Message from Dimitris Papadimitriou, Vice-Dean for Social Responsibility and Inclusion

23 Mar 2026

This week, Dimitris outlines the importance of EDI in the Manchester 2035 strategy, highlights progress in tackling structural barriers affecting colleagues with protected characteristics in the promotions process, and launches the call for applications to the Faculty’s Strategic Civic Engagement Fund.

Dear colleagues,

As yet another distressing conflict is unfolding in the Middle East, our thoughts remain with members of our community and their families affected by war. The University has written to all colleagues and students offering support and practical help to mitigate some of the challenges they face.

A key aspect of our forthcoming Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) framework is enhancing the sense of belonging to the University. To achieve this objective, we all have a role to play, from the University leadership modelling the inclusive behaviour we all want to see, to University services removing barriers and delivering equitable policies and practice, down to individual colleagues and students thinking of themselves as agents of positive change. It is for this reason that EDI is now a foundational principle of From Manchester for the world, our strategy to 2035 – it underpins everything we do.

As I struggle to adapt my work practices to my progressive hearing loss, I am humbled by the kindness that colleagues from within our Faculty and beyond have shown me in helping me figure out what kind of equipment may be suitable for my case. This experience made me realise the incredible array of expertise we have in our University and how important it is to utilise this to improve our operations.

Nearly one in four working-age people in the UK live with a disability and one in five students share their disability with us once they arrive at the University. Disability Advisory and Support Service (DASS) colleagues are doing their very best to support our community, but I understand many challenges remain, not least because of recent changes to the government’s Access to Work programme which have adversely affected a number of our colleagues. In his recent townhall, Duncan spoke of the importance of developing first-class physical and digital infrastructure for the University. Inclusivity by design lies at the heart of such plans.

Our academic promotions cycle is now well under way, and I know that many colleagues will be waiting anxiously for the outcome. Last year, the Faculty of Humanities introduced tailor-made promotion workshops for colleagues with protected characteristics (gender, ethnicity and disability) to supplement the more generic promotion events that run in each of our four Schools.

The feedback from colleagues has been very positive, so these workshops will now occur annually. You can register your interest for this year’s workshops via an online form. Whilst I recognise that structural barriers to career progression remain, I am glad to report that last year promotion success rates for female (81.8%) and global majority (75%) colleagues were on par (or better) than those for male (60%) and white (75%) colleagues.

Earlier this year, the Faculty appointed a new Associate Dean for Environmental Sustainability, Dr Joe Blakey (SEED), who brings considerable expertise in this field and a strong network of contacts across the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) and beyond. I would also like to thank Joe’s predecessor, Dr Anke Bernau, for her amazing work in drafting and implementing our first ever Faculty environmental sustainability strategy.

Joe will continue to build on Anke’s successes, with some new initiatives with regards to teaching and public engagement. Although the University is currently exceeding its carbon budget, we have made a significant step towards our 2038 carbon zero journey with our landmark agreement with the Medebridge solar farm, comprising around 104,000 solar panels across 175 acres of land. This now provides 73% of our electricity needs. To realise our ambitions, it is important that we all continue to make sensible choices on how we travel, teach and conduct our research.

This year’s Making a Difference Awards will take place on Wednesday 6 May. This is an important date for the University’s calendar giving us all an opportunity to celebrate the incredible work that colleagues and students make to improve the lives of some many people locally and further afield. We are delighted that this year 12 Humanities projects have been shortlisted, and I wish all entrants the very best of luck.

Our very own Strategic Civic Engagement call for funding is now live for projects starting in September 2026. In the past four years the Fund has supported a fantastic array of projects which have connected our work on social inclusion, culture and the environment to local communities. Year after year the University’s record against the UN Sustainable Development Goals has been recognised as world-leading. Manchester 2035 has also pledged to make our University more open to external partnerships and innovation. This will create amazing new opportunities for us to promote further our social responsibility agenda.

I would like to conclude my message with a plea for all colleagues to support the Purple Pennies campaign. By rounding down your take-home pay to the nearest pound, you can help support our fantastic charitable work. It will never cost you more than £0.99 per month, but if we all do it, we can raise over £70,000 per year. Easy!

Best wishes,

Dimitris