Campus by Times Higher Education

Campus interview: David Latchman, vice-chancellor Birkbeck, University of London

Will the promise of lifelong learning - to extend access to higher education to more people while at the same time creating a highly skilled and relevant workforce - ever be realised? On the whole, university systems remain set up to educate 18-year-olds studying full-time degrees. And how many working age adults are really able to take time off to go back to study and to take on more debt? 

David Latchman, vice-chancellor at Birkbeck, University of London, is optimistic that universities and the public have woken up to the importance of lifelong learning. In this interview we talk about why he thinks England's Lifelong Loan Entitlement programme is the right one to unlock the benefits of lifelong learning, the sticking points of the policy and how employers should get on board. 

 

Campus: When pop culture meets academia

In this episode of the Campus podcast, Michael Dennin, a professor of physics and astronomy in the School of Physical Sciences at the University of California, Irvine, talks about using superheroes (and zombies) to bring the dynamics of physics into the classroom. Michael, who is also dean of undergraduate education, vice-provost for teaching and learning, and the recipient of UCI Senate teaching and innovation awards, explains how his approach enriches traditional physics problems, encourages creativity, and champions teamwork and interdisciplinarity. The discussion also looks at the potential of science outreach to create good “spectators of science” and why Moocs were greeted with more scepticism than teaching with superheroes.

Our second guest is Liz Giuffre, a senior lecturer in communication, teaching into music and sound design, in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Technology Sydney. Liz is also a music commentator, founding journal editor, archivist, podcaster, blogger and author – her latest book is Kylie Minogue’s Kylie, co-written with Adrian Renzo. We talked about how the ubiquity of popular culture (“it’s both ordinary and extraordinary”) drew her to study it, and why it’s the job of academics to understand mainstream culture – whether that’s the music of Kylie or Shakespeare’s plays.

Read more from Michael Dennin on Campus.

Campus: How the university library is an agent of change

On this episode we’re talking about every campus' connector, collector and collaborator – the university library. Often overlooked, university libraries are critical to the teaching and research missions of institutions. They also play a key role in digital innovation and community outreach. Two librarians tell us more about how they see their work as agents of change. 

Masud Khokhar is a third-generation librarian and computer scientist and is currently the Librarian & Keeper of the Brotherton Collection at the University of Leeds where he is also the director of learning spaces. Masud is also the current chair of Research Libraries UK. In this episode he does some myth busting around academic libraries, explains how they can be agents of change and tells us what he sees are the steps to shaping a more diverse generation of upcoming librarians.

Toni Carter is the director of the Kares Library at Athens State University and an advocate for improving students' information literacy. She gives advice on how faculty can collaborate with librarians to help students think critically about which sources of information they trust.

 

 

Campus interview: Dame Madeleine Atkins, president of Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge

A veteran leader in English higher education, dame Madeline Atkins is the former CEO of the Higher Education Funding Council in England and is the current president of Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge. In this Campus interview, she tells us about a widening access initiative that has led to the college admitting over 90 per cent of students from state schools – as in tax payer funded, non selective and free-to-attend schools. She explains how the programme identified students to help them apply to the elite institution and what support exists to help them succeed once they arrive. 

Campus interview: Nicholas Dirks, president and CEO of the New York Academy of Sciences

Dr. Nicholas Dirks is a higher education leader, an historian, the former chancellor at the University of California, Berkeley and the current president and CEO of the New York Academic of Sciences.

In this interview he explains why interdisciplinarity might be harder to achieve than some might think, how to communicate the public good of science to various audiences, and if science should be leveraged in geopolitics. 

 

Campus: How to deal with the legacy of empire in higher education

Decolonisation has become a lightning rod for critics who accuse universities and colleges of being full of liberal ideologues, with a number of pundits up in arms about efforts to decolonise reading lists and the curriculum. 

But for some scholars, decolonisation is merely a by-product of the work that they do, including our guest Farish Noor, a professor in the department of history in the Faculty of the Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Malaya in Malaysia and a professor in the Standards of Decision Making Across Cultures programme at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. Despite its complexity, Noor says, decolonisation is essential to a comprehensive view of humanity.

Many in academia doubt decolonisation's relevance for STEM subjects, but in this episode we’ll also hear from Brigitte Stenhouse, a lecturer in the history of mathematics in the School of Mathematics and Statistics at The Open University. She has overseen the creation of a database of original sources to give students a global and historical view of the discipline.

Campus: How to navigate higher education as a woman of colour

For international women's day, we spoke with two academics of colour about their experiences of being minority women in academia.

 

Henrika McCoy is the Ruby Lee Piester Centennial Fellow in Services to Children and Families and associate professor at the Steve Hicks School of Social Work at the University of Texas at Austin.

Henrika shares her experience of colleagues and students having erroneous expectations about her scholarship and background because she is a Black female academic. And she addresses the assumption that non-parent academics don’t have any caring responsibilities. 

More from Henrika:

Diversity statements: the good, the bad and the ugly

Questions you should ask yourself about your role in institutional racism

Yes, your university perpetuates racism against BAME academics: what can you do?

Didar Zowghi is a professor of software engineering and a senior principal research scientist at CSIRO's Data61. She leads a research team in "Diversity and Inclusion in AI" and "Requirements Engineering for Responsible AI". She is also the leader of the National AI Centre’s think tank on diversity and inclusion in AI in Australia, emeritus professor at University of Technology Sydney and conjoint professor at the University of New South Wales.

Didar speaks about about biases in AI systems, improving the gender imbalance among AI professionals and her journey from Iran to the upper echelons of the AI research community. 

 

THE Campus: Academia and activism

Academia and activism might seem like a natural pair. Both require grit, persistence and a passionate commitment to a cause. However doing social justice work is often at the sacrifice of other tasks that count towards career progression in higher education. 

 

In this episode, three academic activists discuss the structures within higher education that make this work difficult, how they balance it with parenthood and other commitments, and they offer advice to anyone else hoping to use their research and teaching as a bridge between universities and the community. 

 

Colette Cann is a professor and associate dean in the school of education at the University of San Francisco, and Eric DeMeulenaere is an associate professor of urban schooling in the department of education at Clark University. Their book The activist academic: engaged scholarship for resistance, hope and social change was published in 2020 by Myers Education Press. 

 

John McKendrick is a professor in social justice at Glasgow Caledonian University and is working to eradicate poverty. 

THE Campus: Career advice, LGBTQ+ in the academy and public speaking tips

A career in academia comes with a lot of components – some good and some not so good. In this episode we’re talking about topics that might seem like their on the periphery of the core elements of an academic career, but they’re crucial to your credibility among colleagues and your sense of well-being.

Ray Crossman, president of Adler University in Chicago, shares his experience of being an out president and encourages others to be their true self on the job, warts and all. He's also got advice on upskilling through mentors and explains how university mission statements give subtle cues to LGBTQ+ academics on how supported they would feel on campus.

Brian Bloch is a presentation and communication teacher associated with the University of Münster. Here he gives pointers on voice, body language, and English pronunciation. And he’ll give a conclusive answer to how to pronounce one of London’s most difficult-to-say tube stations.

Read more career advice from your peers on THE Campus: How to progress in your academic career

THE Campus: What makes a good higher education leader?

Universities have been around for a millennium, however their modern iteration - and the people who lead them - are somewhat different to their medieval European ancestors. Over the centuries, institutions have dealt with a multitude of difficulties but the current combination of a global pandemic, economic downturn, populist politics and a climate crisis seems particularly challenging. So what sort of leader does the moment call for? And how are senior figures in higher education responding to the issues of the day?

Leadership expert Jon McNaughton, an associate professor and associate department chair in Texas Tech University’s College of Education, joins the podcast to explain how the job of university president has changed over the decades, what type of leadership is required right now and how to know when to step away. Joy Johnson, president and vice-chancellor at Simon Fraser University, shares what it's like being a rare female leader and how she approaches housing shortages and the politics around recruiting international students.

 

Find out more about Jon's work here.