Student IT support is available via Library Chat and onsite at Main Library and the Alan Gilbert Learning Commons, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.
It is also available via the phone and online 24/7, details of which can be found on the IT Services Help pages.
The University provides access to PCs across campus for students to use in teaching settings laid out like a traditional classroom and informal study spaces where students can work independently. All PCs are built to a standard specification designed to effectively run any of the software used across all our courses.
Click here to find a PC to use on campus
Note: if you require a PC with better graphics capabilities, they can be found in AMBS 2.1 and 2.2 and are available for use when the room is not booked for teaching.
Short term laptop loans are available through The Library
Postgraduate researchers can be provided with a standard laptop to work on – if a higher-powered laptop is required the additional cost will need to be agreed by the school or research group. See details on how to order a laptop.
We would recommend buying a laptop meeting that following minimum requirements:
For Windows computers the minimum specifications are an i5 processor from 2017 or later, 8GB RAM, 250GB SSD.
Click here to learn our to connect to our Wi-Fi. The Eduroam wireless network will allow all members of the university to access secure Wi-Fi, not just on The University of Manchester campus, but at many education and research locations across the world. In halls of residence there is also the Hornet network, that provides wireless and wired connections. Details of how to access the University’s networks can be found on the IT Support pages along with all guidelines and regulations.
Available support
We provide a range of University-wide assistive software to support both disabled and non-disabled students, in addition to more specialised software to meet your individual needs being available through the Disability Advisory and Support Service (DASS). Click here to access your Accessible Software support.
You can access University licensed Assistive Technology either via the Software Centre, or via any of the cluster computers. Currently, DASS has site licenses for ClaroRead (which can also be installed on personal devices upon request by emailing our Assistive Technology Coordinator Tim Symons at tim.symons-2@manchester.ac.uk
Over the 2024/25 academic year, access to software will change. From September 2024, AppsAnywhere will be the portal you need to use to access teaching and learning software applications from cluster PCs. With the introduction of AppsAnywhere, applications will become available in more cluster locations, with the eventual aim of being able to go to any IT cluster across campus and find most software titles.The launch of AppsAnywhere on cluster PCs in September will start this journey with some software titles available across campus, and others remaining in specific clusters.
In addition to the applications listed above, all Windows cluster PCs will have a number of software titles available; these are:
Microsoft Office, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, Teams, and OneNote
Assistive software, including ClaroRead Pro,MindView,and Microsoft Office assistive features.
Web browsers, including Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, and Mozilla Firefox
SPSS Statistics
Adobe Acrobat Reader
VLC Media Player
7-Zip
Postgraduate researchers have access to Software Centre (Company Portal on Windows11), which has a wide range of software titles.
It should be noted that software licence and export control restrictions do exist on some software titles.
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