New system for Mitigating Circumstances and Extensions launching in 2026

A new cross-organisational system will be introduced to school Teaching and Learning teams and will be available for all taught students at the start of the 2026/27 academic year. 

Project purpose and anticipated benefits 

This project will bring benefits for students, academics and Professional Services staff with more efficient processes for completing and processing MC&E applications, a secure storage solution for holding students' personal data and a greater standardisation of practice across all schools. 

Project governance 

The Project is governed by a Project Board and supported by several Professional Services and academic engagement groups.  Follow this link for more details on the wider governance structure and see here for a list of school and faculty colleagues who are supporting the Project. 

Meet the project team 

• Project Sponsor: Jennifer Hallam (Vice Dean for TLSE FBMH) 

• Project Manager: Emily Marner 

• Project Administrator: Amanda Quinn 

• Product Owners: Jackie Platt & Helen Johnson 

• Implementation Team: Kaz Naseem, Krysia Walker & Lauren Murphy 

• Operational Delivery Lead: Jo Kaiserman 

• Business Change Manager: Suki Thandal 

Key updates 

• System launch: We were initially working towards the release of the new system in time for the 2025/26 academic year.  However, following an assessment of the business change impact and readiness, the decision was taken to postpone release to the start of academic year 2026/27.  

• System development: ServiceNow (a service management system) had previously been considered a potential solution for the MC&E Project. However, IT Services has since launched a University-wide Customer Relationship Management (CRM) review to critically evaluate existing CRM capabilities and define a future-state strategy. The selection of a suitable solution for the MC&E Project will be informed by the outcomes of this strategic review, which is expected to conclude in June.  

• Policy and procedure review: Impact Assessments conducted with Student Support and Wellbeing teams across schools have highlighted variations in how the MC&E policy and procedure documents are being interpreted and applied, resulting in differing practices across schools. The Project Team has worked collaboratively with Teaching Learning and Delivery (TLD) to put forward a series of minor amendments to the Academic Quality & Standards Committee. These updated policy and procedure documents will be live for the 2025/26 academic year.  

• Stakeholder engagement: We are working with Professional Services and academic stakeholders to understand ‘as is’ processes and will use these findings to identify best practice and develop a standardised process. We are also carrying out student engagement activities to understand what is currently working well with the MC&E process, where there is room for improvement and what students would like to see from a new MC&E interface. 

Our primary focus over the next three months includes: 

• Approval of minor amendments of the Policy and Procedure documents.  

• Conducting impact assessments to understand what business change is required.  

• Final discussions and confirmation of the system technology.  

• Communication strategy - keeping in close contact with our direct stakeholders. 

Colleagues can track the Project’s progress and access key documents through our new MC&E SharePoint site. 
 
We welcome any comments, questions, or feedback via our padlet, or you can contact the team directly by emailing us at: MitCircsandExtensionsProjectTeam@manchester.ac.uk.