AHEP Development Monthly #52 Innovation with Purpose: Supporting Students in Changing Times
On Thursday 13th November 2025, Manchester Metropolitan University was announced as the winner of the Times Higher Education Award for ‘Outstanding Support for Students’. For me, this was certainly one of the highlights of my career here so far.
However, after all the glitz and glam of the ceremony at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre had died down, I found myself reflecting on the train journey back to (surprisingly sunnier for once) Manchester about all the hard work that had gone on behind the scenes and all the lessons learnt along the way. It occurred to me that whilst we rightly celebrate the success of the strategy and destination, the operations and journey itself are often overlooked. And so, this inspired me to share my key insights from operationalising this student enrichment project, in the hope that others can enhance their own areas of work, by peeking behind the proverbial scenes…
But first, a bit of background. I work in Strategic Planning as the Student Enrichment Manager for Science and Engineering at Manchester Met. I collaborate with our Director of Education by delivering an extracurricular student enrichment programme that enhances student satisfaction, progression (continuation) and graduate outcomes through a range of activities that are accessible, inclusive and relevant for all our students, across all our departments and at all levels of study (from Foundation to PhD). As an aside, this was my first project in post so is an extra special one for me!
Initiation
Ahead of academic year 2023-24, in the Student Minds survey:
1 in 3 students said their mental health had got worse since beginning university and…
1 in 4 said they would not know where to go to get mental health support at university if they needed it.
So, our Director of Education decided to make student-centred mental health support and signposting respectively core parts of our extracurricular student enrichment programme, starting with reaching out to St John Ambulance as our preferred partner. This also had the added value of providing externally accredited certifications and an internationally recognised brand to further enhance student employability.
Implementation:
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