2025: Year in review

15 Dec 2025

We reflect on a year that delivered a decade-defining strategy and celebrated the people and ideas that make Manchester extraordinary.

2025 is a year Manchester won’t forget. We launched our strategy for the next decade, welcomed leaders across the institution and celebrated countless awards with local and global recognition.

Thank you for all that you do – let’s take a look back at 2025.

Setting our sights on 2035 and beyond

Our new strategy From Manchester, for the world took centre stage this year as we worked through phase 1 and phase 2 to get your input before launching in October.

We also launched our first ever fundraising and volunteering campaign Challenge Accepted with the goal of raising £400m to tackle the world’s biggest challenges.

Leadership and legacy

We sadly said goodbye to two influential figures this year in Professor Lou Kushnick OBE, who was a Professor of Sociology for over 40 years, and Lord David Alliance CBE, whose legacy of philanthropy continues to shape Manchester and the Alliance Manchester Business School.

In the Faculty of Science and Engineering, Professor Peter Green took over from Professor Martin Schröder as Vice-President and Dean on an interim basis until we welcomed Professor Sarah Sharples in September.

Professor Jenn Hallam also joined us in August as our new Vice-President for Teaching, Learning and Students, taking over the role from Professor April McMahon who stepped down earlier this year.

We also welcomed Professor John Holden as Vice-President for Civic Engagement and Innovation following Professor Richard Jones’ retirement earlier this year.

We’re not done there though – 2025 saw more senior appointments to our partners and cultural institutions:

Sustainable Futures partnered with Bupa at the start of the year to reduce the healthcare sector’s environmental impact on the environment.

Outside of the University, Professor Teresa Anderson MBE was appointed to the board of Royal Museums Greenwich and Professor Dan George joined GCHQ on secondment as Chief Scientific Advisor for National Security.

Rankings and recognition

Manchester was globally recognised this year across academic and sustainability rankings. We retained a global top 10 spot for sustainability in the QS rankings, ranked 56th in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, and secured a place among the world’s leading universities in the 2025 academic rankings.

Ten of our academics were also named among the top one percent of global influential researchers.

Policies, reports and finances

From a pay award for all colleagues to an additional closure day, we made changes that matter.

We were labelled the ‘economic and social powerhouse of the North’ for impact earlier this year.

The National Student Survey (NSS) also showed an upward trend from previous years.

We also introduced updated policies to the University:

Awards, honours and celebrations

It was a year to remember for Manchester Museum which was crowned European Museum of the Year, and the John Rylands Library which marked its 125th anniversary with a major international award. Jodrell Bank also celebrated its 80th anniversary this year.

Professor Yaojun Li, a distinguished researcher and educator at the University, was made an OBE for his exceptional services to the Advancement of Knowledge in Social Mobility and to Ethnic Integration at the start of 2025.

We celebrated colleagues and students at the President’s Distinguished Achievement Awards, and Pep Guardiola even picked up an honorary degree. Add in the Making a Difference Awards, our annual Teaching Excellence Awards, Colleague Recognition Day, and the Universally Manchester Festival, and we know how to celebrate Manchester and our people!

Graduation and A-level results day

We celebrated our summer and winter graduations this year in style, even going behind the scenes with the academic procession in July. 2025 also saw our first ever relaxed graduation ceremonies, tailor-made for any of our graduates who find traditional ceremonies overwhelming.

On A-level results day, we went behind the scenes again, this time at the Confirmation and Clearing hub. In case you missed it, watch Craig Best, our Director of Student and Academic Services steal the show with his roaming sweets trolley!

Development and wellbeing

Two intakes of our Manchester Gold mentoring scheme gave colleagues more opportunities than ever to get one-to-one guidance on their careers and personal development.

We also ran two university-wide wellbeing campaigns in 2025: Starting Well and Pause with Purpose. Watch out for wellbeing offerings in January 2026 after the closure period!

Your Voice Matters

Your responses to the Your Voice Matters survey in March gave us valuable insights into what working at the University is really like. The results have been sorted into four themes for action that will influence our People and EDI delivery plans alongside our Strategy to 2035.

IT and Artificial Intelligence

IT Services upgraded over 10,000 laptops and desktop PCs to Windows 11 and launched Connect for People to around 4,800 colleagues in People, ITS, DSE and SALC.

AppsAnywhere now hosts all IT-supported teaching and learning software for PC clusters on campus with some apps available to stream directly to colleague and student PCs.

Our AI hub launched in June to provide essential information on initiatives, benefits, guidelines, and approved tools. The launch of our AI pathfinder programme followed for colleagues and students to address real-world challenges using AI.

We also assembled a Copilot Chat Learning community for colleagues to collaborate with our Copilot Champions and each other on all things AI!

Thank you

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to making 2025 a seminal year in our University’s future. We hope you have a restful break, and we’ll see you in 2026!