Combining community involvement, study and practical experience.
With collaborative and service learning, students go out into communities applying their knowledge in practice as part of the curriculum while providing an important service to our communities, benefiting both equally.
This helps strengthen the bond between the University and communities. It gives our students the chance to build skills and make a difference in our communities while tackling challenges that matter.
Who we work with
Engagement across our communities.
We currently work with a range of organisations, including healthcare providers, such as GP practices and pharmacies, schools, charities, community groups and councils.
The benefits of participating in and organising service learning projects
Two Year 5 BDS Dentistry students, Shivani Chohan and Rachel Lee, talk about their experiences as a service learning project volunteer and organiser respectively.
Collaborative and service learning examples
Roots to Dental: Connecting with the local community through service learning
Dentistry students have helped offer free treatment to those facing employment challenges through the Roots to Dental programme.
Read the blog : Roots to Dental: Connecting with the local community through service learning.
Oral health education with Tamil schoolchildren
BDS Dentistry students visited a Tamil school in Manchester to run oral health role-playing and Q&A sessions with children and parents.
Read the blog : Oral health education with Tamil schoolchildren.
Dentists in Primary Schools (DiPS)
Award-winning student Yasmin Egonu made it possible for dental students to run oral health sessions in local primary schools.
Manchester First Language Community Project
Dentistry students such as Sophie Pathmanathan have been helping increase dental care access for people unable to speak English.
Dental Playbox
Students have been encouraging schoolchildren in Greater Manchester to learn about oral health and prevent tooth decay.
Homeless Care Project
Student Murrium Bennie came up with the idea of distributing dental care packs to homeless people after volunteering with the Homeless Healthcare Society.
More examples
Find out more about our service learning activities.
- Delivering dental aid and oral health education in Sri Lanka (British Dental Journal)
- Increasing accessibility to high-quality oral health education by bringing dentists to schools (British Dental Journal)
Information for University staff
Help and guidance.
Find out more about implementing and managing collaborative and service learning in your area (login required).
News and events
Stay up to date with our collaborative learning activities.
Latest updates
You can read about the latest developments in service learning at Manchester on our blog.
Service learning staff network
To join our Teams group, please email us: srbmh@manchester.ac.uk.
Contact us
Ask us a question about service learning in the Faculty.
Rachel Lindley
Email: rachel.lindley@manchester.ac.uk
Claire Mallon
Email: claire.mallon@manchester.ac.uk