Developing our values

In 2018 we asked for employee ideas as part of Our Future. One of the most popular themes that staff talked about was ‘how we do things’, including the University’s culture and values. Many of our staff said there was something distinctive about our University and they felt proud to be a part of it – this was sometimes articulated as ‘Manchester-ness’.

We wanted to understand more about this and uncover our University’s values by asking staff to share their stories and experiences of what it means to be part of our University. Over several months we held a series of events and activities to capture these stories. 

More than 750 colleagues took part by sharing their stories and experiences, as well as giving feedback on the University’s existing values.  You can see some footage from the final event where around 55 colleagues representing all parts of our University came together at a workshop to review the findings of this work and begin to draft Our Values. Researchers, teaching staff, Professional Services colleagues and academics with a diverse range of experiences, perspectives and disciplines were all represented on the day.

This programme of work helped us to uncover a single set of University values.