While there are distinct features in each, there are also significant overlaps and complementary characteristics. So, do not be afraid to mix and match.
It may be our preferred model will feature elements of all three and others that we have not yet considered. It is up to us to decide. What resonates with you? What is missing? What would it feel like to colleagues in these and other possible worlds?
World 1: Consistent policies and processes
A future in which the focus of our one university effort is about creating consistent ways of doing things and reducing complexity. It’s about keeping things simple and easy and reducing unnecessary tasks for us all too. A culture perhaps in which consistency does not undermine identity or ignore local context.
- We retain our current organisational model, but we adopt a new mindset and work consistently across our university to adopt the one best way of doing things.
- Cross-functional teams deliver on shared objectives. We all know how we contribute to our ambitions and we do not recognise any organisational or academic’s split.
- Simple and consistent processes to get stuff done but not a rigid one-size-fits all approach. Common practices preferred with exceptions for good reason.
World 2: A university without boundaries
A future where internal divides disappear and hierarchical structures fade. A culture allowing us to work seamlessly across teams with shared goals, making collaboration easier for both local and global partners.
- We organise our academic disciplines thematically to help us tackle global challenges in multidisciplinary ways.
- Our services are designed with the needs and preferences of the end user in mind, ensuring that they are functional and accessible.
- Students are involved in co-creating how we design, operate and evaluate our services, working with us as genuine partners in new and exciting ways.
- We radically rethink the campus and its spaces, blending digital and physical experiences. Our operations are efficient, lean and agile with all the latest AI and IT tools.
World 3: Goal alignment
A future in which we do not just coalesce around few priorities as one university, but we pull the implications right through our operating model. Resources are concentrated on priorities. This implies rapid and frequent redeployment of people from skills pools for low to high-priority work. A culture perhaps in which people deploy their skills readily on a flexible and evolving basis, teams form and disband regularly, unconstrained by structures, hierarchy or history.
- We have a relentless focus on our core goals, ensuring we genuinely implement policies and procedures when we decide to do things and not in a lot of different ways.
- We are clear that students are at the heart of the delivery of all our services, and we really listen to their needs and wants.
- We pay close attention to how we get things done as well as what we’re doing. The journey to a destination should be challenging and enjoyable along the way too.
Conclusion – Becoming one university
Becoming one university has the potential to accelerate progress towards and ultimately achieve our ambitions. A call to `become more than the sum of our parts’ is a bit of a cliché. We have some amazing strengths and yet we do not seem to make the best of all of them. We struggle to consistently make the most of our scale and our comprehensive range of academic/PS activities. In other words, in not getting our act together, we are not making the best of the opportunities in front of us.
A university is not about assets and facilities. Our university is our people and, only by coming together, can we hope to achieve our collective ambitions.
The world of 2035 will be very different. We can be shaped by it, or we can take the initiative and shape the world. Our university has been around for 200 years. We are its stewards. We must hand it over to our successors in good health. How do you want our university to look and feel? Tell us – Manchester 2035 is about all of us.
Get involved
We need your help to become one university. Visit our Manchester 2035 web page to book onto a workshop (in person or online) and share your views through online feedback. You can also leave a comment below – all comments will be captured within the overall feedback we are collating.
Professor Fiona Devine, Vice-President and Dean of the Faculty of Humanities
Patrick Hackett, Registrar, Secretary and Chief Operating Officer
The vision of becoming “one university” resonates with many of the core ideas I am developing in my own research on enhancing online education through authentic assessment practices. In particular, the drive for cohesive and interdisciplinary approaches highlighted in your post aligns well with the principles of critical pedagogy and authentic assessment frameworks.
To truly become “one university,” we must integrate diverse expertise across our teams, focusing on collaboration to bridge the gaps between traditional academic knowledge and innovative pedagogical methods. This is where specialized roles—such as eLearning Technologists, Media Services, and analytics teams—can be leveraged to enable academics to focus on their content expertise, while others enhance pedagogy and engagement, ensuring a seamless learning experience for students. This approach can facilitate the transformation of learning and assessment methods without overwhelming academic staff, supporting the inclusive and equitable learning experiences we all envision for 2035.
By focusing on critical pedagogy and dis-aggregation, we can design an institution that not only addresses global challenges but also empowers our students and staff to be active agents in shaping the future.
Hi Fiona/Patrick, I like to make the following observations:
1. The above options do not take into account the fact that across the sector, there is over provision of higher education at times leading to degrees (UG and PG qualifications) with dubious value. In this context, should we be thinking across the city/region etc. with a focus on apprenticeship models, work place qualifications etc. and greater rationalisation of our degree programs. Does the devolution provide us the space/opportunity to think across the entire patch in the NW?
2. The current model where programs and activities are funded through tuition fees – with students borrowing large amounts of money and stacking up personal loans, is clearly not sustainable. This also creates a ‘business- customer’ relationship which is not always healthy in higher education. I know some countries have gone that way, but that does not make it the right model.
3. There is a need to create a unique ‘Manchester experience’ if we are to maintain the competitive edge in the market. With large unmet need for services across GM (in the health, legal, environmental domains) and our civic university heritage ‘service learning’ can potentially become our USP. This means we have to work with the City Council, Health care commissioners, Trusts, voluntary sector etc. in planning our pedogogy.
These are some of my thoughts on the subject.
Thanks for the opportunity