Your Voice Matters Colleague Engagement Survey 2026 – Faculty of Humanities results

22 May 2026

A message from Fiona Devine, Vice-President and Dean, and Emma Rose, Interim Executive Director of Faculty Operations

Dear All

The headline results of this year’s Your Voice Matters Colleague Engagement Survey are now available on StaffNet, including breakdowns by Faculty and School.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to complete the survey. Across Humanities, 1,291 colleagues responded, with a 52% response rate, up from 49% in 2025.

We are encouraged by the increase in participation, which gives us a broader and more representative picture of colleagues’ experiences across the Faculty and will help us focus our efforts where they can make the greatest difference.

The results are an important part of how we listen, learn and improve together, supporting our Manchester 2035 vision to create an inclusive, supportive and high-performing University community.

Faculty snapshot

More colleagues taking part
77% Engagement score – up 1% from last year
Improvements across technology, leadership, recognition, development and trust
More colleagues believe the survey will lead to change

Overall trends

Our Engagement score is 77%, a 1% increase on last year, though 3% below the University average. Scores have been maintained or improved across most themes, with Purpose (72%) and EDI (70%) strongest after Engagement, and Reward (53%) and Leadership (52%) lowest.

Our highest-scoring areas this year include care about the future of the University, trust and autonomy, flexible working, and fair treatment by managers.

It is also pleasing to see improvements in our positivity scores across a range of themes compared to our results in 2025. These include particular increases for having the right equipment and technology, leadership and line management, with stronger perceptions of support, development conversations and trust. There has also been encouraging progress with experiences of bullying, harassment and discrimination.

As with the wider University, our lowest scores this year relate to change, particularly how it is managed, communicated and followed through, although it is pleasing to see that all have improved since last year. For example, our results show increases in positivity in how change is managed and in confidence that feedback leads to action.

We have seen some small declines compared to our results last year in areas linked to voice and involvement, including confidence to speak up, share ideas and influence decisions. Scores have also fallen across certain aspects of EDI and belonging, career development and reward, and levels of stress and enthusiasm.

Find out more

You can view the survey scorecard results for the Faculty and Schools by following the links below:

President and Vice-Chancellor Duncan Ivison will be hosting a town hall on Thursday, 18 June, 10–11am, when you can ask any questions you may have about the survey results and join the conversation on which areas we should prioritise.

You will have received an Outlook calendar invitation to join online, and you can register if you would like to attend in person.

Next steps

We are proud of how colleagues across the Faculty have delivered and supported one another in what has been a challenging year for the sector. We are committed to building on this as we continue to work together, aligning our efforts with our Manchester 2035 ambitions and improving all our colleagues’ experience of working at our University.

Senior leaders and managers across the Faculty will be taking time over the coming weeks to understand the results and work with you to develop local actions to address the most important issues emerging from the survey. Managers should discuss local results with colleagues, and they can implement their own initiatives in response to feedback.

We want these findings to lead to meaningful conversations, visible action and continued progress, building on strengths and addressing key areas for improvement. We look forward to working with you on these shared priorities over the coming year.

Regards Fiona and Emma