2023: Our year in review
21 Dec 2023
We take a look back at the highlights from another exceptional year for our University community
Our University, our people
We started 2023 with the news that Professor Robina Shah had been made a Dame and Professor Louis Appleby knighted in the King’s New Year Honours. Professor Richard Bardgett was made a CBE, and some of our honorary chairs and alumni were also recognised in the list.
Our Museum reopened in February, and 11,000 people visited during the reopening weekend, with footage soon appearing on social media of people queuing down Oxford Road, eager to see its most ambitious transformation in a generation.
Congratulations to our six colleagues who were appointed as National Institute for Health and Care Senior Investigators – the announcement coinciding with International Women’s Day.
In March, we announced that the search for Professor Nancy Rothwell's successor would begin. Professor Rothwell’s term as President and Vice-Chancellor will complete in summer 2024, following 14 years of unprecedented leadership.
At this year’s BAFTA Television Awards, Professor David Olusoga OBE was presented with this year's Special Award, and Manchester alumna Meera Syal was given a Fellowship – both are BAFTA’s highest accolades. And our Professor of Sociology Gary Younge won the Orwell Prize for Journalism 2023.
We celebrated more of our colleagues’ achievements at this year’s Making a Difference Awards and Volunteer of the Year Awards. And congratulations to this year’s Medal of Honour recipients, Clare Bottle, Aneez Esmail and Russell Meehan, plus our Distinguished Achievement Award winners.
UK-Med founder Professor Tony Redmond OBE delivered this year's Cockcroft Rutherford lecture. In his inspirational talk, he reflected upon the years he has spent responding to wars and major disasters around the world.
Around 500 colleagues, students and alumni pounded the streets of Manchester as part of our Purple Wave entry in the Great Manchester Run. Many who took part in the Purple Wave raised funds to support Manchester’s vital cancer research.
The King’s first Birthday Honours List recognised many members of our University community, including Andy Haldane and Chris Oglesby, and a posthumous knighthood was awarded to our former Professor of Creative Writing Martin Amis.
Sook-Kyung Lee became the new Director of the Whitworth, joining us from London’s Tate Modern.
And Professor Fiona Devine stepped up as our new Vice-President and Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, with Professor Claire Alexander and Professor Ken McPhail starting their roles as Head of School of Social Sciences and Head of AMBS respectively. We also announced that Professor April McMahon would become the next Treasurer at the British Academy in July 2024.
Our annual Foundation Day took place in October with honorary degrees conferred on Deborah Gold, Professor Catherine Hall, and Sir Kevin Leeson.
Congratulations to Professor Jackie Carter, who was named in this year’s Disability Power 100, for her work to break the stigma around disability, helping to create a more accessible and inclusive world.
Seven University colleagues commenced new Institute of Teaching and Learning fellowships, appointed to develop and deliver a strategically-aligned project to enhance an aspect of teaching and learning while working in partnership with students to effect positive change.
We ended the year by announcing that Professor Duncan Ivison has been appointed as the next President and Vice-Chancellor. He will formally take up his role as President and Vice-Chancellor on 1 August 2024.
National and international recognition, and new partnerships
The Stonewall Top 100 Workplace Equality Index was published in February, and we were delighted to be ranked 30th in the list of UK employers, also achieving a Gold award for meeting criteria around LGBTQ+ inclusion.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced in his Spring Budget speech a new AI national prize, named in honour of the world’s first stored programme computer. This was followed later in the year by the announcement of a Greater Manchester Investment Zone in the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement.
In April, we announced a new partnership with the Raheem Sterling Foundation, supporting local people from under-represented backgrounds to gain access to higher education.
We kicked off June with the news that we’d been named top in the UK and Europe and second in the world in the Times Higher Education (THE) University Impact Rankings.
And we achieved Gold and Silver ratings in the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) 2023, acknowledging successes across teaching quality, flexible learning, and teaching and learning resources. Our campaign Manchester Minds showcased our people making a difference to teaching and learning.
We moved to 51 in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, a rise of three places from our previous position.
New partnerships with North American institutions Vassar College, Xavier University, and Spelman College were announced, and a new strategic partnership was signed with Osaka University which complements ongoing civic engagement between our cities.
Following our Race Equality Charter (REC) submission, we were awarded a Silver Award – one of only two Higher Education Institutions in the UK to now hold this award.
And we signed the Armed Forces Covenant, a national pledge to support the armed forces community.
December saw us follow in the footsteps of local football team Manchester City with our own treble of awards – winning top prize at the Green Gown Awards, top in the UK and Europe, and third in the world in the QS World University Sustainability Rankings, and a Platinum Engage Watermark for public engagement excellence. Swiftly followed by the news that our President and Vice-Chancellor Professor Nancy Rothwell had been recognised by the Times Higher Education Awards for Outstanding Achievement.
Looking forward to our bicentenary
Thursday, 15 June marked 200 days until our University’s 200th anniversary, and we gathered ideas and suggestions from colleagues on how we should mark our bicentenary year.
Later in the year, we announced that our University would be hosting the Times Higher Education's World Academic Summit in our bicentenary year. And our historic Old Quad is to be remodelled as part of our upcoming celebrations and commitment to sustainability.
As we look forward to 2024, we will be celebrating our unique history, our people, their incredible achievements and the impact they’ve made, in Manchester and around the world. Our purple pathway of light will launch in January and we hope many colleagues will join the official start of our celebrations.
All of this couldn't be achieved without our exceptional staff and students. Thanks to everyone in our community who has contributed to this impressive list of achievements. We hope you have a restful break and look forward to seeing you in 2024.
- You can read more about our achievements and research that made the headlines over the last year in our 2023 review from the Media Relations team.