For the development and approval of new undergraduate and postgraduate taught programmes of study that lead to a named award of the University, a New Programme Proposal (NPP) Form must be submitted. 

• University of Manchester New Programme Proposal Form (Word) 

• University of Manchester New Programme Proposal Form (PDF) 

For further information about the process of developing and submitting a new programme proposal, please see the New Programme Proposal Guidance Document, which contains guidance for writing a  Programme Specification, along with guidance for completing a Course Unit Specification and the Course Unit Specification Template. 

All on-campus programmes must be fully approved by 31st March (for Undergraduate programmes) or 31st May (for Postgraduate taught programmes), OR THE LAST WORKING DAY PRIOR TO THESE DATES, of the year they are intended to be delivered for the first time (or minus 6 months in circumstances where the programme has a non-standard start date).  

Note: there have been some changes to the programme amendment form and matrix that came into force in September 2025. As such, if you have already started using a previous version of these documents you can continue to complete them for the 2026 submission deadline listed in bold below.

Details regarding the process are available in the Programme Amendment Guidance. All major and significant amendments must be submitted on a Programme Amendment Form inline with the deadlines in bold below. When completing the form, please refer to the Programme Amendment Matrix for information about the types of changes, level of endorsement required, and the implications for Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). 

Minor programme amendments can be submitted through the School Programme and Curriculum Team via the Minor Programme Amendment School Spreadsheet rather that on individual forms for each amendment. The deadline for minor amendments will be set by the School, with approval from the Faculty Vice-Dean TLS, and must be before 31 August.

The deadline for submitting taught programme amendments to Teaching and Learning Delivery (via email to quality@manchester.ac.uk) for amendments to next academic year (2026/27) are: 

• Undergraduate programmes - Tuesday 31 March 2026 
• Postgraduate programmes - Friday 29 May 2026
• Minor programme amendments [School deadline with approval from the Faculty Vice-Dean TLS] - Friday 28 August 2026

Please be aware that the deadline for programme amendments are going to be earlier from 2027 to enable reporting to the April Senate meeting. The deadline will be four weeks' prior to Senate or by mid-March (whichever is soonest). The deadline will be the same for undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.

School and Faculty deadlines may be considerably earlier than the above dates, and you should ensure that you are aware of those deadlines.

Note: there have been some changes to programme withdrawal and suspension forms that came into force in September 2025. As such, if you have already started using a previous version of these documents you can continue to complete them for the 2026 submission deadline listed in bold below.

Details regarding the process are available in the Programme Withdrawal and Suspension Guidance. All withdrawals or suspensions should be approved by the relevant School/Faculty using the following forms:

• Programme Withdrawal Form
• Programme Suspension Form

The deadline for submitting programme withdrawals or suspensions to Teaching and Learning Delivery (via email to quality@manchester.ac.uk) for withdrawals or suspensions within the next academic year (2026/27) are:

• Thursday 30 April 2026

Schools and Faculties will have their own earlier internal deadlines to meet the final approval deadlines above. Please consult your Curriculum and Programme Teams for details (see contact details in the guidance document above).

To support programme development, the Teaching and Learning Delivery (TLD) Team produce a template programme handbook to ensure all relevant and appropriate content is included in handbooks. All content has been agreed with the Programme and Curriculum subgroup of the TLD Operational Management Group. Content includes items that must be included to comply with our teaching and learning policies (coloured grey on the template). Other items are generic content provided by TLD that can be copied and pasted (coloured green on the template) and the remaining content is School specific that should be tailored by each School.