Met News
Institute of Sport officially opens
A new institute bringing together pioneering research, partnerships and teaching in sport, exercise and health has officially opened.
Manchester Metropolitan University Institute of Sport will unite research excellence from across the University to champion every aspect of sport and health, from strengthening communities and building a healthier society, to inspiring the next generation of athletes and pushing the limits of human performance.
The University welcomed guests to a special opening event, which included a keynote speech from Great Britain’s most successful Paralympic athlete of all time, Dame Sarah Storey.
Research and expertise in the Institute of Sport includes studies on the effect of periods on performance in women, the role of genetics in sport and concussion, injury prevention and recovery, sport governance, paralympic sport classification, sport nutrition, dementia in football, science of ageing and mobility, and much more.
In the most recent Research Excellence Framework – which is an assessment of all UK universities’ research - the Institute of Sport ranked sixth in the country for research power. Four in every ten of the institute’s research outputs were graded as world-leading and overall, 95% of its research was in the top categories of internationally excellent and world leading.
Professor Malcolm Press CBE Vice-Chancellor of Manchester Met, said: “Manchester is a city with an international reputation for sport and sporting excellence, as well as being at the forefront of health innovation. “Our Institute of Sport aims to add another globally leading thread to this city’s sport and health fabric. The institute will help us to deliver research that changes lives by advancing knowledge, delivering new treatments and addressing health inequalities.”
Manchester Metropolitan alumna wins Best Actress Oscar
Michelle Yeoh, who won this year’s Oscar for Best Actress in a Motion Picture, graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Creative Arts with a minor in Drama in 1983.
The actress has become the first south-east Asian performer to win the award for her role as laundromat manager Evelyn Wang in the comedy-drama Everything Everywhere All At Once.
Born in Malaysia to Chinese parents, Yeoh attended Crewe and Alsager College, an important part of Manchester Met’s history. The College was a key element of Manchester Met’s presence in Cheshire.
Yeoh then rose to fame in the 1990s after appearing in a series of Hong Kong action films, before moving to the US, starring in box office hits including: Tomorrow Never Dies, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and Memoirs of a Geisha.
Manchester School of Theatre whose famous alumni include Steve Coogan, Zawe Ashton and Julie Walters, continues to deliver the University’s drama courses.
Manchester School of Architecture ranked 5th in the world
Manchester School of Architecture (MSA) has been named as one of the top five architecture schools in the QS World Subject Rankings 2023.
MSA, a unique collaboration between Manchester Met and the University of Manchester, is ranked 5th in the world and 2nd in the UK, climbing two places since last year.
The prestigious QS World University Rankings highlight the world’s top performing universities in 54 individual subject areas.
MSA’s ‘unparalleled’ opportunities for collaborative architectural research across the two universities were highlighted, as was its ‘wide range of interdisciplinary research and teaching interests’ within Manchester School of Art at Manchester Met and departments at The University of Manchester.
MSA’s employer reputation scored a near-perfect 98.4%, maintaining its position at second overall, with citations per research paper hitting the heights at 95%, and an impressive overall score of 89.3%.
Professor Kevin Singh, Head of Manchester School of Architecture at Manchester Met said: “We are proud to maintain our position at number two in the Employer Reputation category and delighted to have risen to 5th in the Academic Reputation category. This success reflects our ethos as a dual intensive School with both quality teaching and research activity.”
PrintCity named ‘Academic Research Team of the Year’
Manchester Met’s PrintCity team is celebrating after being named ‘Academic Research Team of the Year’ at the annual 3D Printing Industry awards.
The team, who were in the same category as peers from Aachen and Harvard University, came out on top for their work on 3D printing.
PrintCity has six research projects funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) that theme around environmental sustainability and the circular economy.
The research team was nominated by followers and organisations who have engaged with PrintCity since it was founded in 2018.
The PrintCity Network Programme supports SMEs to adopt 3D Printing, with the University’s Msc in Digital Design and Manufacturing course bridging the digital skills gap by ensuring graduates are career ready.
There are almost 70 printers across a wide range of technologies in PrintCity, working in areas from Fashion and Textiles to 3D Concrete Printing.
Green energy and digital technology part of £100m government programme
Cutting-edge green energy and digital technology innovations that can help spur sustainable economic growth will be developed through Manchester Met thanks to a new business support programme.
As part of the nationwide £100m Government Innovation Accelerators funding, the University will lead two consortia to deliver initiatives for Greater Manchester’s small and medium-sized (SME) enterprises.
They will support innovation in electrochemical hydrogen, artificial intelligence, cyber security, industrial digitalisation and immersive technology. SMEs will be able to access the expert knowledge, research and facilities at the University – and across the consortia – to develop new products and technologies, create new supply chains, build collaborations and to train their staff.
Both projects will draw on expertise from a range of partners, resulting in new investment alongside job and skills creation, while accelerating economic growth and tackling the sustainability and digital challenges of the future.
Through Manchester Met’s Centre for Enterprise, two new projects will be delivered:
• The Greater Manchester Electrochemical Hydrogen Cluster will focus on the supply chains for electrochemical hydrogen technologies, helping to support the city’s ambition to become Net Zero through the investment in research and development of advancing electrochemical and hydrogen technologies.
• The Centre for Digital Innovation (CDI) will be across four technology strands: artificial intelligence, cyber security, industrial digitalisation and immersive technology on research and development, skills development, business models for SMEs, and community outreach. CDI will provide access to facilities and collaborations to create new capabilities in technologies to build digital skills for North West SMEs.
Manchester Met celebrates creative excellence at Grosvenor East launch
Manchester Met’s investment in creative skills and its impact on the region’s cultural scene has been celebrated by industry leaders at an event to officially launch the University’s Grosvenor East Building.
Home to Manchester Poetry Library, the first public poetry library in the North West, Manchester Writing School led by former poet laureate Professor Carol Ann Duffy and the prestigious Manchester School of Theatre, the new creative hub champions and supports the next generation of creative talent.
The creative industries are worth more than £150 billion to the UK economy and more than £4 billion to Greater Manchester.
Grosvenor East forms part of the University’s wider strength in teaching and research for the creative and cultural industries, and builds on its rich history of training creative talent.
It includes Manchester School of Art, Manchester School of Architecture and the School of Digital Arts, which recently welcomed Oscar-winning film director Danny Boyle to work with students.
Professor Malcolm Press CBE Vice-Chancellor of Manchester Met, said: “Our University is not just about knowledge, but also about doing. “We are confident about investing in creative subjects and dedicated to the arts and skills of telling stories, blending traditional and digital techniques, and making voices heard.”
University highlighted in UNESCO report rating Manchester ‘Excellent’ as a City of Literature
Manchester Met’s contribution to helping Manchester become a City of Literature has been highlighted in a glowing report from UNESCO.
Manchester became a UNESCO City of Literature in 2017, joining other cites such as Dublin, Barcelona, Prague, Melbourne, and Reykjavik, and the report rated it as ‘excellent’.
Since 2017, the city’s universities, the council, and literary community have worked together to deliver a rich and vibrant a programme of events, showcasing the talent of Manchester and, giving all of Manchester’s residents the chance to participate in and benefit from the thriving City of Literature.
Prof Malcolm Press CBE, Vice-Chancellor of Manchester Met, said: “As a key creative institution of the city and with our Manchester Poetry Library, the first such library in the North West of England, we’re delighted to have played a part in helping Manchester become a City of Literature.
“The designation has raised the profile of our City as a beacon destination for creative industries, cultural tourism and students of the arts and humanities, and established the reputation of its literature ecosystem as an exemplar of creative excellence and inclusivity.”
Lecturer wins prestigious Forward Prize
Poet and lecturer Dr Kim Moore has won the Forward Prize for Poetry’s Best Collection award with her ‘phenomenal and powerful’ second collection All The Men I Never Married.
The Forward Prizes for Poetry honours excellence in contemporary poetry published in the UK and Ireland across three categories with the £10,000 prize for Best Collection.
All The Men I Never Married is Moore’s second collection, following 2015’s The Art Falling, which won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize.
Her book of lyric essays What the Trumpet Taught Me was published earlier this year. Moore’s new collection was described by judge Stephen Sexton as a “tonally profound collection which is precise, careful, unfolding, whose methodical, numbered poems show us the work and process of overcoming people and encounters”, while fellow judge Nadine Aisha Jassat described it as “a phenomenal and powerful collection”.
Alongside Moore, Dr Helen Mort, Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Manchester Writing School at Manchester Met was nominated in the same category with her third collection The Illustrated Woman.
Moore joins previous Manchester Met winners Professor Carol Ann Duffy (1993) and Professor Michael Symmons Roberts (2013) in being awarded the Forward Prize for Best Collection. In 2020, lecturer Malika Booker was awarded the £1,000 Prize for Best Single Poem, an award Moore was shortlisted for in 2015.
Read about Kim Moore’s role as a Writer-in-residence to celebrate the NHS’s 75th anniversary.
Business School among best in the world after retaining triple accreditation status
Manchester Met’s Business School has retained its triple accreditation status, placing it among the top schools in the world.
Following the reaccreditation processes, the Business School continues to be recognised for its high standards, quality and reputation by the three major, influential accreditation bodies: EQUIS, based in the EU; The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), based in the US; and Association of MBAs (AMBA), based in the UK.
With rigorous assessment criteria, the highly prized triple accreditation sets the international benchmark of excellence and puts the Business School into a select group globally.
Re-accreditation requires schools to meet exceptional standards in terms of strategy, design and delivery of programmes, ability to affect positive outcomes for graduates, produce high-quality research and have impactful connections with the real-world with a global outlook.
Commenting on the achievement, Professor Dominic Medway, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Faculty of Business and Law, said: “Holding triple accreditation status from UK, European and US awarding bodies is a tremendous achievement and recognises the commitment we have to providing sector-leading research and an excellent education to transform our students’ lives. We are immensely proud that our Business School is among the best in the world with professional development and employability at the heart of our ethos and priorities.”
Manchester Met rated Ofsted ‘Outstanding’ for degree apprenticeships
Manchester Met has been recognised as Ofsted ‘Outstanding’ for its degree apprenticeships provision against the regulator’s new Education Inspection Framework.
It has now also received two consecutive overall Ofsted ‘Outstanding’ ratings (also securing this under the previous framework), achieving this latest recognition in all six of the new framework’s categories: the quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, leadership and management education programmes for young people and apprenticeships.
Feedback included recognition for the quality of Manchester Met’s teaching and academic support, the inclusive and respectful environment in which its apprentices learn and its highly effective careers advice and guidance.
The Ofsted ‘Outstanding’ rating is the latest success for the University’s degree apprenticeships. Manchester Metropolitan has just been recognised ‘University of the Year’ at the national Multicultural Apprenticeship Awards and remained the highest ranked university at this year’s RateMyApprenticeship Awards for the fourth consecutive year.
Liz Gorb, Director of Apprenticeships at Manchester Met, said: “Our apprenticeships are designed in close partnership with employers. This ensures they meet their workforce needs, while developing every student to achieve their potential and advance in their career of choice.”
Manchester Met launched degree apprenticeships in 2015 and now works with more than 540 employers, ranging from multi-national organisations to SMEs, in sectors from banking to the NHS to pharmaceuticals, to provide an ambitious curriculum for more than 2,400 apprentices a year.
Improving employment standards to help employers grow and succeed
A new toolkit offering practical advice and resources to aid the development of good employment initiatives is driving improvements in employment standards.
The toolkit, developed by researchers at Manchester Met, is based on the processes involved in the development of Greater Manchester’s Good Employment Charter, allowing other regions who may be engaged with the design or development of similar initiatives, in the UK and beyond, to share in their learning.
Greater Manchester’s Good Employment Charter helps employers to grow and succeed through improved employment standards by encouraging and supporting employers to develop good jobs and deliver opportunities for people to progress.
Dr Sarah Crozier, a researcher in the Centre for Decent Work and Productivity at Manchester Met, developed the Charter’s toolkit as part of a three-year project with Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) that examined the impact of the introduction of the Charter on participating organisations.
Working with the GMCA, Dr Crozier also explored differences in employee experiences of good employment across different sizes of organisations and sectors. This provided industry comparisons, showcasing good practice and areas for further development across the region.
Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, said: “The Good Employment Charter is a major step towards making sure that new and existing jobs right across Greater Manchester are underpinned by a commitment to equality, fair pay, and giving employees a say in how their workplaces are run – securing our city-region as an area of employment excellence.
Read more about Dr Crozier’s research in Better Ways to Work.
Manchester Met celebrates a milestone decade as one of the UK’s most sustainable universities
Manchester Met has been named again as one of the UK’s leading sustainable universities in the People & Planet University League.
The third-placed finish in the latest League means the University has now spent an incredible ten years as a top-three ranked university, being named a “First class” institution for 2022/2023.
All 154 UK universities are ranked across 13 categories, with People & Planet University League awarding First-class, 2:1, 2:2, Third or Fail degrees.
The announcement came after Manchester Met released its Leadership in Sustainability Strategy, further committing to be a beacon of sustainable development practice, working towards a zero-carbon future and putting sustainability at the heart of the University.
The People and Planet University League table is the only independent ranking that assesses all UK universities’ environmental and ethical performance. This year, the University achieved 100% across several key areas, including: policy and strategy, environmental auditing and management, governance and staff, and staff and student engagement.
Education for sustainable development, sustainable food and carbon management also scored highly, between 90-95%. Manchester Met extended its commitment to staff and student engagement with the ongoing delivery of the University’s Carbon Literacy training programme.
With the University committing to embed climate change education across all courses by 2026, a new ‘Teach Carbon Literacy’ programme has recently been delivered to over 80 academic colleagues. This means that in the 2022/23 academic year, up to 7,000 students could have Carbon Literacy training available as part of their studies, with around 66 courses currently offering this feature embedded in their course to students.
Professor Liz Price, Deputy Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Sustainability, said: “We are committed to delivering a pipeline of green skills and embedding learning about sustainability into every course we deliver. We are also pioneering world-class research in aviation and climate change, nature-based solutions, climate resilience and developing hydrogen fuel.
“We have a sector-leading approach to embedding sustainability across our education, research, partnerships and the way we are designing and transforming our city campus.”
Athlete nutrition to be improved through new research partnership
The role of sports nutrition in helping athletes to hydrate, boost their energy and recover will be the focus of a new University partnership.
New products designed to help athletes to perform at their peak across all endurance sport, as well as the development of existing sports nutrition, will be tested as part of a new project between Manchester Metropolitan University Institute of Sport and Lancashire-based sports nutrition company Science in Sport (SiS).
The three-year partnership aims to bring together facilities and research techniques with a global elite sport brand develop new knowledge to benefits athletes.
SiS is the official sports nutrition partner to over 320 elite athletes and professional sports teams including The INEOS Grenadiers cycling team, Tottenham Hotspur FC and The Milwaukee Bucks basketball team.
Using cutting-edge facilities at the Institute of Sport building in the heart of Manchester, including a 3 Tesla MRI scanner, the three-year project will focus on nutritional strategies to enhance recovery.
Sam Driver, commercial director of performance solutions at SiS, said: “We work with the world’s best sports teams and athletes, learning what they need to succeed before conducting world-class science and research to create and craft the products required for them to perform at their peak, across all endurance sports.
“I’m delighted we have signed a multi-year agreement with Manchester Met to demonstrate our commitment in this regard.”
The research project with SiS builds on the Institute of Sport’s existing partnerships, which includes Manchester City Football Club, Manchester Thunder netball team, British Cycling and British Swimming.