The University of Manchester (UNIMAN) is Britain’s largest single-site university. It was created in
2004 by bringing together two distinguished civic universities to work towards the “Manchester 2015
vision” of holding a world-class leading research profile and being among the top 25 universities in
the world. It has the largest and one of the highest rated medical schools in the UK. A recent reorganisation brought into existence a Medical Education Research Group (MERG) which gives
lifelong learning an official place in the Medical School’s contribution to the Manchester 2015
agenda. High ranking among MERG’s activities is Tim Dornan’s work on technology-enhanced
workplace learning. The group’s research leaders are also leaders of the medical curriculum so its
work is embedded in an innovative medical programme with excellent access to students and their
learning activities through their leadership of the bespoke virtual managed learning environment
(VMLE).
Not only is the work of this group strong, but Problem-based learning and e-Portfolio learning are well
developed in other educational programmes in the University of Manchester, which has a strong focus
on Distributed Learning. The University’s Distributed Learning Department (Headed by Jim Petch)
leads technical development work within MERG’s projects, contributes e-Learning expertise to the
Manchester 2015 agenda, and is well connected with technology-enhanced learning activities
throughout the University.