Appointment of the Director of Learning Enhancement and Educational Development

Welcome from the Chief People Officer

Dear Candidate,

Thank you for your interest in joining Manchester Metropolitan University as Director of Learning Enhancement and Educational Development.

Manchester Metropolitan University is an ambitious University and an inspiring place to work. One of the largest universities in the UK, located at the heart of a vibrant and exciting city, we trace our roots back to the early part of the nineteenth century, when institutions were established to deliver skills and education for local people, improving livelihoods and the economy.

Today, we remain at the heart of this great global city, continuing to play our part in its community and economy. We seek to empower and enrich our students, colleagues and our wider community, and we all have a vital role to play in achieving that ambition.

We are a community of around 40,000 people, and a key role of the HR&OD Directorate is to enable our staff to develop and deliver engaging learning experiences and world-class research, and the opportunity to pursue a wide range of rewarding careers.

The contribution of our people is key to delivering our new university strategy. As Director of Learning Enhancement and Educational Development (LEED) you will play a significant role in the delivery of our Education and People Strategies, helping to shape and support our education offer and the development of colleagues who teach and support learning.

The inaugural Director will be responsible for establishing LEED, working closely with its constituent teams and with education leaders across the University. You will provide strong, transformational leadership, working collaboratively with a wide range of colleagues. A key member of the HR senior leadership team, you will lead our work to embed academic innovation and professional development across the University in support of an excellent student experience.

You can find out more about Manchester Met and the role of Director of LEED below. If you share our vision and ambition to make this exciting contribution to the future of Manchester Metropolitan University, we would very much like to hear from you.

Yours faithfully,
Pamela Flynn
Chief People Officer

Introduction from the Pro-Vice-Chancellor Education

Dear Candidate,

At Manchester Metropolitan University we are creating an ambitious new Education Strategy intended to provide our students with the best possible opportunities to achieve their potential and contribute positively to society. To achieve this, we must also invest in the professional development of our colleagues.

Learning Enhancement and Educational Development (LEED) will provide a locus for the development of creative and efficient education delivery models, alongside academic capability to deliver a curriculum suited to the needs of our students and their future careers. Its work will also contribute to our success within a challenging new regulatory context.

Drawing together our University Teaching Academy, Technology Enhanced Learning and Educational Innovation and Initiatives including Rise, LEED will be dedicated to supporting the enhancement of our student experience. It will be focused on making rapid impact, driven by our ambitious Education Strategy and resulting in enhancements to our practice, the experience of our students and to improving our education metrics. LEED will be a hub, informing and supporting the delivery of effective education policy and practice within faculties and professional services and will play a pivotal role in disseminating good practice both internally and externally to Manchester Met.

The Director of LEED will work alongside me to drive the implementation of the Education Strategy, ensure that all of our students feel part of a truly transformational learning community and to ensure that we deliver on a challenging set of metrics moving forward. If, like me, you are excited by the potential of LEED to make a significant contribution to education at Manchester Met then I encourage you to find out more about the role and what we can offer you in the information below.

Manchester Metropolitan University is a community that is creative, confident, passionate and proud; attributes we share with our great home city. Our new strategy captures the collective aspirations of our staff, students and partners, and the energy that defines our University. We will harness our creativity and confidence to enrich our students’ lives, raise the impact of our excellent education and research, and project its application to Manchester and the world.

Bold ambitions
We are ambitious for our students, our staff and our future. And this ambition translates into investment and action. For example, we are implementing an estates programme that has already seen over £400m committed to enhancing our campus. Our facilities include a seven-storey purpose-built space for some of our Arts and Humanities disciplines, providing a new home for inspirational teaching, with fully equipped theatre spaces, and TV and radio studios, plus the new Manchester Poetry Library.

In 2021, we welcomed our first students into our new School of Digital Arts (SODA), a £35m investment in the future of digital storytelling, and earlier this year, we opened the new Institute of Sport, a centre of excellence for sport related research, education and knowledge exchange. In 2023 we expect to open our new Science and Engineering building, complete with contemporary teaching spaces, modern laboratories (including a 200-seat super lab), and social and self-directed learning areas.

The investment in our campus is mirrored by the investment in our people, with a series of high profile, high-calibre appointments, and growth across our academic and professional teams. This is coupled with significant development opportunities for colleagues in both teaching and research, access to the best digital technologies, and an environment that embraces fresh thinking and innovation.

The path to achieve our ambition
We have set two core goals to help us achieve our ambition:

Excellent education
We will deliver an excellent education and a great university experience for our students, which transforms lives and leads to successful careers. We have a forward-looking, dynamic approach to teaching, learning and the holistic student experience including facilities, course delivery and content, wellbeing and careers support. We seek to inspire our students through a well-rounded university experience, delivered in one of the UK’s best-connected and culturally vibrant cities. It is this commitment to our students that has helped us become one of the top ten most popular universities in the UK by volume of applications.

Our students have access to outstanding facilities and learning spaces and are supported by staff who are committed to providing the best possible student experience. We are investing in our IT and digital estate to provide students with a modern infrastructure and easy access to services.

Our Rise programme gives students the opportunity to tailor their studies and get involved in a wide-range of experiences throughout the year that will help them to learn new skills, earn credits towards their degree and shape their future career.

Excellent research with impact
Our excellent research and knowledge exchange will help to address the grand challenges of our time, delivering local, national, and global impact. We are building a research-rich culture across the University, developing academic colleagues, attracting talented researchers, and providing members of the University with outstanding support, world class facilities, and the environment to succeed.

Our research is centred around 14 research and knowledge exchange centres. Each centre ensures that we can focus around areas of strength where we have critical mass. Our discoveries and innovations will shape business and public policy for the 21st century, while our interdisciplinary approach often generates innovative and impactful outcomes.

We demonstrated our research strength in the 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF). The results cement our position as a leading modern university and place us on a par with research-intensive institutions in terms of the volume and quality of our research. 30% of our overall research was rated at the highest world leading (4*) level and 90% of our research impact is rated ‘world leading’ (4*) or ‘internationally excellent,’ (3*) across more than 740 academics.  For research quality, we are the 51st in the Times Higher Education (THE) REF rankings, and for research power 38th.

Internationalisation
We are pursuing purposeful collaborations that not only internationalise our research but also benefit our colleagues, by widening our networks and creating international opportunities for our students. We have already established over 100 partnerships in all regions of the world, and welcome over 2,700 international students from more than 130 countries worldwide. For the future, we aim to significantly grow our international student numbers, through our programmes delivered overseas with selected partners and by attracting international students to our campus. We are establishing an offshore office network – and our flagship office in Manchester’s sister city, Wuhan, in the Hubei Province of China, opened in summer 2019. We also launched the Manchester Metropolitan Joint Institute, Hubei University in 2021, having enrolled the first cohort of students in September 2021.

Institutional sustainability
Institutional sustainability is an important strand of our strategy. As well as maintaining a strong financial position with diversified revenue streams, a programme of investments and initiatives is underway to ensure that we recruit and nurture engaged and motivated employees; own and manage an attractive, modern campus; benefit from the latest digital technologies; and operate to the highest environmental standards.

Our inclusive culture
We believe that having a diverse and inclusive workforce makes us a stronger University, providing better outcomes for our students, research, and business partners. In recognition of our commitment to addressing inequalities while promoting diversity and inclusivity, we have renewed our equality objectives from 2021-25. These set out how we will progress equality and inclusion across the University over the next three years and beyond, through senior support from our University Leadership Forum champions, and a collaborative approach with our staff equality fora and underrepresented communities.

We are proud to have received an institutional Athena SWAN Bronze award, an accreditation as a Disability Confident Leader and also the Gold award in the Business Disability Standard (now the Disability Smart Audit) – being the first university to secure this. Furthermore, we have committed to working towards accreditation through the Advance HE Race Equality Charter and will submit our application in summer 2022.

The Inclusive Learning Communities Project is a partnership with our Students’ Union and aims to close the awarding gap by working collaboratively with staff and students to increase our BAME students’ sense of belonging to the University and to change the way they are included in our teaching practices.

Valuing and supporting our people
Manchester Met is widely recognised for the quality of our colleague support and development programmes, holding accreditation with the Institute of Leadership and Management and Advance HE. We are committed to creating a culture which supports and encourages colleagues to engage with learning and development so that they can excel in their role, drive the delivery of our University strategy, and develop professionally. We are embarking on a number of major people projects in the areas of reward and recognition, and career development, including our Academic Career Pathways programme and additional externally accredited development programmes for colleagues across the University. We are also proud to have recently received the Living Wage Employer accreditation.

Recognising and listening to our people
At Manchester Met everyone has an important role to play. Our annual staff awards recognise outstanding contributions from individuals and teams. This peer led programme showcases the talent and commitment of colleagues and is an opportunity for us to come together and celebrate as one community at our live awards ceremony. Earlier this year, 900 colleagues were nominated by their peers for the quality of their work.

Our employee voice programme offers a range of opportunities for colleagues to be heard and get involved. This includes our Employee Voice Survey, Equality and Diversity Staff Fora, Vice-Chancellor open door sessions, department staff voice groups and regular consultation events for our strategic programmes. Continually gathering first-hand feedback from colleagues helps us to understand more about the employee experience and colleagues’ views in order that we can co-create change.

Manchester Met is one of the UK’s largest universities, with around 38,000 students studying on our degree apprenticeship, undergraduate, postgraduate, research, professional, or continuing professional development courses.

An outstanding student experience
Our academic culture, learning environment and comprehensive student support packages enable us to offer a supportive and rewarding experience to students. 60% of our students are from the local region¹ (in fact, just under half² of them commute to the University).

Many more are attracted by the opportunity to study in Manchester – which is consistently ranked as one of the best student cities in the world³. A diverse community and range of experiences are important aspects of our internationalisation agenda. As well as welcoming overseas students, we aim to give UK students the opportunity to benefit from international experience, in the form of work placements, study visits, and exchange programmes – something that around 1,500⁴ students take advantage of each year.

You can learn more about our student education and support offer from our Student Life website.

Nurturing students from all backgrounds
We recruit from a range of backgrounds and are focused on narrowing any progression gaps (such as among students from low participation neighbourhoods, those who come to us with vocational qualifications, and those with a mental health condition) – this is an area in which we continue to perform well.

Last year, our innovative First Generation Scholarships – which provides a comprehensive programme of support to Greater Manchester students with the academic potential to succeed and who are the first in their family to go to university – won the Widening Access Initiative award at the National Education Opportunities Network Awards 2021 and the Widening Participation or Outreach Initiative of the Year at the Times Higher Education Awards 2021.

Manchester Metropolitan University has a proud track record in Access and Participation. It has a diverse undergraduate student profile and recruits and supports high numbers of students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Our Access and Participation Plan seeks to consolidate and build on these strong foundations. In particular, it focuses on actions to address differential student outcomes through collaboration and an integrated and holistic approach to student support and success. There is clear commitment to collaborative partnership working across academic and Professional Services, and between staff and students, and an ambitious approach to targets.

¹ 60% of UK undergraduates in 21/22 are from the North West of England
² 49% of UK undergraduates in 21/22
³ QS Best student cities 2022
⁴ Prior to COVID-19

Across the University, you will find a strong sense of community and colleague support: a place where collaboration and co-creation are central to the way we work. People are the cornerstone of our University.

Our values

WE ARE STUDENT-CENTRED
We place students at the heart of what we do, recognising every student journey matters and that every member of our University can positively impact the student experience.

WE ARE PEOPLE-LED
We recognise everyone’s contribution and strive to ensure that both our students and staff achieve their full potential. We develop our staff to succeed, support each other and recognise individual needs, knowing we can achieve more when we work together.

WE ARE FUTURE-FOCUSED
We anticipate emerging opportunities and challenges and act on them; innovating to achieve real-world results and embracing change in teaching and learning as well as through our research.

WE ARE INCLUSIVE
We champion equality, diversity and inclusion through a transformative employee and student journey. We enrich our communities, and respect and improve the world around us.

WE ARE MANCHESTER MET PROUD
We are proud to be a part of our University, and we are ready to tell the world about its successes. We are confident and enthusiastic about the difference we make in transforming lives and contributing to society. The University’s extended leadership team meets regularly to learn together and work on opportunities and challenges, bringing together members of the Executive, Heads of Academic Departments and the Professional Services Leadership Team.

Manchester is one of Europe’s great cities. What was once the world’s first industrialised city is today a stimulating, enriching and vibrant metropolis – one of the country’s liveliest cultural hotspots, with galleries, libraries and museums to rival the best in the world. It is also the UK’s best city, and the world’s third best city, according to Time Out 2021.

The city is known on every continent as a capital of sport. It is not only home to two of the biggest clubs in world football, but also the nation’s oldest cricket ground, the National Cycling Centre and the national centres of excellence for squash, gymnastics and taekwondo. It regularly hosts major international sporting events, and many sports brands and governing bodies are based in the city, making it the perfect place to host our new Institute of Sport, which opened in early 2022.

Manchester has a bustling private sector and one of the biggest creative and digital sectors in the UK. It is also the country’s largest centre for business, financial and professional services outside London, as well as home for many global banking, science and technology corporations. As such, it attracts and retains a broad talent pipeline and is fully deserving of its ever-growing recognition as the original modern city.

The University plays a leading role in the economic, social and scientific development of the region, not only by providing skilled graduates but also through strong links with local SMEs, key partnerships with the NHS, the city’s football clubs, Greater Manchester Combined Authority and national government.

Manchester, and the wider city region, is easy to access and is easily navigated, with great transport links both in and around Greater Manchester, including some of the UK’s main motorways, tram services (Metrolink) and bus networks. Excellent rail links connect the city to the rest of the UK, and we are home to the UK’s busiest airport outside London. At just over an hour away, Manchester is also the closest major city to the world-famous UNESCO World Heritage Lake District National Park, with the Pennines and Peak District also within easy travelling distance.

We offer a range of benefits including:

• Generous annual leave: 35 days per annum, 8 public holidays, plus an additional 3-4 discretionary days at Christmas
• Private healthcare scheme provided by BUPA
• Pension (GMPF): employer contribution of 21.4% of basic salary
• Life insurance (3x salary)
• Comprehensive relocation support service (discretionary and subject to eligibility)
• Travel benefits such as discounted on-site parking and travel passes, and Cycle2Work scheme
• Enhanced Maternity, Paternity, Adoption and Parental Leave
• Various local and national discounts
• Employee assistance programme
• Access to world class facilities, technology, learning and development, and free sports / exercise classes

Manchester Metropolitan University is committed to supporting the rights, responsibilities, dignity, health and wellbeing of staff and students through our commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion.

We promote applications from all sections of the community, irrespective of background, belief or identity, recognising the benefits that a diverse organisation can bring. We particularly encourage applications from Black and Minority Ethnic candidates and disabled people, who we recognise are underrepresented in this area.

We recognise the benefits and importance of an environment that supports flexible working and are open to conversations about this throughout the application process.

The full time equivalent working hours for this post are 37 per week. Senior staff are expected to work such hours as are reasonably necessary to fulfil the duties and responsibilities of the role.

Anderson Quigley is acting as an employment advisor to the University. An executive search process is being carried out by Anderson Quigley in addition to the public advertisement.

Should you wish to discuss the role in strict confidence, please contact Elliott Rae on +44 (0)7584 078 534 or elliott@andersonquigley.com, Sophie Rees on +44(0)7719 313 982 or sophie@andersonquigley.com

The closing date for applications is noon on Wednesday, June 8, 2022.

Applications should consist of:

• A full CV.
• A covering letter (maximum of two pages) outlining how you meet the points under the person specification.
• Please include details of two referees, though please note that we will not approach referees without your prior consent and only should you be shortlisted.
• Please complete an online Equal Opportunities Monitoring Form.

Completed applications should be uploaded at www.andersonquigley.com/candidates using the reference number AQ1487

Search timetable