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Equality Student Survey

We are committed to hearing views of our students and remain dedicated to ensure we make progress on equity.

Equality Student Survey

The Equality Student Survey (ESS) provides an opportunity for all of our students to share their experiences of equity, diversity and inclusion at Manchester Metropolitan University. All students, regardless of their ethnicity, are invited to take part in the survey, as we all have a role to play in strengthening race equity in our communities.  

The survey will take approximately 15-20mins to complete and your responses will contribute towards our work on the Advance HE Race Equality Charter – helping us improve the representation, experiences, progression and success of our Black, Asian and minority ethnic students and staff.

The ESS 2023 is now closed. We would like to give a big thank you to everyone who completed this survey and for providing your voice and opinions to support us to become a more inclusive University. Over 3700 of you responded to the survey – our highest ESS completion rate ever! 

We are pleased to announce this years prize draw winner, Pooja Mantry - Congratulations! 

Photo of Student
"The University celebrates diversity, making me feel at home and free to be myself. Inclusivity is key to a rich and supportive community, fostering innovation and personal growth." - Pooja Mantry, Clinical Skills - Integrated Psychotherapy Programme

  • What is the Race Equality Charter?

    Manchester Metropolitan University is committed to the Advance HE Race Equality Charter (REC) which is a framework to inform development of our race equity objectives and action plan. An institutional self-assessment team led our work to consider the issues that need to be addressed, and to inform relevant actions that can be taken to respond to these. These have been informed by equalities data, staff and student surveys in 2020 and 2021, engagement with our Race Staff Network, the Student Union, our BAME Ambassadors and insights gained from open events for staff in Spring 2022. The resulting objectives and actions form the basis of our work to advance race equity over the next five years. The University successfully holds a Bronze Award and is aiming to apply for a Silver Award by 2027.

  • Progress on our Race Equity Objectives

    The previous Equality Student Survey was completed in March 2021 and feedback from this survey was key to shaping our Race Equality Charter objectives and action plan for the next five years. Two core objectives were developed as a result: Equitable and diverse student profile and Equitable learning and teaching.

    We have listened to your feedback and have shown progress and commitment through a number of initiatives:

    • The Inclusive Learning Communities project – aims to close the awarding gap
    • As I Am Campaign – celebrates diversity and inclusion by shedding light on our Black, Asian and minority ethnic staff and students’ stories
    • The Big Change Project – commitments made by departments and directorates to support Race Equity
    • BAME Ambassadors – Student-led collaboration between The Union and the University
    • First Generation Scholarship Programme – Supporting young people from the North West who would like to go to university.
    • Success in our International Recruitment - We have increased our international student population from 4% in 2014/15 to 12% in 2022/23
    • Career Support and Differential Graduate Outcomes activities
    • Inclusive Curriculum Toolkit - offers practical templates and guidance on making a curriculum more inclusive
    • Peer Guides - Peer to Peer Support is provided through Peer Assisted Learning (PAL) Sessions for first year students, but our Peer Guides provide wellbeing support to all students, and we have 50 students working as Peer Guides through 2023/24. Students can request a chat through this AMA form.

  • Why should I complete the survey?

    We value your voice and opinions. By completing this survey, you will help us make Manchester Met a more inclusive University. Your voice is a critical aspect to understanding our race equity context and it is a core method of gathering insight and feedback to help us focus our future priorities and objectives. Results of this survey will be key to help us progress to a Race Equality Charter Silver Award by 2027. You will also be given the opportunity to be entered into a prize draw to win a £100 voucher at the end of the survey.

  • Who can complete this survey?

    All our current students are eligible and encouraged to complete the survey.

  • How will my data be used?

    Manchester Metropolitan (the University) will ensure all responses to the survey are held securely and in a manner compliant with the data protection legislation. The information that we are collecting as part of the main survey does include and questions that when considered together may make you indirectly identifiable, although that is not the intention. There is also the option for you to enter into a prize draw, which requires your student ID and email address. You do not have to take part, or answer all of the questions (such as free text boxes) if you are concerned that by answering, you will become identifiable.  The University is the Data Controller for the information provided in your response. 

    Due to the prospect of your full response being considered as personal data, we have established that our lawful basis for processing is ‘legitimate interests’, and where you provide sensitive ‘special category’ information (for example, information relating to the protected characteristics) we rely on the substantial public interest.

    All data returned in the main survey will be retained by the University for a period of 5 years from the end of the current year. Your name, email address and ID (required for the prize draw) will be stored separately to your survey response, and destroyed within 1 month of the survey results being announced.

    If you have any questions or concerns about the survey, please contact equalities@mmu.ac.uk. Information about your data subject rights and how to exercise them (including the right to erasure), as well as the contact details for our Data Protection Officer can be found on our data subject rights pages. You also have the right to raise complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office.

  • Next Steps

    We will now be analysing the survey results and we will share this evaluation with you via our Equality Student Survey website from January 2024 onwards. The insights from this survey will be used to assess progress on our Race Equity Objectives and Action Plan and inform further actions and work required.