Manchester Metropolitan University
Motto	Many Arts, Many Skills
Established	1970 (as Manchester Polytechnic) 1992 became a university
Type	Public
Chancellor	Dame Janet Smith
Vice-Chancellor	Professor John Brooks
Students	32,795 [1]
Undergraduates	26,565 [1]
Postgraduates	5,995 [1]
Other students	235 FE[1]
Location	Manchester, England
Affiliations	Alliance of Non-Aligned Universities Association of Commonwealth Universities NWUA AMBA
Website	http://www.mmu.ac.uk/

Manchester Metropolitan University is a new English university based in the city of Manchester. It is the fourth largest university in Britain after the Open University, the University of London and the University of Manchester.

History

During the last third of the 20th century MMU grew through the combination of several colleges, some of which were founded in the 19th century. The mergers began on 1st January 1970, when Manchester Polytechnic was formed from Manchester College of Art and Design, the Manchester College of Commerce (founded 1889) and the John Dalton College of Technology. On the 1st January 1977, the Polytechnic merged with the Didsbury College of Education and Hollings College, and on 1st January 1983 with the City of Manchester College of Higher Education.

Having previously been a local authority institution, the Polytechnic became a corporate body on the 1st April 1989, as allowed by the terms of the Education Reform Act 1988. It became a University under the terms of the Further and Higher Education Act, 1992 under the new title of "Manchester Metropolitan University". This new title was approved by the Privy Council on the 15th September 1992.

The university grew larger still when the Crewe and Alsager College of Higher Education was merged on the 1st October 1992 and again in 2003 when the Manchester School of Physiotherapy became part of the Faculty of Social Care, Health & Education. The Alsager site is closing down and the land is being sold to fund development of the Crewe site.

Present

Buildings on the MMU Cheshire Alsager campus

The All Saints Building on the Manchester Campus

The University now has over 21,000 full-time and 10,000 part-time students as of 2005, and hundreds of courses in over 70 subjects. It maintains five campuses in Manchester, as well as two in Crewe and Alsager in Cheshire. The university is currently selling off its smaller campuses and moving them to the larger sites at Didsbury, All Saints and Crewe. There are also plans to expand those three sites to accommodate the extra students and staff. The Elizabeth Gaskell campus is due to close at the end of the academic year 2006/07 with its students moving to Didsbury.

Being a large university Manchester Metropolitan has departments covering a wide range of subjects, which are arranged into eight faculties. these are, The Faculty of Art & Design, Hollings Faculty, The Faculty of Health, Social Care & Education, The Faculty of Humanities, Law & Social Science,The Faculty of Science & Engineering,Manchester Metropolitan University Business School and MMU Cheshire

Most undergraduate programmes lead to a degree, diploma or certificate; some lead to an award of the EdExcel Foundation (formerly the BTEC) or to membership in a professional body.

The university's sports facilities are excellent, partly as a legacy of the 2002 Commonwealth Games. These are shared with the University of Manchester.

There is a renowned School of Theatre with an impressive cast of Alumni who are included in the list below.

Students' Union

Main article: MMUnion

MMUnion is the Students' Union of Manchester Metropolitan University in the United Kingdom. Named Manchester Metropolitan Students' Union (MMSU), until July 2005; and Manchester Polytechnic Students' Union (MPSU) before the institution gained its university status in 1992.

MMUnion has buildings on the All Saints campus in Manchester and also the Alsager and Crewe campuses in Cheshire. In September 2007, the Union also hopes to reclaim an old Student Union building on the Didsbury campus in Manchester, initially operating on a part time basis.

MMUnion has an independent advice centre available for all students at the University as well as an activities centre that runs the sports clubs and societies at MMU.

The union's magazine is called PULP but since this features mostly articles on the Manchester campuses, MMU Cheshire has created its own separate magazine called The Big Cow. MMUnion is affiliated to the National Union of Students (NUS).

List of alumni

This partial list of alumni of Manchester Metropolitan University includes those who attended institutions which became part of present-day MMU.

• Dorothy Y Adams - EFL writer
• Amanda Burton
• Steve Coogan – English actor, born 1965
• Jenny Eclair
• Graham Fellows
• Malcolm Garrett – English graphic designer, born 1956
• Burn Gorman
• Richard Griffiths
• Thomas Heatherwick
• Bernard Hill
• Jeff Hordley
• Mick Hucknall – English musician (Simply Red), born 1960
• Phil Ineson
• Vernon Kay - English radio (BBC Radio 1) and television presenter, born 1974
• Matthew Kelly
• Martin Parr
• Natalie Pike
• Peter Purves
• John Thomson – actor and comedian
• Peter Saville – English graphic designer, born 1955
• Anthony Sher
• Linder Sterling
• Julie Walters
• Stephen Whittle
• Carey Young

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d} Table 0a - All students by institution, mode of study, level of study, gender and domicile 2005/06. Higher Education Statistics Agency online statistics. Retrieved on 2007-03-31.

External links and sources

• Manchester Metropolitan University website

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