Duncan Ivison chose to move to Manchester after living in Sydney for more than twenty years, which is one of the best places to live in the world. Not in London. Not in Oxford. It was grit, music, and a strong sense of who you are that made Manchester what it is today. Taking on the role of President and Vice-Chancellor at The University of Manchester wasn’t just a job for him. “It’s an extraordinary university; really embedded in the city and with a strong sense of place,” Ivison has said. “This city has a lot of heart and soul. You really feel like you’re in it.” Still, it has a rare desire to be a global force. He seems to be really interested in the idea of having both local roots and global reach. This idea is now the main idea behind everything he wants to build.
Ivison grew up in Montreal and went to school for Political Science and Philosophy. He once really considered becoming a lawyer. All of that changed after his first week of college, when he took a philosophy class. Holding on to this detail is important because it shapes how he thinks about education itself: not as a way to get to certain results, but as something that can really surprise people, even the students.
The plans for Duncan Ivison Manchester University, which are being built now and are called Manchester 2035, are full of that spirit. The strategy was made after talking to students, staff, alumni, partners, and people from all over the city. It will be put into action this fall. It’s not a polished business document that was sent down from above. Depending on how skeptical you are about institutional change, the process has been purposely open, which can be seen as either idealistic or genuinely refreshing.
A commitment to defining the university by who it includes rather than who it leaves out is at the heart of the plan. This may sound simple, but it’s actually pretty rare in elite higher education. “Some schools like to talk about themselves in a stuffy way, but that’s not for us,” Ivison has made it clear. He seems to really mean it. This doesn’t seem like a policy position as much as it does a natural instinct for a university that has been deeply rooted in its city for more than two hundred years and whose people have never been impressed by pretense.
The case for inclusion isn’t just moral, either. Ivison talks about it in terms of seeking the truth, which shows that he has a philosophical background. Universities should ask tough questions and look for real answers. The more different kinds of people ask those questions, the more likely it is that they will find good answers. It’s a good reason to include everyone, and it’s stronger because it’s not just moral arguments.
It’s still not clear how Manchester 2035 will deal with the problems that all major universities face right now, such as limited funding, the constant rethinking of what research is for, and the question of whether the sector can keep the big promises that were made during hard times. Ivison doesn’t act like these problems don’t exist. He says that we shouldn’t be afraid of change, but rather should treat it with care and not try to avoid it.
Aside from that, he makes it clear what alumni and the neighborhood are expected to do. The first global campaign to raise money and recruit volunteers for Manchester will start this fall, and Ivison talks about it with real excitement instead of the usual institutional hoopla. This is an idea for a university that stays in touch with its graduates, not just as donors but also as lifelong learners who might come back to retrain, take a course, or just stay connected to the place that helped shape them.
“Once you’ve been to Manchester, you’re a Mancunian for life,” he states. That line sounds like it could be used for advertising. It doesn’t quite make sense coming from someone who picked this city over Sydney.
