The Manchester Vision

[dullhunk]

Text below reproduced from

• Original manchester.ac.uk/about/vision
• Archive archive.org/web/20240724170250/https://www.manchester.ac.uk/about/vision

Our future: Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity

This new vision and strategic plan for The University of Manchester will take us into our third century. It builds on a rich heritage of discovery, social change and pioneering spirit that is at the heart of our University and our city region

"As a proud Manchester institution with a growing international reach, we have created this plan based on our fundamental belief that the purpose of our University is to deliver benefit to society and the environment, and to protect our unique status as an open place of enquiry and challenge."

The foundation of this vision and strategic plan remains our three core goals of research and discovery, teaching and learning, and social responsibility, which are encapsulated in our motto: knowledge, wisdom and humanity. It builds on our strengths while taking the University in new directions.

It points to a future where we will expand our world-leading research to address the most challenging global questions and exploit our capability for interdisciplinary research; transform the way our students learn to make them the most employable graduates and truly global citizens; and ensure that all our activities make a positive difference to society.

The strategic plan reinforces what already makes The University of Manchester distinctive: our excellence, openness and inclusivity, our longstanding commitment to social responsibility, our scale and breadth, our tradition of innovation, and our very close bonds with, and location at the heart of, Manchester.

We have built our vision and strategic plan on extensive consultation with colleagues, students, alumni, and regional and national stakeholders. This approach has ensured a shared creation of ideas and allowed us to test the resilience of the priorities that we have identified. It has also enabled us to explore and refine how to deliver them.

This is a vision and strategic plan of substance, supported by detailed delivery plans. Our success will be evidenced through independent measures of our core activities.

Universities such as ours are ideally positioned to help address many of the world’s major challenges, finding new means to deliver environmental sustainability, close the gap of societal inequalities, improve health, inform and empower citizens, and create the leaders of the future.

While the plan is broad in its scope, with stretching ambitions in many places, it contains clear priorities set within each theme and measurable outcomes. We will, of course, be agile and adaptable to external change, but we will hold onto the ambitions set out here to ensure that we are well placed for the future.

Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor
Edward Astle, Chair of the Board of Governors

Our purpose

To advance education, knowledge and wisdom for the good of society

Our values

As an autonomous institution, we will strive to bring our shared values to life.

1. Knowledge

We are ambitious in our pursuit of new ideas, greater understanding and discovery.

2. Wisdom

We share and apply our knowledge and experience to guide balanced and evidenced decisions for ourselves and for society.

3. Humanity

We embrace and celebrate difference, respect and support each other, and act with integrity to benefit society and the environment by transforming and enriching lives.

4. Academic freedom

We support with enthusiasm and vigour the principles of freedom of thought and speech.

5. Courage

We think and speak freely, and act boldly to challenge assumptions and shape our future for the greater good.

6. Pioneering spirit

In the radical Manchester spirit, and inspired by our people, history and scale, we create the exceptional.

Strategic plan

The strategic plan sets our University priorities for the first five years of our journey towards the vision. We have built our strategic plan around three core goals and four themes.

Our three core goals are

1. research and discovery
2. teaching and learning
3. social responsibility.

Our people, the core of whom are our staff and students, and our values are at the heart of our plan, while our themes, innovation, civic engagement and global influence, underpin everything we do.

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