Manchester 2035: Phase 2 – Making the Leap
17 Mar 2025
Visit our in person and digital Manchester 2035 Ideas Lab from 1 April
Thank you to everyone who contributed to Phase 1 of our Manchester 2035 strategy. Over 6,000 colleagues, students, alumni, and community members took part - logging more than 1,500 bookings across 22 workshops and more than 2,900 online contributions. Your insights, ideas, and questions have been key in shaping Manchester 2035 so far.
Our foundations and leaps
Since then, sprint groups of colleagues, senior leaders, and Students’ Union representatives have been turning your big ideas into bold, cross-cutting proposals, or “leaps”. These are designed to help us stand out by 2035 - and we want to bring them back to you to see if we’re pushing ourselves far enough to be a University that truly changes the world for the better by 2035.
We heard from you in Phase 1 that our foundations must be strong - excellent teaching, world-class research, streamlined processes, and an outstanding experience for staff and students. At the same time, many of you urged us to think bigger if we want to be a University that makes an even greater impact in Manchester and around the world.
That’s why the leaps propose a deeper transformation, building on the foundations while aiming for a broader impact on our city, our communities, and beyond. From 1 April, we'll continue discussions through our Manchester 2035 Ideas Lab - an interactive pop-up exhibition in the Nancy Rothwell building and an online platform.
- Explore the leaps, big ideas, and how they were developed on our M2035 webpage.
- Learn more about each leap in our Manchester 2035 podcast.
Visit the Manchester 2035 Ideas Lab (1 April – 11 April)
Pop-up exhibition: Nancy Rothwell building, 10am–4pm daily.
Team visits: Reserve your slot now.
Make this a priority for your whole team - let’s collaborate, discuss, and shape what comes next. Book your team's place here.
Drop-in
Come at any time without a booking.
Digital Ideas Lab
If you can’t make it in person - or want to dive deeper - join our digital Ideas Lab on IdeaScale, where you’ll find the same interactive content and can add your feedback, questions, and ideas.
Keep the conversation going
The ideas we’re inviting you to explore and feed back on aren’t final proposals - they’re evolving ideas from our sprint groups, built on the feedback you shared in Phase 1.
We’re bringing them to you now so we can explore and refine them together. Your Voice Matters and your views will be crucial in shaping what comes next. Let’s make the leap together and create a future where Manchester truly stands out.
As part of the ongoing development of our Manchester 2035 strategy, we have introduced a new approach to colleague and student feedback with the launch of ‘Your Voice Matters’.
This continuous listening approach marks a move away from large surveys conducted every few years and includes pulse surveys, townhalls and open meetings as well as the annual Colleague Engagement Survey and Student Experience Surveys.