GreatUniHack 2026

UniCS, the University of Manchester's computer science society, runs the city's flagship student hackathon: a single-day build at the Nancy Rothwell Building, free to enter and open to undergraduates and postgraduates from any university.

Check-in opens at 09:00, hacking runs 12:00 to 18:00, and judging and the closing ceremony finish around 21:30. Sponsor workshops run through the afternoon from NatWest, Reply, Tether and Neptune North. Food is provided. Over £70,000 in prizes is advertised, £3,500 of it cash across the top three. Everyone applies individually and teams form on the Discord or on the day. Hacker applications closed on 17 October.

Why go: a complete idea-to-demo cycle in one day, judged, with engineers from NatWest, Arm, Codethink and Google in the building. Best for students who want something finished to show at interview rather than another coursework repo.