Manchester: £80 million extra funding seals university merger

Manchester: £80 million extra funding seals university merger

The governing Councils of The University of Manchester and UMIST have given the final go-ahead on the proposal to bring together the two institutions, in the formation of a single university in autumn 2004. Manchester Business School is keen to grasp the opportunity with both hands - the decision to create a single university could give MBS the chance to cement itself as one of the best business schools, not just in Europe, but the world.

The Councils' decisions, taken at meetings held on Wednesday 5 March 2003, follow confirmation from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), the Office of Science and Technology (OST) and the North West Development Agency (NWDA) that up to £65 million of extra funding has been secured by the two universities to provide a significant contribution to funding the establishment of the single university. An additional £17 million has already been provided through the Government's Strategic Research Investment Fund (SRIF).

Bringing the University of Manchester and UMIST together will create the largest university in the UK, with the size and resources to compete on a global scale. World class teaching and research will be undertaken to equal the handful of leading institutions in the UK and to compete successfully with the best in the world.

Dean and director of MBS John Arnold said the decision comes after months of hard work to make sure that the move is right for all concerned. He said: "We now have the opportunity to develop in Manchester a stronger and more flexible school of business and management, to remain competitive with the best business schools in both Europe and the US. The MBS brand is one of the most recognised in the business world and we have here a tremendously exciting opportunity to further strengthen our position, whilst benefiting those who are joining us. Consolidation with UMIST's Manchester School of Management, plus other parts of the Federal School (namely MSAF and PREST), would be great news for all concerned.

"The aim is to create the single university for autumn 2004 and much work has already been undertaken towards that goal. However, we remain very much focused on our immediate and ongoing mission - creating the business leaders of the future through our internationally accredited courses. Staff at MBS have spent decades creating the profile we have today - there is no question of not retaining our identity within the new structure."

A new school of business and management will have significant implications for MBS. At present the School has some 40 faculty; a new establishment would create a business and management resource of more than 200 academic staff, enabling MBS to:

provide more choice, variety and cover on MBA programmes
provide a wider range of top class executive development programmes and consultancy
attract more research grants from government and industry
work with an extended academic pool to produce even higher quality research output and to obtain research grants - all of the Federal School (the name given to the informal alliance between MBS, MSM and parts of the University) partners were rated either 5 or 5* in the 2001 Research Assessment Exercise
develop specialist masters programmes to complement the MBA
become part of a common doctoral programme that offers increased choice and supervision.

A 'Project Unity' team has been established to oversee the work leading to the formation of the single university. The formal search for a Vice-Chancellor will begin immediately with an appointment expected by the autumn. A name for the new institution will be chosen by June 2003.

mbs, 02.04.2003