Reduced Inequalities

The Institute of Sport has been announced as the Official University Partner of the Manchester 2023 Allianz Para Swimming World Championships. The University will use the partnership to amplify its research work and heritage in the sport, create networking opportunities with key stakeholders, and engage current and future students and colleagues with the event.

Manchester Metropolitan University has prolifically contributed to research in the areas of the biomechanics of swimming and Para swimming classification. The research has been led by Professor Carl Payton for over 20 years and has also helped enhance coaching methods and the performance of the sport’s elite athletes.

Researchers have collaborated with the photography project Portrait Youth and the British Muslim Heritage Centre to explore young British Muslim identity in Manchester. Reclaiming the Narrative, a participatory arts-based research project with the Manchester Centre for Youth Studies (MCYS) and Manchester School of Art at Manchester Metropolitan University, have collaborated with the British Muslim Heritage Centre and a group of young British Muslims to explore and understand how they experience and negotiate their identities. The exhibition also formed part of a programme of activity for the ESRC Festival of Social Science in 2022 which included interactive public talks, workshops, virtual screenings and exhibitions.

The University provides many schemes to support and encourage those from backgrounds who do not usually enter higher education. This includes the First Generation Scheme that provides students studying and living in Greater Manchester, who are the first in their family to go to university, with continued financial, professional and personal support throughout studies and into employment. In 2021, this initiative was a finalist in the Times Higher Education Award’s Widening Participation/Outreach Initiative of the Year category.

Manchester Metropolitan University has partnered with the world-leading auction house, art and luxury business Christie’s to support its award-winning First Generation Scholarship programme for students who are first in their family to go to university. Recognising the need to increase diversity and social mobility within the arts, Christie’s will provide funding (September 2022) for five of Manchester Metropolitan University’s First Generation Scholars who are studying Fine Art or Art History and Curating within the University’s Manchester School of Art.  

Manchester Metropolitan is one of two universities to join a new government ‘passport’ pilot scheme that will support disabled students as they move into work. The Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP) Access to Work Adjustment Passport will ease the transition from university into employment by reducing the need for repeated health assessments when starting a new job. Through Access to Work, disabled people can benefit from grants worth up to £62,900 to cover the cost of specialist equipment needed to support them to do their job

Manchester Law School has a rich and diverse history of research in Equalities and Human Rights and has been, for many years, at the forefront of producing world-leading research on transgender rights and caste discrimination. We also have a longstanding culture of activist research, in areas such as domestic violence, LGBTQI+ rights, honour-based violence and parental leave, as well as expertise in healthcare law, pregnancy and surrogacy rights.

Manchester Metropolitan University is proud of its diverse community of staff, students and visitors. We are committed to creating a positive environment where everybody is treated with dignity and respect https://www.mmu.ac.uk/about-us/equality-and-diversity/. We’ve led the way with our forward-thinking approach to diversity and inclusion, and we’re proud to have pioneering campaigners such as Sylvia Pankhurst and Dame Evelyn Asante-Mensah OBE as members of our alumni. We have over 50 Equality and Diversity Champions who act as change agents and promote the institution’s principles of equality and diversity in the way the University conducts its business.

In 2017, we were the first University awarded a Business Disability Forum Gold Disability Standard, the world’s only management tool that enables organisations to accurately plan for, and measure, their progress towards becoming a disability-smart organisation.

Black Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) employees in the housing sector will benefit from improved routes to senior roles thanks to a ground-breaking new partnership between housing providers in Greater Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University. The Greater Manchester Housing Providers (GMHP) partnership has worked with researchers from Manchester Metropolitan to address the under-representation of BAME employees in senior roles.  Each housing provider has supported the development of the programme and committed to a future mentorship programme from 2022.

The Coronavirus and Learning Disabilities study is exploring the experiences of adults with learning disabilities and their families during COVID-19 to ensure their voices are heard. It aims to capture the experiences of 1000 people with learning disabilities across the UK, and 500 family carers or paid support staff of people with learning disabilities who could not take part in an interview themselves.

The ImprovE-ACT team is using innovative research techniques to co-produce an intervention to improve Black African-Caribbean men’s experiences of detention under the Mental Health Act. The research will be used to support the Government’s newly announced reforms of the Act, provide evidence to policymakers rolling out the reforms and aims to eventually reduce detention rates.

The Learn Project is a realist review of interventions used to prevent and reduce the use of restrictive practices on adults with learning disabilities. It aims to gain a deeper understanding of how, why, for whom, and in what circumstances these approaches are most successful.

Our Communication Disability Research group lead on PI co-created research. Augmentative and Alternative Communication research has informed policy and practice globally. It ensured assistive technology is a key priority in the DFE’s EdTEch strategy and informed a £15million care pathway in England continues to benefit the 38,000 people in the UK with the most severe AAC needs. Research with the Indian Institute for Cerebral Palsy (IICP) also underpins delivery of disability services to low income families across 137 sites and 87 wards in West Bengal.