Alumni engagement programme recognised in CASE Platinum Awards

04 Sep 2020

A pioneering alumni engagement programme has been recognised in the CASE Platinum Awards as the best activity across Europe and a global finalist in the category of Best Practices in Alumni Relations

The CASE Platinum Awards recognise the best programmes and practices in educational advancement globally.

Manchester Day of Action is a global volunteer activism programme which inspires alumni worldwide to join together and support a local cause. In 2019, 380 alumni organised 23 projects across 19 locations, accruing 1,300 hours of volunteering. These projects included beach clean-ups in San Francisco and Mumbai, gathering and distributing children’s books for a paediatric ward in Sao Paulo and hosting a sports day in Shanghai with people who have hearing and sight impairments. These projects all aligned with the aims of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and contribute to the University’s social responsibility agenda. It’s one of the reasons why the University’s societal impact has been ranked the best in the UK and eighth in the world by the Times Higher.

Markus Karlsson-Jones, in the University’s alumni engagement team, said: “We’ve been inspired by programmes like this in North America and ran our pilot programme in the summer of 2019. We think Manchester has something special to offer by combining two of its unique assets in the UK sector: we’re the only university with Social Responsibility as a strategic goal and we’ve got the largest global alumni community.”

Shahab Paracha is the Secretary of the Alumni Association for Malaysia and a key alumni volunteer. He led a project in Kuala Lumpur, convening a group of local graduates to work with children at an orphanage to discuss their career aspirations, while sharing their own journeys and experience.

Shahab said: “I’m a strong believer in inclusivity, and feel that having alumni openly engaging with children from less fortunate backgrounds, it left a lasting impression which ultimately inspired those children to do better in their studies and to be excited for their future.”

A short video will tell you more about the programme.