Manchester Met University Transforms Student Experience

Leading higher education establishment, Manchester Metropolitan University [Manchester Met] is successfully transforming its student experience through the implementation of a leading-edge digital and process transformation programme, in partnership with Purple Consultancy.

Experienced in delivering large scale transformation projects within the UK’s education sector, Purple was appointed to partner Manchester Met in the delivery of a best-in-class student experience – from application to alumni.

Purple’s specialist Consultants are working in partnership with the Manchester Met Student Journey Transformation team to drive change, successfully incorporating innovative technology to simplify processes, update IT systems, and provide new ways to support non-standard provision, such as Transnational Education.

Andrew Kemp, Transformation Director from Manchester Metropolitan University confirmed: “We’ve worked very closely with Purple right from the very beginning to map out our current processes which is something the university has never done before.

“When you’re working in any industry you are used to doing things a certain way meaning you fall into habits and having an external agency come in and challenge you is crucially important. Every now and then you need a bit of push back and you need to be challenged on why this is the right way of doing things.”

Alistair Sergeant, CEO of Purple Consultancy, confirmed: “It’s those universities with a clear agenda and a real drive for positive change, plus a passion for delivery which make the most significant impact on their students’ lives. Manchester Met is a perfect example of a forward-thinking university where the staff recognised the challenges and took swift and decisive action to address them.”

It’s been great for us working with the team at Manchester Met. We’ve been able to share some insights with the university team and that’s made a difference I think – but this has been a partnership and the learning has very much been a two-way process.

Our job is to share our learning from UK higher education and also from other sectors – plus add some structure to the process so we can deliver the required outcomes on time – but it’s the chemistry which matters most on project like this. The simple fact is deliverables don’t get delivered if teams don’t work well together – and that’s why maintaining great relations is absolutely key to the way we work.

Beyond the project KPI’s, we’ve really enjoyed working with the Manchester Met team and our feeling is that, working together, we’ve made some changes which have had a really positive impact on the lives of students and staff. That’s what the work is about for the Manchester Met University team, and we are very happy to be a part of that”

About Purple: An inquisitive and disruptive transformation consultancy with an agenda to support UK universities in their drive to become global leaders.