Nalin Thakkar and Ele Morrissey – Manchester 2035: Advancing our social responsibility
How will we keep at the forefront of social responsibility and take it to the next level in the next 10 years? Now is our opportunity to write the next chapter of our work in service to society.
Introduction
Our commitment to social responsibility and civic engagement is a defining part of Manchester’s identity, global reputation and performance. This commitment will be unwavering in our next strategy. But how will we keep at the forefront and take social responsibility to the next level in the next 10 years?
The world in 2035
“The two most critical characteristics of universities: they serve society as both a responsive servant and thoughtful critic” (Harold Shapiro, A Larger Sense of Purpose)
As in the last 50 years, our future society is likely to undergo significant transformation driven by rapid technological advancements, a changing natural environment, shifting geopolitical dynamics and instability, and evolving social trends. In this rapidly changing world, a great city like Manchester will be defined by our dual ability to be a responsible servant and thoughtful critic of society – leveraging our intellectual capital for the greater good, while protecting the core principles of open, unencumbered research and debate.
Governments will expect a socially responsible, publicly funded, higher education sector to contribute to all aspects of regional, national and global challenges, including inclusive economic growth, national defence, better health, social inequities, climate change and responsible energy transition. Citizens will look to us as trusted institutions, using our expertise to uphold truth in an increasingly polarised society through academic freedom, free expression with the law, and promoting civil dialogue, cohesion and understanding in our communities. And students will expect opportunities to develop their values and contribution to society alongside the development of their professional skills.
This will create both opportunities and challenges for us. We will need to rethink and reshape the way we operate, what we research, how we teach and what we teach. We will need to think about what the future means for our people, how different possible futures could feel. The knowledge and skills required for this changing future will be different in many disciplines.
Three potential worlds
We would like to hear your thoughts on three possible futures for social responsibility at The University of Manchester.
World 1: Continued success
We’re already known nationally for being the first (and still the only) university to place social responsibility as a core goal. And we’re recognised around the world as one of the leading universities for impact towards key societal goals in major global rankings of success. One option, therefore, is to continue on this pathway of continuous improvement and incremental change.
What will this mean in practice?
- Continuing to make impact on society through our research, students, public engagement and operations in addressing civic and national priorities – for example through our existing themes such as social inclusion, prosperous communities, better health, environmental sustainability and cultural engagement.
- Maintain a keen focus on performing well in globally recognised measures of success such as the Times Higher Education Impact Ranking for sustainable development goals (SDG) performance and QS Sustainability Rankings for Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) impact.
- Maintain excellence in public and community engagement, for example through our Platinum Watermark and Knowledge Exchange Framework (KEF) measures.
What resonates with you? What is missing?
- Given we are already world-leading, is incremental change enough?
- Are we satisfied judging ourselves in terms of ranking tables?
World 2: Students as changemakers
Around 70% of our campus community are students. But, if we are to be critical of our progress in social responsibility, we have yet to find systematic ways to ensure that all Manchester students can contribute to social, economic, health or environmental challenges through their taught programmes.
What will this mean in practice?
In this world of Students as Changemakers, we do everything in world 1 plus the following:
- Building on success in a range of discrete programmes across the University, we will ensure every Manchester student is given the opportunity to make a practical contribution to society through their taught programmes.
- Contributions to society will vary from discipline to discipline: law students might give free legal advice; dental students could extend basic dental checks to marginalised communities; business and engineering students may support businesses to flourish; geography and life science students may do projects informed by the needs of local communities.
- These opportunities will dramatically enhance our engagement with communities, businesses and wider society. They will also contribute to student satisfaction, student recruitment, graduate outcomes and new research partnerships.
What resonates with you? What is missing?
- What would a guarantee for every student to make a societal contribution look like across such a diverse portfolio of programmes?
- Where do we already do this best?
- What training, systems and development needs are required to achieve this step-change?
- What would colleagues and students be seeing, feeling and doing in a scenario where this was a successful centrepiece of our strategy?
World 3: The globally connected university
AI will transform access, delivery and assessment and democratise provision of education – with many new providers – many with greater resources than a traditional university – entering the market. Additionally, as automation and AI disrupt traditional job markets, the pace of technological change will demand that workers regularly upskill or reskill, making traditional degrees less relevant or only a starting point for shorter, modular educational lifelong offerings. The higher education landscape will also become more globalised. Furthermore, geopolitical change and rise of new economic powers and heavy investment by these emerging powers will create new hubs of education and innovation in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. We will fully need to be agile and adapt to this new reality.
What will this mean in practice?
In this world of the globally connected university, we do everything in world 1 and world 2, plus the following:
- We will harness technologies like AI and improved communications to dramatically increase access to our taught programmes at home and around the world for communities that have traditionally been underserved.
- Our students will serve as changemakers right across the world, particularly through engaging with societies in the global south.
- We will supercharge our number of transformational, genuinely symbiotic research alliances with partners around the world to tackle global challenges such as climate change, cybersecurity, and public health crises.
- We will engage across boundaries to promote better understanding of different societies, democratic values, and the role of universities as both a sanctuary for free inquiry and a conduit for social progress.
What resonates with you? What is missing?
- Are we under or over-estimating the impact of AI on global education?
- Are traditional measures like REF, Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) and KEF barriers to such a vision?
- What would it take to thread social responsibility more deeply into our cultural DNA, to activate more people to have much greater impact?
Conclusion
You have helped make social responsibility a defining part of our identity, reputation and world-leading performance over the past decade. Now it’s our opportunity to write the next chapter of our work in service to society.
Get involved
We need your help to advance our social responsibility in the future. 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.
Nalin Thakkar, Vice-President for Social Responsibility
Ele Morrissey, Executive Director of People and Organisational Development
All three potential routes forward are positive, but option 3 for me has the most transformative potential. A key element here is the ever-evolving need to acquire and master new skill and knowledge sets – and this will certainly be more so in 2035 – to be employable and effective members of society. The University has a huge role to play in this: in shaping student expectations that their degree/other qualification is simply a starting point, for staff in that their current skill sets will need regular review and to commit to themselves to be alert for opportunities to reskill/upskill, and for both groups in recognising and taking action in the wider role they and the University have in their contribution to society.
The University is very well placed to be a resource and a connecting-point for ongoing learning – both at an individual and collective level. This could happen, for instance, in making some learning resources available to local communities, to alumni, and to international networks in the delivery of our social responsibility commitments. A.I., of course, could only add to this sharing of some resources – and trends already underway in knowledge-sharing platforms could be significantly enhanced through use of A.I. Of course there are intellectual property issues to be addressed in this debate, but within this there must be a plethora of learning resources we could contribute to our wider community more fruitfully than currently.