Always among the giants of British higher education, with 23 Nobel prizewinners to its credit, Manchester became larger and more powerful in 2004 through a merger with neighbouring UMIST.

The largest conventional university in Britain kept its familiar name, but is now headed by a Vice-Chancellor from the other side of the world. Professor Alan Gilbert arrived from the University of Melbourne shortly before the new institution was formed.

Some departments were already administered jointly with UMIST and the two institutions only separated fully in 1993, so the new institution has been able to avoid some of the problems associated with other university mergers.

A £400-million building and refurbishment programme, the largest ever in UK higher education, will be complete by the end of 2009 and another £250 million of investment is planned by 2015.

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Aiming high

At the same time, a raft of new professors has been appointed. The aim is not only to break into higher education’s “golden triangle” of Oxford, Cambridge and London, but to make Manchester one of the top 25 universities in the world by 2015. By then, the aim is to have at least five Nobel laureates on the staff. The first joined in 2006 and there have been other high-profile appointments, such the novelist Martin Amis as Professor of Creative Writing.

Manchester was among the top ten universities in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, with almost two-thirds of its submission considered world-leading or internationally excellent. The university’s claim to have “smashed the golden triangle” may have been wishful thinking, but there were particularly strong performances in cancer studies, nursing, biology, dentistry, engineering, sociology, development studies, Spanish and music and drama.

Recruitment and access

The university has produced consistently good scores in the National Student Survey, with 100 per cent satisfaction in classics in 2008 and high scores in biology, dentistry and anatomy, physiology and pathology. Manchester has reclaimed its place as the university with the largest number of applicants since the merger.The demand for places had been growing, but applications were down slightly at the start of 2008, when most universities saw substantial increases. One of the priorities in the new institution’s founding strategy is to broaden the undergraduate intake, with a particular focus on increasing recruitment from the city and its surrounding area. However, in addition to the normal bursary package for British students, Manchester is aiming eventually to have 750 awards for students from educationally deprived backgrounds in developing countries.

UMIST’s legacy was a strong reputation among academics and employers alike in its specialist areas of engineering, science and management. Surveys of employers frequently placed UMIST among their favourite recruiting grounds, helping to produce an unrivalled network of industrial sponsorship. Employers have rated Manchester’s careers service the best at any university. The merger also produced the largest engineering school in the UK, with a £20-million budget and 1,200 students.

A £14-million extension to the School of Chemistry, the second-largest in Britain, opened in 2007. There already was a federal business school, which is among the strengths of the merged institution, as is the medical school, which was rewarded for impressive teaching ratings with extra places in collaboration with Keele University. A new teaching block caters for the additional 230 places a year.

Youth culture

The city’s famed youth culture and the university’s position at the heart of a huge student precinct already help to ensure keen competition for places – and hence high entry standards in most subjects. Sports facilities, which were already first rate, have improved still further since the city hosted the Commonwealth Games. Students get discount rates at the aquatics centre opened for the games on campus, for example. The city’s reputation for violent crime has subsided, but the students’ union (which has the largest premises in the country) runs late-night minibuses, self-defence classes, and regular safety campaigns. Students tend to be fiercely loyal both to the university and their adopted city.

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