Every undergraduate at the University of Manchester will be guaranteed a work placement or other form of real-world experience under a sweeping new initiative that its vice-chancellor says will end the era of purely academic degrees. The move, which appears to be a first for a large Russell Group institution, is designed to embed internships, employer projects, community work or study exchanges into every degree programme, from classics to chemical engineering.
The pledge
Duncan Ivison, the university’s vice-chancellor, said no student should graduate having spent three years solely on academic study. “Every single student [should] have a chance to put their learning into context – an internship, a placement, a joint project or an exchange,” he told the Times. “It doesn’t matter if you’re a history student or a chemical engineer.” The university confirmed that the aim is to make such opportunities “a normal part of university life, not something students have to find separately or access through personal contacts”. Practical experience could take the form of a short internship, a live employer project, or work with a public or community organisation, and the initiative is intended to work across all disciplines, not just traditionally vocational subjects.
A tough market for graduates
The announcement comes as graduates face an increasingly difficult labour market. According to official data, many leave university with debts exceeding £50,000, and those who find work are often stuck in low-paid hospitality or retail jobs rather than in traditional graduate roles. The University of Manchester’s pledge is intended to tackle that disconnect, giving students the chance to build skills and contacts before they leave. The initiative also reflects a broader concern about the impact of artificial intelligence on the future of work, with employers demanding more adaptable, experience-ready recruits.
Feasibility concerns and expert reaction
The scale of the undertaking is considerable: the University of Manchester has 32,000 undergraduates. Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute, welcomed the idea but questioned whether it could be delivered. “This is a brilliant initiative in the sense that it seeks to tackle the widespread fear that older universities provide an overly academic education,” he said. “It also recognises the fact that the main reason people attend higher education is to find a fulfilling career afterwards. Work experience delivers skills; it also teaches you what you don’t like as well as what you do.” However, he cautioned: “It is very difficult to do this sort of thing at scale because of the number of students and employers involved – Manchester is a huge university.” He also pointed out that many students already work paid, often unskilled jobs alongside their studies to cover rising living costs. “There are only so many hours in the day to fit in work experience alongside.”
Hillman noted that some institutions – such as Aston and Loughborough, which began as colleges of advanced technology – have always embedded employment in their courses, while former teacher training colleges had workplace experience in their DNA. “However, I have not come across a Russell Group university doing anything on this scale before,” he said. Research from Aston University has shown that graduates who completed professional work placements earned significantly more than those who did not. Loughborough, meanwhile, offers sandwich placements of nine to twelve months and has strong employer links in engineering, business, sports and technology.
Other sector leaders were more optimistic. Vivienne Stern, chief executive of Universities UK, said: “The jobs market is changing rapidly and we need to make sure that our graduates are as well prepared for it as possible. Universities have an important role to play in making sure that students are set up for the world of work and are taking innovative and new approaches to this.” Libby Hackett, chief executive of the Russell Group, described the Manchester plan as “a significant step” that would give students “invaluable experience of putting knowledge into practice and developing the wide range of skills and the resilience employers are looking for”.
The University of Manchester already runs a number of employability programmes that could provide a foundation for the expanded commitment. Its award-winning “The Works” initiative, delivered in partnership with The Growth Company, gives local residents access to jobs and training. Through the WorkFinder app, young people aged 16 to 24 can find local work experience, taster sessions and job shadowing. The university’s business school, Alliance MBS, offers paid placements in the third year of study, with average salaries between £23,000 and £30,000 and some students earning as much as £69,000. The university has also secured Turing Scheme funding for international placements, and its Careers Service provides micro-internships, one-year industrial placements, work experience bursaries and mentorship programmes. For school-age students, there are research placements through STEM Learning and In2STEM, and library work experience for Year 10 to 12 pupils.
Several of these existing schemes already operate at significant scale, but incorporating placements into every undergraduate degree – including non-vocational subjects such as classics – will require a major expansion of employer partnerships across the Manchester city region. The university said its strong links to employers and organisations in the area would support the initiative. “We want every student to have the opportunity to apply what they are learning before they graduate,” a spokesperson said. “The aim is to make those opportunities a normal part of university life.”
Currently, undergraduates training for professions such as teaching or medicine are already required to do work placements. According to the Higher Education Statistics Agency, in 2024-25 almost a quarter of undergraduate courses gave students the option of a placement lasting at least a year. Manchester’s plan would extend that requirement, or at least the guarantee of an offer, to every student regardless of subject.
