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Imagine it\u2019s 2035 and we\u2019ve reinvented teaching, learning and student experiences for a diverse community of learners. What did we do? How does it feel for our students, prospective students, staff and alumni?<\/p>\n
The status quo is not an option. It\u2019s been said before \u2013 about everything from our climate future to economic performance \u2013 but it\u2019s equally true for teaching, learning and student experiences.<\/p>\n
\nOur students are changing; their needs, and the needs of employers, our region and our planet, are changing too. What do we need to do, not just to keep up, but to jump ahead?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
The University of Manchester strategy already has three key pillars: teaching and learning, research and discovery, and social responsibility. Our decisions and priorities for teaching, learning and student experience (TLSE) are integral to our planning and aspirations for Manchester 2035 (the University\u2019s strategic plan for the next decade), as are questions about how those three pillars fit together.<\/p>\n
Whichever future we choose, we also need the financial resilience to invest and improve; and the time and headspace for our students and staff to focus, enjoy their time here, and thrive. The three possible worlds sketched here set out possible futures, to get our strategy development conversations started. These worlds focus on teaching and learning, while understanding that co-curricular experiences are also vital for students and their future employability. Future worlds in these areas need to be co-created with our students and student representatives.<\/p>\n
The world in 2035<\/h2>\n
Imagine it\u2019s 2035 and the University of Manchester has reinvented teaching, learning and student experiences for a diverse community of learners. What did we do, and how does higher education look in 2035? How does it feel for our students, prospective students, staff and alumni?<\/p>\n
We are assuming that the financial headwinds assailing UK universities in 2024 have not yet died away, and that fully resolving university finances is still in the \u2018too difficult\u2019 box for government \u2013 so if the cavalry is not coming, we need to create financial capacity ourselves. The world is still hybrid; technological advances have led to easier digital connectivity; greater awareness of impending deadlines for carbon reduction have led to greater concern about travel. What choices should we make for Manchester 2035, and what will our teaching, learning and student experiences look and feel like as a result?<\/p>\n
Three potential worlds<\/h2>\n
World 1: Small is beautiful<\/h3>\n
In our first possible world, small is beautiful (or is it?), the physical campus is central for students and staff, and in-person, on-campus teaching is primary, with flexible learning options improving support and engagement for on-campus learners. We are located and firmly embedded in our current estate.<\/p>\n
Teaching and research are only offered in disciplines where both are strong \u2013 and the prioritisation of quality has led to a significant reduction of range. The quality of our students is still high \u2013 but we are fishing in a smaller and more restricted global pool, as fewer students in 2035 want or need to learn and live only on campus. Prospective global students and staff can be concerned about restricted options for interdisciplinary working; and student dissatisfaction focuses on a lack of employment options on campus, and limitations in the co-curricular opportunities which would have been available at greater scale.<\/p>\n
Initially, diversity in our student body increased because of philanthropic funding for targeted student support; but our commitment to all on-campus teaching is now reducing diversity and in turn, our attractiveness to donors. We have been able to sell some buildings and land to fund our aspirations, but now have fewer assets we are happy to part with. Given close links between research and teaching, the dominant academic contract type is teaching and research; smaller student numbers mean academics undertake most student advising and an increased amount of student support.<\/p>\n
World 2: Growth and diversity<\/h3>\n
Our second possible world has sees considerable growth and diversity. Our physical and digital campuses are equal in scale, importance and quality, and it is no longer necessary to travel to Manchester to benefit from a Manchester education.<\/p>\n
Students from around the world can participate fully in our programmes, with curricula tailored to their contexts, and opportunities to meet and work in our global network of micro-campuses. Students appreciate our understanding of their busy lives, and choose Manchester to study around their other commitments; we have grown to 60,000 students, many on CPD, part-time, or short courses. Different models of teaching delivery mean we use our estate more flexibly, with some learning spaces and residences specialised for block teaching and short courses and conferences. Teaching year-round means a different shape to the academic year, but flexibility for academics who want to work on different patterns.<\/p>\n
\nManchester in 2035 has become the go-to university for business because of our scale and agility in developing market-led courses, and students benefit from global connectedness and considerable philanthropic funding for support.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Our academic workforce is diversified too, with equal numbers of staff focussed on research and on teaching, and most student advising, and on-programme support is carried out by professional staff. We are leaders in developing specialised provision and a sense of community for online as well as on-campus students, with their different requirements. Year-round working on campus and online means that along with our Students\u2019 Union, we offer more student employment opportunities than any other UK university, with placements guaranteed for students from historically underrepresented groups.<\/p>\n
World 3: Federal Manchester<\/h3>\n
Finally, our third possible world is federal Manchester, a world in union. We have built on our Civic Universities Agreement and cooperation with further education, to bring other institutions into the Manchester Group after they have struggled in the financially challenging late 2020s. Our growth to 75,000 students has built on our partnerships, and regional and global alliances; an equal number of our students study in our partner institutions, through joint degrees, franchise agreements, and curriculum sharing. Boundaries are porous, and increased digital delivery and infrastructure allows students and staff to choose whether to travel physically between partner institutions, while still benefiting from partner expertise. Student support is shared across partners.<\/p>\n
The running costs of our physical estate have reduced as much of our activity is delivered by partners, and we have built our endowment and headroom for investment through the sale of part of our previous estate. Global alumni and businesses support students and commission courses. Considerable investment is required to mitigate the quality risks inherent in franchising and licensing arrangements, with government and regulatory attention fixed on transnational arrangements. Governance and coordination take time and effort in a devolved system. Controversy can also arise over different views of the suitability of our international and local partners.<\/p>\n
Conclusion<\/h2>\n
These three worlds are not entirely mutually exclusive. What decisions distinguish them, and set us on a road that rules one out? Are there features we could choose which would create an intermediate world? Which ones align best with our values and ambitions? How would it feel for our students, prospective students, and colleagues in each of these possible worlds? Would the experiences of our people be discernibly different? How might our culture be different under these and other future possibilities?<\/p>\n
\nManchester 2035 is not so distant in time. We have an exciting opportunity to choose how far we want it to be from our current ways of working and priorities.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Defining our future vision allows us to set out on our journey to that future university \u2013 but we can only do this successfully as a community, considering and respecting the perspectives of students and staff.<\/p>\n
If we fast-forward to 2035 \u2013 what was your contribution to ensuring that teaching, learning and student experiences at Manchester are genuinely distinctive, and set us for success through our next 200 years?<\/p>\n
Get involved<\/h2>\n
We need your help to reimagine our student experiences of the future. Visit our Manchester 2035 web page<\/a> to book onto a workshop (in person or online) and share your views through online feedback.\u00a0You can also leave a comment below – all comments will be captured within the overall feedback we are collating.<\/p>\n
Professor April McMahon, Vice-President for Teaching, Learning and Students<\/p>\n
Professor Allan Pacey, Deputy Vice-President and Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health<\/p>\n
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<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column_inner][\/et_pb_row_inner][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][et_pb_sidebar admin_label=”Subscribe” _builder_version=”3.17.6″ area=”et_pb_widget_area_3″ locked=”on” \/][et_pb_sidebar _builder_version=”3.17.6″ area=”sidebar-1″ show_border=”off” locked=”on” \/][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Imagine it\u2019s 2035 and we\u2019ve reinvented teaching, learning and student experiences for a diverse community of learners. What did we do? How does it feel for our students, prospective students, staff and alumni?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":521,"featured_media":3943,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"[et_pb_section bb_built=\"1\" fullwidth=\"off\" specialty=\"on\" _builder_version=\"3.17.6\"][et_pb_column type=\"2_3\" specialty_columns=\"4\"][et_pb_row_inner admin_label=\"Row\"][et_pb_column_inner type=\"4_4\" saved_specialty_column_type=\"2_3\"][et_pb_post_title _builder_version=\"3.17.6\" featured_placement=\"above\" locked=\"on\" \/][et_pb_text _builder_version=\"3.17.6\"]\r\n\r\n
When I\u2019m out and about meeting staff I hear much debate about the why, what, when and how of change in our University. I wanted to share my thoughts on this often contentious topic \u2013 and hear your views too.<\/p>
Early in 2020 we will launch our University\u2019s new vision and strategic plan \u2013 Our future. In order to fulfil Our future we need to ensure that we are in a financially sustainable position so that we have the funds to invest in the new staff, facilities and infrastructure which will be needed to bring our plans to life.<\/p>
Our Financial Statements<\/a> for 2018\/19, which have been published following approval by the Board of Governors, confirm that more than 95% of our \u00a31.1bn income is spent on our core goals - on our staff and our students - to deliver research, education and social responsibility; with the remainder invested in the long term sustainability of our University. You can find a summary<\/a> of the Financial Statements on StaffNet.<\/p>
However, this is a testing time for UK universities, due to the many external factors that have an impact on us - current home tuition fees are falling in real terms, whilst our costs (not just pay but non-pay too) are increasing. There are further and even greater tuition fee funding risks outlined in General Election manifestos as well as a range of Brexit-related risks that could affect our operations. The Office for Students (OfS) demands that we demonstrate both value for money for our students and our financial sustainability (in the sense of being able to invest to deliver our ambitious strategy, rather than survival). There are, of course, also ongoing unresolved national issues around pay and the continuing challenges around funding pensions in the higher education sector.<\/p>
Our Financial Statements show an improved operating surplus (3.7% of income compared to \u00a324.7m (2.3%) in 2017\/18), with a rise in income from tuition fees, education contracts and research. As I mentioned earlier, we re-invest the surplus we achieve each year in activity in line with our strategy. Recently our funds have been used to create some new academic and Professional Services posts; to invest in key infrastructure including IT; to invest in some new buildings like our student accommodation at Unsworth Park; to improve the student experience by funding more full-time Residential Life staff and to upgrade a range of buildings and research and teaching spaces and resources. Increasingly it is also invested in environmental sustainability and meeting our ambitious carbon targets. So even when we are making difficult decisions in some parts of the University we continue to invest our surplus.<\/p>
Whilst we have reported an operating surplus, our Board of Governors expects us to deliver a much larger surplus than this (at least 5%) if we are to be sustainable in the long-term.
Improving our financial performance will help to deliver our ambitious future plans, but we must also increase our capacity to create the funds and time to invest in our core goals. One of the ways we can do this is by changing what we do and how we do things.<\/p>Our strategic change programme (including IT Modernisation<\/a>, the Student Experience Programme<\/a>, and the Research Lifecycle Programme<\/a>), alongside our continuous improvement plans, will ensure that we create the financial headroom to invest in people and facilities. The strategic change programme will also enable us to embrace new technologies and new ways of doing things that better support all our staff and students to be the best that they can be.<\/p>
Yes, this means that some individual roles will change. New roles (some that we haven\u2019t yet identified) will be created and some roles will no longer be required. I appreciate that this will cause some uncertainty and where that is the case we will do everything we can to support staff, but the alternative is that we never change anything. If we fail to take advantage of advances in technology and develop more joined-up ways of working we will ultimately find ourselves outdated in the eyes of future students, funders and other stakeholders. Staff want to work for a progressive and successful institution, of which they can be proud. This means we cannot stand still.<\/p>
When I talk to staff and students I often hear their frustrations about how difficult it be can be to get some straightforward things done, grappling with paper-based, manual and repetitive processes, on outdated systems and infrastructure, all of which serves to increase staff workloads. Everyone wants to do a good job, but regularly feel that our world-class status is earned in spite of our internal systems and processes, not because of them.<\/p>
To deliver our new vision and strategic plan we will need to embrace new opportunities and face challenges with courage and determination. That will sometimes mean we have to make tough decisions and no-one is claiming it will be easy or that mistakes will not be made along the way. But where we do have tough choices to make we will commit to implementing changes fairly and with compassion to support the wellbeing of all our colleagues.<\/p>\r\n\r\n[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_post_nav _builder_version=\"3.17.6\" prev_text=\"Previous\" next_text=\"Next\" in_same_term=\"off\" locked=\"on\" \/][et_pb_comments _builder_version=\"3.17.6\" custom_button=\"on\" button_text_color=\"#ffffff\" locked=\"on\" \/][et_pb_text admin_label=\"Related posts\" _builder_version=\"3.17.6\" locked=\"on\"]\r\n\r\n
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