Message from the Vice-President and Dean

09 May 2025

This week, Fiona rounds up the latest news on student engagement activities, updates on the Teaching Sustainability project, and celebrates colleagues’ success in a range of award schemes.

Dear All

I hope you managed to take some time to relax during the Easter break and have been enjoying the lovely sunny and warm weather we’ve had recently.

Student voices matter

Wednesday 30 April saw the close of the National Student Survey (NSS), the annual, nationwide questionnaire for final-year undergraduate students studying at higher education institutions across the UK. It is a vital way through which we receive feedback from our students on their time with us at Manchester.

The provisional final response rates across our four Schools of around 70% and above mean that we have a good representative sample of our students opinions on seven key areas including ‘teaching on my course’, ‘assessment and feedback’, ‘academic support’ and ‘student voice’. NSS 2025 results are due to be published on 9 July and we will use the feedback to see what is working well and focus on ways in which we can further improve the experience of all our students.

Thank you to colleagues across the Faculty who have worked hard since the NSS opened in January to encourage as many finalists as possible to complete the survey, and to everyone who supports our students and works to make their University experience as positive and fulfilling as possible.

The University’s PGR Voice survey 2025 will launch on Monday, 12 May, giving our postgraduate researchers the opportunity to tell us about their experiences. The survey has been developed in partnership with the University of Sheffield using feedback from focus groups across the Universities’ academic, professional services and PGR communities and covers issues such as research culture and community, resources, and training and development.

All eligible PGRs will be emailed a link to the survey on 12 May and the support of colleagues who supervise and support PGRs in encouraging them to complete the survey makes a big difference.

Teaching Sustainability project

Our Schools are in the final stages of developing their taught programme portfolio plans/visions as part of the next phase of the Teaching Sustainability project. This work offers us the chance to investigate topics including new opportunities for growth, areas experiencing a decline, and existing portfolio consolidation and enhancement with a view to developing a portfolio of undergraduate and postgraduate taught programmes which is fit for the future.

Schools are also looking at online programme delivery, how programmes can meet future job market needs, preparing students to address key global challenges such as sustainability, digital transformation and inclusivity, and implementing new approaches to pedagogy. The plans/visions are due to be submitted to the Teaching Sustainability project taskforce by the end of May for consideration at the 10 June taskforce meeting.

Providing valuable context for the project, the University’s Market and Insight team has produced reports on the changing UK higher education (HE) provision for 25 SHAPE (Social Sciences, Humanities and the Arts for the People and the Economy) subject areas between 2011 and 2023.

The reports use data from the British Academy’s SHAPE Observatory mapping tool to track demand and provision for all the main subject areas taught in our Faculty and are an excellent resource for us to understand the changing landscape of humanities teaching. You can read the summary reports on the Teaching Sustainability HE sector insight page on StaffNet.

Bank of England partnership improves access to economics at A-level

A great example of innovation in SHAPE provision is our new partnership with the Bank of England to offer training to existing teachers so they can teach A-level economics alongside their core subject. Last week I attended the launch of the new, three-year programme, which will be piloted in the north-west of England before being rolled out across the UK. It aims to make economics more accessible to students from a wider range of backgrounds, and the training will be available at no cost to teachers or schools.

Celebrating awards for staff and students

It has been a very busy few weeks for awards announcements and ceremonies, and I am thrilled that many of our colleagues and students have been recognised.

Last week I was at Manchester Museum for the Students’ Union Academic Awards 2025 event. It was wonderful to celebrate the dedication and outstanding achievements of our staff and students who have shown a commitment to learning, growth and leadership in our University community.

Well done to all Humanities staff who were nominated, and to three colleagues who won awards. Dr Miriam Firth, Senior Lecturer in MIE, won the ‘Outstanding Teaching for Employability’ award; the ‘Inclusive and Accessible Teaching Practice’ award went to Dr Guilherme Moreira Fians, SALC Research Development Officer and Lecturer in Social Anthropology; while Michael Francis, Research Assistant (AMBS), received the ‘Education Officer’ award.

Earlier this week I was pleased to attend the Volunteer of the Year Awards ceremony, which acknowledges the work of our students in volunteering locally, nationally and internationally. It was lovely to see the efforts of so many of our students recognised.

Luman Zhou (SEED) received the top award in the ‘Students supporting other students’ category for founding the Global PhD Network in Education and Study Society, leading almost 400 students from 129 universities in 25 countries to support global PGR students. Second place in this category went to SoSS’s Ella Logan-Wilson, Head News Editor of University newspaper The Mancunion.

In the ‘Students supporting the wider community’ category, Hajun Shui of SEED received the runner-up award for his sustainability work, including leading Bee Circular UoM, an initiative aimed at reducing food waste, being a steering group member of sustainable cooking workshop project In Our Nature and a coordinator of the RSPB Manchester Youth Group among other roles.

Third place went to Denaya Adelea Rovani Doke (SoSS) who has demonstrated leadership in volunteer recruitment, training and stock management for the zero-waste shop Want Not Waste, recruiting more than 50 volunteers. There were also several Humanities students commended and highly commended across both categories.

At yesterday evening’s Making a Difference Awards ceremony at Whitworth Hall, it was inspirational to learn about the fantastic social responsibility achievements of our colleagues, students, alumni and external partners. The Faculty was very well-represented, with winners and highly commended entries in a number of categories:

Outstanding benefit to society through research

Highly commended – ConnecteDNA: Direct-to-consumer genetic testing and donor-conception; Lucy Frith and the ConnecteDNA team, Petra Nordqvist, Anna Nelson and Caroline Redhead

Outstanding teaching innovation in social responsibility

Highly commended – The Justice Hub team

Outstanding contribution to social and environmental impact through entrepreneurship

Winner – One World Together: Building better finance for communities globally; Nicola Banks and One World Together

Outstanding public engagement initiative – local/civic engagement

Winner – Ardwick Green Route; cross-Faculty project including Joanna Barlow
Highly commended – Parents and Children Together (PACT-DS); Dr Kelly Burgoyne, Dr Kirstie Hartwell
Highly commended – Buzz for Bees; Andhira Lalita, Ruiqi Li, Wei-Cheng Liao, Hassan Masood, Jahanzaib Khan and Miroslava Lopez Villalobos
Highly commended – Learning from the past, looking to the future: peatland communities; Professor Melanie Giles, Professor Martin Evans, Professor John McAuliffe and Professor Matthew Pate

Outstanding public engagement initiative: national/international engagement

Winner – The abuse of women runners: perceptions, fears and experiences; Caroline Miles and Rose Broad
Highly commended – A Citizen’s Assembly; Andy Smith and Lynsey O’Sullivan

Outstanding contribution to EDI

Winner – Humba SHEpreneur: Advancing gender equality through entrepreneurship; Metri Wulandari Pravitasari, Gloria Maria Foster Pingak, Justicia Estetika Maulida and Enrika Yumna
Highly commended - Diversity Politics student society; Maleehah Rehman and the Diversity Politics team

Outstanding professional services for social responsibility

Highly commended – Manchester-China Friendship Programme (MCFP); Professor Peter Gries, Yannan Yu, Lorelei Baciu, Yunyang Xia, Sol Stappard, Halia Zhang, Jake Ruding and Nasira Asghar

Outstanding alumni contribution to social responsibility

Winner – Youth-led Environmental Movement Building Initiative in Malawi; Charles Bakolo Mvula

I am incredibly happy to announce that five colleagues and students have won President’s Distinguished Achievement Awards. Presented annually, the awards recognise outstanding staff and student contributions across a range of categories. Professor Ali Owrak (AMBS) received the Teacher of the Year award, while Professor Melanie Giles won the Researcher of the Year title. The Undergraduate Student of the Year award went to Roan Goulden (SoSS), and Niamh Cashell (SoSS) received the Postgraduate Research Student of the Year award.

They join Postgraduate Taught Student of the Year Cemal Alomar (SALC), whose award was announced late last year. Several colleagues and one team were also nominated in the professional services category.

Head of SoSS, Professor Claire Alexander, was recently presented with the annual Distinguished Service to British Sociology award by the British Sociological Association at its annual conference held at our University at the end of April. The prestigious award recognises outstanding individuals who have contributed most to the discipline by leading an extraordinary life as a sociologist.

Many congratulations to all our award winners and nominees. You should be extremely proud!

Alistair Ulph memorial event

On Monday, 28 April I was honoured to be involved with a special memorial event to celebrate the life of Emeritus Professor Alistair Ulph, the first Vice-President and Dean of our Faculty. Colleagues, friends and family gathered at AMBS for lunch, panel discussions on Alistair’s impressive contribution to economics research and to institutions including the Sustainable Consumption Institute, and an evening reception.

It was moving and inspirational to hear from so many people about the impact Alistair had on their work, organisations and lives.

Professor Julian Williams

I was very sad to hear the news of the death of Professor Julian Williams, one of the longest-serving members of staff in the Manchester Institute of Education (MIE). Julian joined the University in 1984, teaching and research mathematics education, and completed an Applied Mathematics PhD at Leeds in 1991. His work is internationally respected and influential and he will be very much missed.

Regards Fiona

Professor Fiona Devine, Vice-President and Dean, Faculty of Humanities