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The main campus is south of Manchester city centre on Oxford Road. In 2012, the university had around 39,000 students and 10,400 staff, making it the largest single-site university in the United Kingdom.6 The University of Manchester had an income of £827 million in 2012–13, of which £200 million was from research grants and contracts.7

In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise,8 Manchester came third in terms of research power and eighth for grade point average quality when including specialist institutions.9 More students try to gain entry to the University of Manchester than to any other university in the country, with more than 60,000 applications for undergraduate courses.10 According to the 2012 Highfliers Report, Manchester is the most targeted university by the Top 100 Graduate Employers.1112

History

Origins

The Old Quadrangle at the University of Manchester's main campus on Oxford Road.

The University of Manchester traces its roots to the formation of the Mechanics' Institute (later to become UMIST) in 1824, and its heritage is linked to Manchester's pride in being the world's first industrial city.18 The English chemistJohn Dalton, together with Manchester businessmen and industrialists, established the Mechanics' Institute to ensure that workers could learn the basic principles of science.

By 1905, the institutions were large and active forces. The Municipal College of Technology, forerunner of UMIST, was the Victoria University of Manchester's Faculty of Technology while continuing in parallel as a technical college offering advanced courses of study. Although UMIST achieved independent university status in 1955, the universities continued to work together.21 The Victoria University of Manchester and the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology agreed to merge into a single institution in March 2003.2223

The founding president and vice-chancellor of the new university was Alan Gilbert, former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Melbourne, who retired at the end of the 2009–2010 academic year.26 His successor was Dame Nancy Rothwell,2 who had held a chair in physiology at the university since 1994. One of the university's aims stated in the Manchester 2015 Agenda is to be one of the top 25 universities in the world, following on from Alan Gilbert's aim to "establish it by 2015 among the 25 strongest research universities in the world on commonly accepted criteria of research excellence and performance".27 In 2011, four Nobel laureates were on its staff: Andre Geim,28Konstantin Novoselov,29Sir John Sulston and Joseph E. Stiglitz.

The EPSRC announced in February 2012 the formation of the National Graphene Institute. The University of Manchester is the "single supplier invited to submit a proposal for funding the new £45m institute, £38m of which will be provided by the government" – (EPSRC & Technology Strategy Board).30 In 2013, an additional £23 million of funding from European Regional Development Fund was awarded to the institute taking investment to £61 million.31

In August 2012, it was announced that the university's Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences had been chosen to be the "hub" location for a new BP International Centre for Advanced Materials, as part of a $100 million initiative to create industry-changing materials.3233 The centre will be aimed at advancing fundamental understanding and use of materials across a variety of oil and gas industrial applications and will be modelled on a hub and spoke structure, with the hub located at Manchester, and the spokes based at the University of Cambridge, Imperial College London, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.34

Campus

The university's main site contains most of its facilities and is often referred to as campus, however Manchester is not a campus university as the concept is commonly understood. It is centrally located in the city and its buildings are integrated into the fabric of Manchester, with non-university buildings and major roads between.

The campus occupies an area shaped roughly like a boot: the foot of which is aligned roughly south-west to north-east and is joined to the broader southern part of the boot by an area of overlap between former UMIST and former VUM buildings;35 it comprises two parts:

The names are not officially recognised by the university, but are commonly used, including in parts of its website and roughly correspond to the campuses of the old UMIST and Victoria University respectively.

There are other university buildings across the city and the wider region, such as Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire and One Central Park in Moston, a collaboration between the university and other partners which offers office space for start-up firms and venues for conferences and workshops,36

Major projects

Following the merger, the university embarked on a £600 million programme of capital investment, to deliver eight new buildings and 15 major refurbishment projects by 2010, partly financed by a sale of unused assets.37 These include:

The Old Quadrangle

The buildings around the Old Quadrangle date from the time of Owens College, and were designed in a Gothic style by Alfred Waterhouse and his son Paul Waterhouse. The first to be built was the John Owens Building (1873), formerly the Main Building; the others were added over the next thirty years. Today, the museum continues to occupy part of one side, including the tower. The grand setting of the Whitworth Hall is used for the conferment of degrees, and part of the old Christie Library (1898) now houses Christie's Bistro. The remainder of the buildings house administrative departments. The less easily accessed Rear Quadrangle, dating mostly from 1873, is older in its completed form than the Old Quadrangle.

Contact

Contact stages modern live performance for all ages, and participatory workshops primarily for young people aged 13 to 30. The building on Devas Street was completed in 1999 incorporating parts of its 1960s predecessor.38 It has a unique energy-efficient ventilation system, using its high towers to naturally ventilate the building without the use of air conditioning. The colourful and curvaceous interior houses three performance spaces, a lounge bar and Hot Air, a reactive public artwork in the foyer.

The house now forms the western wing of the Chancellors Hotel & Conference Centre. The eastern wing houses the circular Flowers Theatre, six conference rooms and most of the hotel's bedrooms.

Other notable buildings

Other notable buildings in the Oxford Road Campus include the Stephen Joseph Studio, a former German Protestant church and the Samuel Alexander Building, a grade II listed building39 erected in 1919 and home of the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures.

Organisation and administration

Faculties and schools

The University of Manchester is divided into four faculties, each sub-divided into schools.

Faculty of Medical and Human Sciences

Old Medical School on Coupland Street (photographed in 1908), which now houses the School of Dentistry

The college was established in 1874 and is one of the largest in the country,40 with more than 400 medical students trained in each clinical year and more than 350 students in the pre-clinical/phase 1 years. Approximately 100 students who have completed pre-clinical training at the Bute Medical School (University of St Andrews) join the third year of the undergraduate medical programme each year.

In 1883, a department of pharmacy was established at the university and, in 1904, Manchester became the first British university to offer an honours degree in the subject. The School of Pharmacy43 benefits from links with Manchester Royal Infirmary and Wythenshawe and Hope hospitals providing its undergraduate students with hospital experience. The school's pharmacy students are the only such students in the UK to have access to an extensive course in secondary care.44

Manchester Dental School was rated the country's best dental school by Times Higher Education in 2010 and 201145 and it is one of the best funded because of its emphasis on research and enquiry-based learning approach. The university has obtained multi-million pound backing to maintain its high standard of dental education.46 The number of applicants far exceeds the number of places available; in 2011 there were 1000 applicants for 75places.47 Graduates have some of the best employment prospects of UK dental school graduates.48 Other dental schools are adopting the school's teaching style.49 The University Dental Hospital of Manchester is part of Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. It was established in 1884 in association with the School of Medicine at Owens College at Grosvenor Street in Chorlton on Medlock and in 1892 moved to Devonshire Street. In 1908 the hospital moved to a new building on Oxford Road designed in the Edwardian Baroque style by Charles Heathcote & Sons. In 1905 the university established a degree and a diploma in dental surgery (first awarded in 1909 and 1908 respectively). A contribution from Godfrey Ermen towards the cost of building the hospital is recorded on a stone tablet near the entrance.50

Faculty of Humanities

The Faculty of Humanities includes the School of Arts, Histories and Cultures (incorporating Archaeology; Art History & Visual Studies; Classics and Ancient History; Drama; English and American Studies; History; Museology; Music; and Religions and Theology) and the Schools of Combined Studies; Education; Environment and Development; Architecture; Languages, Linguistics and Cultures; Law; Social Sciences and the Manchester Business School.

Faculty of Life Sciences

The Faculty of Life Sciences consists of a single school. Biological Sciences have been taught at Manchester as far back as the foundation of Owens College in 1851. At UMIST, biological teaching and research began in 1959, with the creation of a Biochemistry department.52 The present school, though unitary for teaching, is divided into a number of sections for research purposes, these sections comprise: Cellular Systems, Disease Systems, Molecular Systems, Neuro Systems and Tissue Systems. In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise the Faculty came 3rd in the UK on the basis of Grade Point Average for Biological Sciences with 107 staff submitted, and 2nd in the UK for Preclinical and Human Biological Sciences with 72 staff submitted.53

Finances

In the financial year ending 31 July 2011, the University of Manchester had a total income of £808.58 million (2009/10 – £787.9 million) and total expenditure of £754.51 million (2009/10 – £764.55 million).1 Key sources of income included £247.28 million from tuition fees and education contracts (2009/10 – £227.75 million), £203.22 million from funding body grants (2009/10 – £209.02 million), £196.24 million from research grants and contracts (2009/10 – £194.6 million) and £14.84 million from endowment and investment income (2009/10 – £11.38 million).1 During the 2010/11 financial year the University of Manchester had a capital expenditure of £57.42 million (2009/10 – £37.95 million).1

At year end the University of Manchester had endowments of £158.7 million (2009/10 – £144.37 million) and total net assets of £731.66 million (2009/10 – £677.12 million).1

Academic profile

The University of Manchester has the largest number of full-time students in the UK, unless the University of London's colleges are counted as a single university. It teaches more academic subjects than any other British university.

Research

The University of Manchester is a major centre for research and a member of the Russell Group of leading British research universities.57 In the first national assessment of higher education research since the university's founding, the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, the university was ranked third in terms of research power (after Cambridge and Oxford) and sixth for grade point average quality among multi-faculty institutions58 (eighth when including specialist institutions)9 Manchester has the fifth largest research income of any British university (after Oxford, Imperial, UCL and Cambridge).59 (these five universities have been informally referred to as the "golden diamond" of research-intensive UK institutions).60 Manchester has a strong record in terms of securing funding from the three main UK research councils, EPSRC, MRC and BBSRC, being ranked fifth,61 seventh62 and first63 respectively. In addition, the university is one of the richest in the UK in terms of income and interest from endowments: a recent estimate placed it third, surpassed only by Oxford and Cambridge.64 Despite recent severe cuts in higher education Manchester remains at second place behind Oxford nationally in terms of total recurrent grants allocated by the HEFCE.65

Historically, Manchester has been linked with high scientific achievement: the university and its constituent former institutions combined had 25 Nobel laureates among their students and staff, the third largest number of any single university in the United Kingdom (after Oxford and Cambridge) and the ninth largest of any university in Europe. Furthermore, according to an academic poll two of the top ten discoveries by university academics and researchers were made at the university (namely the first working computer and the contraceptive pill).66 The university currently employs four Nobel Prize winners amongst its staff, more than any other in the UK.67 The Langworthy Professorship, an endowed chair at the University's School of Physics and Astronomy, has been historically given to a long line of academic luminaries, including Ernest Rutherford (1907–19), Lawrence Bragg (1919–37), Patrick Blackett (1937–53) and more recently Konstantin Novoselov, all of whom have won the Nobel Prize. In 2013 Manchester was given the Regius Professorship in Physics, the only one of its kind in the UK; the current holder is Andre Geim.

The John Rylands Library, founded in memory of John Rylands by his wife Enriqueta Augustina Rylands as an independent institution, is situated in a Victorian Gothic building on Deansgate, in the city centre. It houses an important collection of historic books and other printed materials, manuscripts, including archives and papyri. The papyri are in ancient languages and include the oldest extant New Testament document, Rylands Library Papyrus P52, commonly known as the St John Fragment. In April 2007 the Deansgate site reopened to readers and the public after major improvements and renovations, including the construction of the pitched roof originally intended and a new wing.

Collections

Manchester Museum

The Manchester Museum holds nearly 4.25 million69 items sourced from many parts of the world. The collections include butterflies and carvings from India, birds and bark-cloth from the Pacific, live frogs and ancient pottery from America, fossils and native art from Australia, mammals and ancient Egyptian craftsmanship from Africa, plants, coins and minerals from Europe, art from past civilisations of the Mediterranean, and beetles, armour and archery from Asia. In November 2004, the museum acquired a cast of a fossilised Tyrannosaurus rex called "Stan".

The museum's first collections were assembled in 1821 by the Manchester Society of Natural History, and subsequently expanded by the addition of the collections of Manchester Geological Society. Due to the society's financial difficulties and on the advice of evolutionary biologist Thomas Huxley, Owens College accepted responsibility for the collections in 1867. The college commissioned Alfred Waterhouse, architect of London's Natural History Museum, to design a museum on a site in Oxford Road to house the collections for the benefit of students and the public. The Manchester Museum was opened to the public in 1888.70

Whitworth Art Gallery

The Whitworth Art Gallery houses collections of internationally famous British watercolours, textiles and wallpapers, modern and historic prints, drawings, paintings and sculpture. It contains 31,000 items in its collection. A programme of temporary exhibitions runs throughout the year and the Mezzanine Court displays sculpture. The gallery was founded by Robert Darbishire with a donation from Sir Joseph Whitworth in 1889, as The Whitworth Institute and Park. In 1959 the gallery became part of the Victoria University of Manchester.71 In October 1995 the Mezzanine Court in the centre of the building was opened. It was designed to display sculptures and won a RIBA regional award.citation needed

According to The Sunday Times, "Manchester has a formidable reputation spanning most disciplines, but most notably in the life sciences, engineering, humanities, economics, sociology and the social sciences".10 The 2013 Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings have placed Manchester as the 9th most reputable university in Europe (47th globally).78

The Academic Ranking of World Universities 2011 published by the Institute of Higher Education of Shanghai Jiao Tong University ranked Manchester 5th in the UK, 6th in Europe and 38th in the world.85 According to the ARWU rankings for 2009 the university is 9th in Europe for natural sciences86 and 4th in engineering.87 Similarly the HEEACT 2009 rankings for scientific performance place Manchester 5th in Europe for engineering,88 8th for natural sciences89 and 3rd for social sciences.90 And finally THES ranks Manchester 6th in Europe for technology,91 10th for life sciences92 and 7th for social sciences.93 More recently a survey by the Times Higher Education Supplement has shown that Manchester is placed 6th in Europe in the area of Psychology & Psychiatry.94 According to a further ranking by SCImago Research Group Manchester is ranked 5th in Europe amongst higher education institutions in terms of sheer research output for 2011.95 In terms of research impact a further ranking places Manchester 6th in Europe.96 Manchester is also one of only seven universities in Europe which are rated Excellent in all seven main academic departments (Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics, Physics, Psychology, Economics and Political Science) by the 2010 Centre for Higher Education's Development's Excellence Rankings.97 The Manchester Business School is currently ranked 29th worldwide (4th nationally) by the Financial Times.98 The latest THES rankings place Manchester 11th in Europe with respect to research volume, income and reputation99 and 7th in the UK.

According to the High Fliers Research Limited's survey, University of Manchester students are being targeted by more top recruiters for graduate vacancies than any other UK university students for three consecutive years (2007–2009).100101 Furthermore the university has been ranked joint 20th in the world for 2009 according to the Professional Ranking of World Universities.102 Its main compilation criterion is the number of Chief Executive Officers (or number 1 executive equivalent) which are among the "500 leading worldwide companies" as measured by revenue who studied in each university. The ranking places the University only behind Oxford nationally. Manchester is ranked 5th among British universities according to a popularity ranking which is based on the degree of traffic that a university's website attracts.103 Also a further report places Manchester within the top 20 universities outside the US.104 Manchester was also given a prestigious award for Excellence and Innovation in the Arts by the Times Higher Education Awards 2010.105

At a recent ranking undertaken by the Guardian, Manchester is placed 5th in the UK in international reputation behind the usual four: Oxbridge, UCL and Imperial.106 Furthermore, according to the latest QS World University Rankings, Manchester is ranked 4th in Europe strictly in terms of both academic and employer reputation.107 However, while as a rule world rankings (such as the ARWU, THES and HEEACT108) typically place the university within the top 10 in Europe, national studies are less complimentary; The Times 'Good University Guide 2011'109 ranked Manchester 30th out of 113 Universities in the UK, 'The Complete University Guide 2012' in association with The Independent placed it at 29th out of 116 universities110 whilst 'The Guardian University Guide 2012' ranked Manchester at 41st out of 119 universities in the UK.111 This apparent paradox is mainly a reflection of the different ranking methodologies employed by each listing: global rankings focus on research and international prestige, whereas national rankings are largely based on teaching and the student experience.

Student life

Students' Union

The University of Manchester Students' Union is the representative body of students at the university and the UK's largest students' union. It was formed out of the merger between UMIST Students' Association and University of Manchester Union when the parent organisations UMIST and the Victoria University of Manchester merged on 1 October 2004.

Unlike many other students' unions in the UK, it does not have a president, but is run by an 8 member executive team who share joint responsibility.

Sport

The University's Boat Club is one of many Athletic Union Clubs that Manchester offers.112

The University of Manchester operates sports clubs via the Athletics Union while student societies are operated by the Students' Union.

The university competes annually in 28 different sports against Leeds and Liverpool universities in the Christie Cup, which Manchester has won for seven consecutive years.113 The university has achieved success in the BUCS (British University & College Sports) competitions, with its men's water polo 1st team winning the national championships (2009, 2010, 2011) under the tutelage of coach Andy Howard.114 It was positioned in eighth place in the overall BUCS rankings for 2009/10115 The Christie Cup is an inter-university competition between Liverpool, Leeds and Manchester in numerous sports since 1886. After the Oxford and Cambridge rivalry, the Christie's Championships is the oldest Inter–University competition on the sporting calendar: the cup was a benefaction of Richard Copley Christie.

Every year elite sportsmen and sportswomen are selected for membership of the XXI Club, a society formed in 1932 to promote sporting excellence at the university. Most members have gained a Full Maroon for representing the university and many have excelled at a British Universities or National level.

University Challenge

In the eight years up to 2013 Manchester have won the BBC2 quiz programme University Challenge four times, drawing equal with Magdalen College, Oxford for the highest number of series wins.116 Since merging as the University of Manchester, the university has consistently reached the latter stages of the competition, progressing to at least the semi-finals every year since 2005.117

In 2006, Manchester beat Trinity Hall, Cambridge, to record the university's first triumph in the competition. The year after, the university finished in second place after losing out to the University of Warwick in the final. In 2009, the team battled hard in the final against Corpus Christi College, Oxford. At the gong, the score was 275 – 190 to Corpus Christi College after an extraordinary performance from Gail Trimble. However, the title was eventually given to the University of Manchester after it was discovered that Corpus Christi team member Sam Kay had graduated eight months before the final was broadcast, so that the team was disqualified.

Overseas Students

The University of Manchester attracts thousands of international students coming from 154 countries around the world.118

Student housing

Ashburne Hall, a catered accommodation offered mainly to undergraduate students, though some places are reserved for postgraduate students

Before they merged, the two former universities had for some time been sharing their residential facilities.

Main campus

Whitworth Park Halls of Residence

Whitworth Park Halls of Residence is owned by the University of Manchester and houses 1,085 students.119 It is notable for its triangular shaped accommodation blocks which gave rise to the nickname of "Toblerones", after the chocolate bar. Their designer took inspiration from a hill created from excavated soil which had been left in 1962 from an archaeological dig led by John Gater. A consequence of the triangular design was a reduced cost for the construction company. A deal struck between the university and Manchester City Council meant the council would pay for the roofs of all student residential buildings in the area, Allan Pluen's team is believed to have saved thousands on the final cost of the halls. They were built in the mid-1970s.

Dilworth House, one of the Whitworth Park halls of residence

The site of the halls was previously occupied by many small streets whose names have been preserved in the names of the halls. Grove House is an older building that has been used by the university for many different purposes over the last sixty years. Its first occupants in 1951 were the Appointments Board and the Manchester University Press.120 The shops in Thorncliffe Place were part of the same plan and include banks and a convenience store. Notable people associated with the halls include Friedrich Engels, whose residence is commemorated by a blue plaque on Aberdeen House; the physicist Brian Cox; and Irene Khan, Secretary General of Amnesty International.121

Sackville Street

The former UMIST Campus has five halls of residence near to Sackville Street building (Weston, Lambert, Fairfield, Chandos, and Wright Robinson), and several other halls within a 5–15-minute walk, such as the Grosvenor group of halls.

Other accommodation

Moberly Tower has been demolished. Other residences include Vaughn House, once the home of the clergy serving the Church of the Holy Name, and George Kenyon Hall at University Place; Crawford House and Devonshire House adjacent to the Manchester Business School and Victoria Hall on Upper Brook Street.

Fallowfield and Victoria Park Campuses

The Fallowfield Campus, 2 miles (3.2 km) south of the Oxford Road Campus is the largest of the university's residential campuses. The Owens Park group of halls with a landmark tower is at its centre, while Oak House is another hall of residence. Woolton Hall is next to Oak House. Allen Hall is a traditional hall near Ashburne Hall (Sheavyn House being annexed to Ashburne). Richmond Park is a recent addition to the campus.

Nobel prize winners

The University of Manchester, inclusive of its predecessor institutions, numbers 25 Nobel Prize recipients amongst its current and former staff and students, with some of the most important discoveries of the modern age having been made in Manchester. Manchester University has the third largest number of Nobel laureates in the UK, only Cambridge and Oxford universities having a greater number.

Chemistry

Ernest Rutherford (awarded Nobel prize in 1908), for his investigations into the disintegration of the elements and the chemistry of radioactive substances.

Arthur Harden (awarded Nobel prize in 1929), for investigations on the fermentation of sugar and fermentative enzymes.

Walter Haworth (awarded Nobel prize in 1937), for his investigations on carbohydrates and vitamin C.

George de Hevesy (awarded Nobel prize in 1943), for his work on the use of isotopes as tracers in the study of chemical processes.

Robert Robinson (awarded Nobel prize in 1947), for his investigations on plant products of biological importance, especially the alkaloids.

Alexander Todd (awarded Nobel prize in 1957), for his work on nucleotides and nucleotide co-enzymes.

Melvin Calvin (awarded Nobel prize in 1961), for his research on the carbon dioxide assimilation in plants.

John Charles Polanyi (awarded Nobel prize in 1986), for his contributions concerning the dynamics of chemical elementary processes.

Michael Smith (awarded Nobel prize in 1993), for his fundamental contributions to the establishment of oligonucleotide-based, site-directed mutagenesis and its development for protein studies.

Physics

Joseph John (J. J.) Thomson (awarded Nobel prize in 1906), in recognition of his theoretical and experimental investigations on the conduction of electricity by gases.

William Lawrence Bragg (awarded Nobel prize in 1915), for his services in the analysis of crystal structure by means of X-rays.

Sir John Douglas Cockcroft (awarded Nobel prize in 1951), for his pioneer work on the splitting of atomic nuclei by artificially accelerated atomic particles and also for his contribution to modern nuclear power.

Hans Bethe (awarded Nobel prize in 1967), for his contributions to the theory of nuclear reactions, especially his discoveries concerning the energy production in stars.

Nevill Francis Mott (awarded Nobel prize in 1977), for his fundamental theoretical investigations of the electronic structure of magnetic and disordered systems.

Archibald Vivian Hill (awarded Nobel prize in 1922), for his discovery relating to the production of heat in muscle. One of the founders of the diverse disciplines of biophysics and operations research.

^The University of Manchester is the largest single-site university in the United Kingdom. The Open University's total number of students exceeds that of Manchester but specialises primarily in correspondence courses and distant learning programmes, while Leeds Metropolitan University (based on two campuses), Hesa.ac.uk and University of London (a collection of separate institutions) are not single-site institutions. News.BBC.co.uk "Largest single site university".

^The RAE is undertaken every five to 7 years on behalf of UK's higher education funding councils and is the determining measure for governmental funding allocation in the country's higher education sector. Research Assessment Exercise