Workplace Ethics Challenge

What ethical challenges will you face in your career?

Now open for the 2025/26 academic year!

Open to all undergraduate and postgraduate students.

👉 Ready to take part? Click here to enrol. You'll need to log in to your Canvas account to sign up and get started.

Get to grips with ethical dilemmas in the workplace, gain skills and experience that will improve your confidence and help you stand out in a crowded graduate job market. The Challenge is one of our Ethical Grand Challenges, offering you the opportunity to engage with key global issues.

“Discussed topics that are relevant even though sensitive"

"Made me think more deeply about my role as an individual in wider society”

“Interactive and explorative, accessible to people from all disciplines”

How do I complete it?

You'll need to log in to your Canvas account to sign up and get started. For Canvas support, visit the Student Support Site.

You can also join an on-campus Healthcare Workshop, which focuses on ethics in the healthcare workplace (see below).

Healthcare Workshops

Students on the following programmes will take part in an on-campus workshop, focused specifically on ethics in a healthcare workplace:

  • Audiology
  • Nursing
  • Midwifery
  • Optometry
  • Pharmacy
  • Speech and Language Therapy

For all programmes (apart from Audiology), students will take part in their final year of study. Audiology students will take part in their first year of study. 

If you're not on one of these programmes but are interested in working in a healthcare environment, you can sign up to take part in this workshop. 

Students on the programmes listed above do not need to sign up, the workshop will be added to your timetable at the start of the year. 

Your Questions About The Workplace Ethics Challenge

How do I access the Workplace Ethics Challenge?

Click here to enrol. You'll need to log in to your Canvas account to sign up and get started.

For the on-campus Healthcare Workplace Ethics Challenge, you can sign up using the online form.

 

Can I do the online Challenge as well as attending the Healthcare workshop?

Yes, you can do both if you like. You only need to do one in order for it to count towards the Stellify Award. 

 

Why should I do the Workplace Ethics Challenge?

By completing the Workplace Ethics Challenge, you will:

  • Develop knowledge, skills and understanding of ethical issues in the workplace
  • Enhance your employability skills
  • Explore issues of workplace ethics and hopefully be inspired to take action on issues of importance to you
  • Contextualise your degree and place it in a wider national and global context

Successful completion of the Workplace Ethics Challenge will appear on your HEAR (Higher Education Achievement Report).

Completion of both Ethical Grand Challenges counts towards the Stellify Award.

How will completing a Workplace Ethics Challenge enhance my employability?

Graduate employers want to recruit people whose values and behaviour fit with what is expected in the organisation. 

The opportunity to work through real-world workplace situations in the Workplace Ethics Challenge will help build your confidence when faced with the kinds of situational judgment tests used in recruitment. Through discussion with other students in a workshop, or through the interactive activities in the Workplace Ethics Challenge - Online, you will gain new perspectives on current ethical challenges and examples you can draw on in an interview. The content of each Workplace Ethics Challenge option will also introduce you to key workplace rules and regulations.

Employers and experts highlight the importance of ethics and values:

 “Employers really care about values, ethics, and everything linked to corporate responsibility, and doing the right thing and, if you’re able to show you’re taking that topic seriously, and you’ve proactively done something to learn more about it and further your knowledge, that’s going to really help you in the employability space.  I’d really recommend participating.” - Katherine Bond, Student Recruitment Manager, PricewaterhouseCoopers

 “I would urge every student to consider taking the Ethics Challenge. No matter what the sector, the scenarios explored are recognisable, and being given the opportunity to discuss them in a safe, constructive environment will inevitably make graduates feel much more comfortable in their places of employment.” - Sophie Parkes-Nield, Head of Client Advocacy, Creative Concern

“For anybody going into the workplace . . . it is really important that you’ve got a very strong personal ethic, you know your own values, and your own line in the sand.” - Sir Peter Fahey, Former Chief Constable, Greater Manchester Police. 

I can't access the Workplace Ethic Challenge

If you can’t access the Workplace Ethics Challenge, email egc@manchester.ac.uk with the subject line Workplace Ethics Challenge access.

When is the deadline for the Workplace Ethics Challenge?

The Workplace Ethics Challenge closes on 31 May 2026 at 11:59 PM BST (GMT+1).