[HDNG]INTRODUCTION:[EHDNG][PARA][BULL] Formerly Manchester Polytechnic[EBOLD][PARA][BOLD]For general information about Manchester: [EBOLD]see [ULNE]University of Manchester[EULNE]. Less than a mile from the city centre, and right next door to both Manchester University and UMIST in the biggest educational complex in Europe, the buildings of The Manchester Metropolitan University loom large. Most of the MMU's activities take place in this central cluster of buildings around Oxford Road, including the main All Saints Building, the Grosvenor Building (Faculty of Art and Design) and the Ormond and Righton Buildings among others. However, there's a spattered scattering of sites representing the 7 faculties. There's another cluster of buildings spread along the A34, within brisk walking distance of the Oxford Road. There's a site 5 miles away in the Manchester inner city village of Didsbury and 2 more even further afield in Crewe and Stoke-on-Trent. MMU and its students in Manchester have quite strong links, both formal and informal, with the nearby institutions.[HDNG]ATMOSPHERE:[EHDNG][PARA][ITAL]Being so big, a bit spread out and having so many 'oldies' (well, students of an atypical age) - it would be fair to expect MMU to have very little identity of its own. The problems of getting any kind of consensus between such a divergent mob would make it impossible. However, a perpetually partying mass has mustered, which at least provides a rule for individuals to be exceptions to. Still, the tone is lacking in pretensions and tolerant of all sorts. The conventionally aged students in particular are stereotypical fun-seekers and Manchester ravers, perhaps even more so than the students at Manchester University (which requires higher grades and consequently less partying during A Level years).[EITAL][HDNG]LIFE IN MANCHESTER:[EHDNG][PARA][ITAL]'I'm comin' home I'm comin' home, to your house!' 'My rabbit's dead!' 'Listen Naaaadia, you've got a duty to know about these things!' Yes, this is the home of 'The Living Soap', the studes you loved to loathe. Unfortunately, many people regard the show as a depiction of an average student household, which presupposes that Manchester is an average student city. Not likely, Mr Holdsworth![EITAL][PARA][ITAL] Manchester students dress to thrill, if not in the classic late-80s bags, at least in high style. Manchester is Mecca for 2nd-hand gear, especially Oldham market. The famous Afflecks Palace, although past its best, is the place to tog up for term time, anything from rags to records and back to rags again (although it's quite designer grunge/nouveau 70s nowadays). Amongst the 200 or so stalls, there's usually a job going for about ú15 a day, which keeps the landlord at bay.[EITAL][PARA][ITAL] A job's pretty handy (there are a few about but many hunters) because life ain't cheap here. Although not on a London scale of urban extortion, there are too many temptations to look after the pennies and the pounds end up playing follow the leader. However, Manchester has very little of the crowded loneliness of London or its impersonality. The people are friendly (Paul Calf isn't representative of all locals) and, amongst students, local pride is a virus. At the end of term, students from the south frequently return (to their mothers' horror) sporting 'Born in the North - die in the North' t-shirts.[EITAL][PARA][ITAL] While the city sprawls for about 10 miles in all directions, its centre is relatively small which makes getting out and about a cruise. With so much to do around town, there's no excuse for a Saturday night on the sofa. A bar or a club on the other side of town is only 20 minutes walk and, since the student residential areas tend to be inner-city districts, a minicab home won't be grant-busting.[EITAL][PARA][ITAL] At the very core, indeed, the hard core of the Manchester Scene is ecstacy ('E' or 'the dance drug'). This and other, nastier, drugs are readily available in the clubs, pubs and on the streets of Manchester. Manchester students' attitudes to drugs obviously vary enormously between individuals and although use of 'E', 'acid' (LSD) and 'dope' (cannabis) is quite widespread, the pressure to partake is small. Fun abounds without chemical playmates. [EITAL][PARA][ITAL] Manchester offers a student just about everything any city can, but many find it oppressive, especially if they're not from a big city. The bright lights invite, but they dazzle too.[EITAL][PARA][PARA][ITAL][HDNG]THE SITES:[EHDNG][EITAL][PARA]There are 7 faculties to MMU which are not only more relevant than the details of separate sites, but also more distinct:[PARA][BOLD]Art and Design:[EBOLD] Grosvenor, Medlock, Righton, Loxford Tower, Chatham Capitol and Cavendish sites, 2,500 students.[PARA][BOLD]Humanities and Social Science:[EBOLD] Ormond, Mabel Tylecote and Cavendish sites, 3,326 students.[PARA][BOLD]Management and Business:[EBOLD] Aytoun site, 3,600 students. A tower block 10mins walk from All Saints.[PARA][BOLD]Hotel Catering and Tourism Management; Food and Consumer Technology; Clothing Design and Technology:[EBOLD] Hollings site, 1,618 students. The Hollings site is about 3 miles out of town in parkland [ITAL]and looks like a toast rack[EITAL].[PARA][BOLD]Business and Management; Education; Arts, Design and Performance; Humanities and Applied Social Studies; Sport and Environmental Science; Modular Studies:[EBOLD] Until October 1992, this was a separate college called Crewe and Alsager College of Higher Education. It is in itself split into 2 sites at Crewe (a medium-sized town, 28 miles south-west of Manchester) and Alsager in Stoke-on-Trent (another medium-sized town, 34 miles south, see [ULNE]Staffordshire University[EULNE]). [ITAL]Being so far away, there is no sense of feeling like a part of MMU [EITAL]which is why its 4,745 students have not been included in figures throughout this entry.[PARA][BOLD]Community Studies, Law and Education:[EBOLD] Didsbury, All Saints and Gaskell sites, 5,811 students.[PARA][BOLD]Science and Engineering:[EBOLD] John Dalton Building, 6,000 students.[HDNG]THE CITY:[EHDNG][PARA][STAT][BULL] Population: 2,454,800 [BULL] London: 167miles [BULL] Liverpool: 28miles [BULL] Birmingham: 72miles[ESTAT][PARA]Manchester, although it's been around since the days when Caesar took his strolls in the forum, was really built out of cotton during the Industrial Revolution. Out of the money from cotton, that is. Industry flooded Manchester and the canals drained it, making the city one of the alltime boom towns.[ITAL] But it didn't last, and Manchester found depression pretty depressing, scarring the city with slums and factories. Some of these, such as Moss Side and Oxford Road (opposite the Union Building), remain downbeat war zones, but many have been redeveloped and its chequered history has left Manchester rich in culture. Being a student here is to be rocking in the free world with every facility under the sun, from theatres to Afflecks Palace, from museums (such as the University's own natural history museum) to Old Trafford.[EITAL][PARA][PARA][ITAL][HDNG]TRAVEL:[EHDNG][EITAL][PARA][BOLD]Trains:[EBOLD] Not 1 but 2 mainline stations, Manchester Piccadilly for London and the South, and Manchester Victoria for just about everywhere else. Routes go all over, including London (2:30hrs, 1/hr); Birmingham, Edinburgh and Bristol.[PARA][BOLD]Coaches:[EBOLD] All sorts of coach services, including, of course, National Express to, among most other places, London (ú16.00, 3:30hrs, 7/day), Birmngham (ú7.50, 2:20hrs, 8/day), Edinburgh (ú13.75, 5:55hrs, 2/day)[PARA][BOLD]Car:[EBOLD] From the north, M6 (then M61 or M62), A6 or M66; from the east, M62, A58, A62; from the South, M6, A6, A523, A34; and from Wales, the M56. Parking may well be a problem in central Manchester,[ITAL] but, for the lazy or environmentally carefree, a car doesn't go amiss.[EITAL][PARA][BOLD]Air:[EBOLD] Manchester Airport is one of the UK's big ones - flights all over the world as well as inland.[PARA][BOLD]Hitching:[EBOLD] [ITAL]Not possible from central Manchester, but quite good on arterial routes out of the city.[EITAL][PARA][BOLD]Local:[EBOLD] Manchester has a major bus network, running all over town, especially up and down Oxford Road[ITAL].[EITAL] Trains are a [ITAL]quicker[EITAL] alternative, especially for the outskirts. The spanking new Metro Link tram service is now up and trundling.[PARA][BOLD]Taxis:[EBOLD][ITAL] Manchester's centre, being relatively small, means taxi trips are a viable resort. The black cabs which screech to a halt as you hail them are a lot more expensive than the private traders who are only supposed to pick up phone callers and drop ins. [EITAL][PARA][ITAL][BOLD]Bicycles: [EBOLD]Manchester's quite bike-friendly (flat with a fair few bicycle lanes), but theft is rife. A mountain bike will identify you as a drug pusher, especially if you're about 12.[EITAL][PARA][PARA]Frequent buses run into the centre from Didsbury (85p) and right up to the doorstep of the main site, [ITAL]although the trains are cheaper and just as reliable.[EITAL][HDNG]FACULTIES and STUDENT NOS:[EHDNG][PARA][BOLD]Art[EBOLD] 1,392[BOLD][PARA]Comm Studs[EBOLD] 1,959[BOLD][PARA]Humanities[EBOLD] 2,418[BOLD][PARA]Management[EBOLD] 1,535[BOLD][PARA]Science[EBOLD] 2,587[HDNG]LIBRARIES and COMPUTERS:[EHDNG][PARA][STAT][BULL] Books: 955,000 [BULL] Periodicals: 4,722 [BULL] Study places: 2,096 [BULL] Computer workstations: 2,242[ESTAT][PARA]There are 8 libraries spread around the sites, relating to the subject areas based there. The main one is in the All Saints Building where there are 370,000 books and seats for 750 students. There are a further 200,000 at Didsbury and 120,000 at Elizabeth Gaskell.[HDNG]CAREER PROSPECTS:[EHDNG][PARA][STAT][BULL] Careers Service [BULL] No of staff: 6full/3part [BULL] Unemployed after 6mths (1992): 14.7%[ESTAT][HDNG]SPECIAL FEATURES:[EHDNG][PARA][BULL]In July 1993, the Duke of Westminster was installed as MMU's Chancellor.[HDNG]FAMOUS ALUMNI:[EHDNG][PARA]Gary Bailey (former Man Utd goalkeeper); Terry Christian ('presenter' of The Word); George Costigan (actor); Steve Coogan (comedian/impressionist); Richard Griffiths (actor); David Grindley (Olympic athlete); Emma Harris ('Living Soap' single mum); Bernard Hill (actor); Mick Hucknall (lead singer of Simply Red and striker for Fulchester United in Viz's Billy the Fish strip); L S Lowry (painter, before several colleges got together and became Manchester Poly and later, MMU); Bob Mortimer (comedian); Bryan Robson (footballer); Umberto Saoncella (TV presenter); John Thompson (comedian); David Threlfall (actor); Julie Walters (actress).[HDNG]FURTHER INFO:[EHDNG][PARA]Prospectuses and/or handbooks for undergrads, postgrads, part-timers, overseas and mature students.[PARA][PARA]
