Message from Kate McNamee

28 Jun 2024

This week Kate, our Faculty Head of Marketing, Communications and Recruitment, celebrates the success of the year’s first Undergraduate Open Day, updates on international marketing and recruitment activity, and highlights the key role Humanities is playing in our bicentenary.

Dear everyone,

I’m writing to you following the first of this year’s Open Days – last Saturday we welcomed over 18,000 prospective students and their families on campus to experience first-hand why we are the most applied to UK university, and get a taste of Manchesterness (technical term!)

Thank you to everyone who worked so hard to make the day such a success – it’s a team effort bringing together academic colleagues, professional staff, our brilliant student ambassadors and alumni to showcase the University community.

The campus was sparking with energy and the redeveloped Old Quad looked fantastic in the sun – do take a look, there’s plenty of seating space (the perfect venue for an outdoor meeting).

We’re looking forward to our second Open Day this Saturday, and with over 20,000 registrations it is set to be even busier than the first.

International focus

Further afield, international marketing and recruitment activity continues to be a key focus for the team. Working closely with Admissions and the International Office, we are increasing our in-country activity to ensure Manchester is first choice for high quality students from our priority markets.

Despite volatile market conditions and challenging geopolitical headwinds, this year’s application data shows healthy growth from countries including Turkey, Canada, Malaysia and Vietnam.

With that in mind, the team was in Turkey last month – further raising the profile of Manchester by building relationships with feeder universities and schools, briefing agents and meeting prospective students at recruitment fairs.

This year it’s been more important than ever to amplify the message that the UK is a welcoming place to study. We were delighted to take part in University UK’s We Are International campaign – featuring our very own Madi French (studying Film and Theatre Studies) who talks about her positive experience as a US student in Manchester.

Bicentenary

Following hot on the heels of Humanities’ excellent contribution to the Universally Manchester Festival, AMBS’ three-day Festival of Business took place this week.

The programme involved a community day, where local schools had the opportunity to hear from entrepreneurs and business leaders. It’s a great example of how Humanities is putting into practice our commitment to social responsibility and supporting the communities we are part of.

The Telling Our Story project is well under way – surfacing the specific strengths of each School, and combining them to collectively demonstrate the strengths of Humanities. This will be used to create a story that explains the positive impact of Humanities at Manchester.

Looking ahead to October, Bicentenary celebrations continue as the University hosts this year’s Times Higher Education World Academic Summit – another exciting opportunity to further enhance our international reputation. We are exploring opportunities to deliver fringe events so please do get in touch if you are interested in getting involved.

Research

Look out for the upcoming research newsletter – it showcases the wealth of interdisciplinary research happening across Humanities and the wider University, alongside opportunities to strengthen networks.

The SEEDs of Change campaign brings to life research that is driving conversation about the change that’s needed to create a more equitable and sustainable future, here in the UK and internationally.

Do take a moment to check out the excellent SoSS Innocence podcast series – forthcoming episodes will feature the Post Office Horizon scandal.

It’s great to be working with John McCaulay, MBA alumnus and founder of street art collective GRIT Studios, on our Bicentenary Art of Research project – bringing our interdisciplinary research to life via urban art across campus and the city. We’ll be working with pupils from some of our Widening Participation schools too – helping increase their understanding of how our research makes a difference.

Team

I am proud to lead an innovative team who are passionate about making a positive difference to the University.

Like most of the world, we are currently working out how we can use AI to improve our work. Over recent months we have hosted a number of workshops to stretch our thinking and have some exciting pilots under way, exploring AI chatbots to help with enquiry management and content generation.

In other news, it’s great to see the AMBS Marketing and Communications team has been shortlisted for the HEIST Awards Marketing Team of the Year – watch this space!

Graduation

I started this message talking about Open Days, so it’s fitting that I finish with graduation. We know our students and their families really value celebrating with those who have inspired and guided them during their time here.

Manchester alumnus Benedict Cumberbatch, who studied drama here, shares his memories in the recently published Bicentenary magazine – in the interview he talks about Manchester’s spirit of determination, collaboration and warmth.

This year hasn’t been easy at times, however it’s fair to say the ethos he describes can be seen across Humanities in abundance. Thanks again to everyone who makes our internal- and external-facing activities so successful – we really value your support.

I am going on holiday shortly to explore South West France – I’ll be switching off properly (taking email and Teams off my phone) to focus on the important holiday business of cheese, wine and kayaking (probably not all at the same time).

Whatever type of break you have over the summer, enjoy your time off and take the opportunity to recharge.

Best wishes,

Kate