Launched on 11 October 2024 in 91ֱ��, academics from partner institutions gathered in person and online to mark the beginning of this collaborative effort at an inaugural meeting. Academics from the member institutions joined a panel discussion on sustainability and climate change – one of the key focus areas of the Alliance.

GHA members include: The University of Manchester, Ashoka University in India, Mahidol University in Thailand, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Universitas Gadjah Mada in Indonesia, The University of Melbourne in Australia, University of Nairobi in Kenya and University of Toronto in Canada.

The mission of the GHA is to raise the social and political impact of the humanities and social sciences through an emphasis on a programme of research and teaching that takes up global issues, incorporates diverse global perspectives and brings scholars and students together for critical conversations.

Underpinning the Alliance is a core value that by combining complementary and distinctive strengths, it can better address key global challenges and showcase the difference humanities, social sciences and the liberal arts makes to the world.

Professor Angelia Wilson, Faculty of Humanities Associate Dean for Internationalisation at The University of Manchester, commented: “The Global Humanities Alliance brings together academics and higher education institutions from around the world to celebrate and to enrich the important contribution made by humanities and social science research to understanding and navigating the challenges we face in our local communities and in wider society. The member institutions are firmly committed to working together to ensure our students are fit to be engaged, value-driven, and knowledgeable citizens of the world.”

The GHA brings together thousands of humanities and social scientists from around the globe. Alliance collaborations will centre initially around four core themes: public humanities, sustainability and climate change, decolonising knowledge and digital transformations.

The GHA is working towards a range of joint research initiatives and enhanced staff mobility between Alliance member institutions through a programme of visiting fellowships.

And for students, the GHA expands opportunities for an international learning experience with Global Classrooms. Offering virtual guest lectures and international discussion boards, students will get a more diverse learning experience and options to learn from their peers around the world.

Professor Fiona Devine, Vice-President and Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, said: “The Global Humanities Alliance will greatly enhance the staff and student experience, not just here at The University of Manchester but for all our partner institutions across the globe. Working with our partners in the Alliance will facilitate the co-production of knowledge, new ways of innovating teaching, and research collaboration to tackle global challenges.”

The Universities of Manchester, Melbourne and Toronto (MMT) Alliance draws on the expertise of 45,000 staff and faculty and 187,000 students across the three institutions to develop further learning and research initiatives. These include ‘global classrooms’ offering students the opportunity to engage through joint classrooms with students from other universities and share their diverse global perspectives, exchange programmes, joint PhD and research programmes and trans-continental links to industry research.

While the MMT Alliance is only a year old, it can already count multiple tangible outcomes that are advancing global study and research:

• A trilateral research fund that’s fostered additional bilateral and three-way links, bringing over 50 researchers together
• The launch of the International Centre for Translational Digital Health
• Creating  ‘global classroom’ experiences for students including in areas such as Indigenous studies, history, and sustainability
• In addition to the Melbourne-91ֱ�� PhD programme, and Melbourne-Toronto programme, a joint Toronto-91ֱ�� agreement to support joint PhD supervision will welcome its first entrants in 2023.

The Alliance’s International Centre for Translational Digital Health advances the field of digital health in Canada, the UK and Australia by developing, implementing and translating new technologies, policies and service delivery models. Initially a partnership between the Universities of Toronto and 91ֱ��, the University of Melbourne will formally become a partner of the Centre on .  

The University of Manchester President and Vice-Chancellor, Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell, said: “We are thrilled with the many successes the MMT Alliance has realised in its first year which are a sign of great things to come. The importance of international collaborations in academia are well-documented, but we’ve never been at a more critical inflexion point as the world faces now, grappling not just with recovery from a devastating pandemic but the threat of the climate crisis and unprecedented challenges to health and our social fabric.

“MMT demonstrates and will continue to demonstrate how international academic collaboration can help the world solve some of its biggest challenges. The Alliance set out to navigate the post-COVID landscape, but I think it will realise success for a great many years ahead.”

University of Toronto President, Professor Meric Gertler, said: “The MMT Alliance is a superb example of international collaborations. In the face of extreme global challenges, an alliance that stretches across three continents could not be more appropriate.  Each partner is able to contribute unique and invaluable expertise. We are delighted by the progress the Alliance has made in a single year, deepening networks and paving the way for world-class research and education outcomes. ”

University of Melbourne Pro Vice-Chancellor for Graduate and International Research Professor Justin Zobel said: “The Alliance is already showing how the three universities can work together to achieve major outcomes. It provides our researchers with access to resources and facilities beyond that available at any one institution, and is creating new educational opportunities, particularly for PhD candidates. The MMT collaboration demonstrates that we can jointly address the severe global challenges of our time.”

The Humanising Healthcare programme gives dentistry, pharmacy and optometry students the chance to deliver healthcare and healthcare education to poorer communities as part of the curriculum.

The MacJannet Prize for Global Citizenship, launched in 2009, recognizes exemplary university student civic engagement programs around the world and is a key element in the MacJannet Foundation’s work to build a community of global citizens.

The prize is sponsored jointly by the MacJannet Foundation and , a global association of 388 universities in 77 countries on six continents, all committed to developing student leaders who are actively engaged with society.

The Selection Committee said they were impressed by the initiative and wished to recognize and support the continued civic and community engagement work.

The scheme built on the success of a dentistry Service-Learning programme called ’, established in 2012 by Dr Senathirajah (Raj) Ariyaratnam and shortlisted for the 2018 MacJannet prize for Global Citizenship.

The work extended to pharmacy and optometry education to create the ‘Humanising Healthcare’ programme.

Dr Ariyaratnam said: “Humanising Healthcare is based on the premise that we cannot create excellent healthcare professionals of tomorrow without creating engaged ones.

“Our goal is therefore to support students to deliver essential healthcare and healthcare education to different communities as part of the curriculum.

“But it’s also about encouraging global volunteering while creating a workforce characterised by civic values and skills that have direct community benefit in meeting health challenges.”

Up to 2019, when COVID-19 struck, around 1,000 dental students treated 38,720 paediatric and 140,800 adult patients respectively over 10 years as a core part of the curriculum.

And 150 students volunteered in 15 countries across the world to provide oral health care and education to thousands of people under the supervision of the local dentists.

Working with students to co-design bespoke healthcare services in the UK, they helped refugees and asylum seekers, LGBTQ+ community members and native non-English speakers.

During the pandemic, dental students provided online support to Chinese and Tamil speaking 91ֱ�� communities which was extended to provide quality COVID information for hard-to-reach communities North Sri Lanka.

In 2019 the University hosted the UK’s first national Service Learning in Healthcare conference; as a result, a UK healthcare Service-Learning framework is now being developed.

Students organise an annual ‘DentMan’ conference to share their community experience with peers and to inspire future generation. The 2021 conference strengthened links with students and teachers at the University of Ghana.

The year three pharmacy curriculum was transformed to deliver healthcare awareness raising workshops to local 14 and 15-year-old school pupils.

Since 2017, over 400 pharmacy students have delivered 100 workshops to over 3000 pupils as part of the assessed core curriculum.

Topics include antibiotic resistance, mental health, wellbeing, diabetes, obesity and alcohol awareness. The workshops were well received by both high school pupils, teachers and the students delivering them.

Dr David Allison a Reader in Pharmacy Education at the University said: “We aim to help improve the health of the population by raising awareness of healthcare issues that start in adolescence

“It also gave our students an opportunity to give something back to society, and enhance their community engagement skills and sense of civic responsibility.

“ This is a unique, beneficial and enjoyable learning experience for our students; it is the first example of Service–Learning as a core curriculum activity in any UK School of Pharmacy”

An optometry clinic within the University has been running in 91ֱ�� as part of the optometry programme since 1913.

The clinic is a service learning centre that provides community eye care services to the local population while allowing students to gain valuable experience through providing the service.

Students and staff regularly engage with local schools and public through a series of activities. And more than 400 students have engaged with international and national charities to help raise eye health awareness.

Around 138 million women are affected by a distressing but treatable fungal infection world-wide, according to a research review by University of Manchester scientists.

And the incidence of recurrent thrush, warns lead researcher , is set to rise to an estimated 158 million people by 2030.

The team from The University of Manchester - one of the leading centres in the world for fungal infection research - are publishing their findings in The Lancet Infectious Diseases today

Vulvovaginal candidiasis infection - caused by the overgrowth of the fungus Candida - causes itching, irritation, discharge, soreness and damage to the skin. For many women it is a taboo subject.

Previous research has shown that 75% of women develop thrush at least once in their lifetime and over 6% of women suffer from recurrent episodes.

Also from studies reviewed by the research team, thrush is a risk associated with menopausal women aged 55 and over, and women taking hormone replacement therapy and antibiotics.

Chinese, Indian and American women are the world’s most numerous sufferers of thrush at 29.1 million and 23.6 million and 9 million respectively, they find.

Ghana, Saudi Arabia and Yemen, are the countries where the condition is the least prevalent from the data they harvested.

And a significant 1.2 million women in the UK suffer from the condition.

Dr Rautemaa-Richardson said: “Recurrent vulvovaginal thrush is common, debilitating and complex.

“Myths, unnecessary worry and stigma are associated with it as medical professionals struggle to understand it.

“Though Thrush is treatable, it often reoccurs and there are often additional causes for the symptoms which all need to be addressed. Antifungal treatment is often only part of the solution.

“Thrush is often thought of as an embarrassing problem woman should accept, rather than a medical problem which needs to be dealt with.

“But for millions of women, it can have a massive impact on quality of life.”

She added: “For many, thrush is treatable, and patients are able to regain their quality of life. But much work needs to be done to educate both healthcare professionals and patients about the best way to do that.

“We hope this research will give more women the confidence talk more openly about a problem which is distressing and painful.”

The paper a systematic review is published in Lancet Infectious Diseases