For students to thrive within a higher education setting, they need to feel safe and supported. Universities’ duty of care extends from making students feel welcome and valued to protecting them from serious harm. On this week’s Campus podcast, we discuss the full spectrum of student safeguarding and support. Rachel Fenton, a professor in law at the University of Exeter and one of the UK’s leading academic experts in sexual violence and bystander intervention outlines the scale of the problem in UK universities and explains what can be done to tackle sexual misconduct in all its forms. Catherine Moran, deputy vice-chancellor, academic, at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, discusses how her institution approaches student support, harnessing data and tech tools alongside human connection to ensure all students get the reassurance or help they need to succeed in their studies. For more advice and insight specific to university safeguarding, head to our latest spotlight collection, made up of resources contributed by higher education professionals from all over the world: Duty of care: making university safe for all

What underpins effective research, knowledge generation and innovation? In this podcast, we hear a world-leading biomedical scientist discuss what constitutes effective knowledge exchange and supports translational research that can, ultimately, result in innovations that change the world for the better. Plus, a data scientist outlines the opportunities and risks associated with the proliferation in, but also greater regulation of, online data and what this could mean for future research. Chas Bountra is pro-vice chancellor for innovation of the University of Oxford – we spoke just a week before the University of Oxford was named as the world’s leading university in Times Higher Education World University Rankings, for the ninth year in a row. The university claimed the top spot once more, based on its increased income from industry, the number of patents citing its research and its teaching scores. Chas is also a professor of translational medicine and head of impact and innovation in the Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine. He is a director at Oxford University Innovations and has previously worked in industry as vice president and head of biology at GlaxoSmithKline and was the director of the Structural Genomics Consortium Oxford from 2008 to 2020. Sara de Freitas is an an author, educator and researcher with extensive expertise in data science and digital technologies. She is honorary research fellow at Birkbeck, University of London and a visiting professor at the Open University and the University of South Wales.

For this episode of the Campus podcast, we talk to Eunice Simmons, who has been vice-chancellor of the University of Chester since 2020, about what works when it comes to widening participation in higher education and how to ensure students are successful in their studies and beyond. She describes how initiatives such as Citizen Student and the Race Equality Challenge Group embed the values of social capital, civic engagement and equity across the institution, and link academic learning to the real world. Her work towards widening participation, which resulted in a joint win as 2023 University Leader of the Year in the Purpose Coalition awards, includes being chair of the board of trustees of Transforming Access and Student Outcomes in Higher Education (TASO). An environmental scientist by training, she also discusses how post-Covid changes to work patterns led to a rethinking of university spaces to boost sustainability and cost efficiency.

Effective teaching sits at the heart of higher education’s mission to advance learning and discovery. But what are the key components which make up top quality instruction? And how can these be achieved in different and often fast evolving educational contexts? It is this latter question which makes defining good teaching so difficult. So, for this week’s podcast we spoke to two academics who have taught and researched teaching in widely varied settings to dig into the nuances of this most admirable of skills. Leon Tikly is a professor and global chair in education at the University of Bristol, UNESCO chair in inclusive, good quality education and co-director of the Centre for International and Comparative Education in the School of Education. Jason Lodge is associate professor of educational psychology and director of the learning, instruction and technology lab in the University of Queensland’s School of Education. He is an expert advisor to the OECD and Australian National Task Force on AI in Education.

What is an intelligent campus? How is technology blurring, or extending, the borders of the modern university? And how do you build belonging when your students could be spread across the globe? In this episode of the Campus podcast, we talk to two experts from leading US institutions – who were both speakers at Times Higher Education’s Digital Universities US 2024 event – about how technology is redefining the university experience. Steve Harmon is executive director of the Center for 21st Century Universities at Georgia Tech as well as associate dean of research in professional education and a professor in the School of Industrial Design. He explains how his university has created “co-learning” spaces where students can gather and interact while benefitting from the flexibility of hybrid learning, and how technology from VR to YouTube supports the “learning to learn” skills that underpin higher education. Lev Gonick is the enterprise chief information officer at Arizona State University and chair of the Sun Corridor Network, Arizona’s research and education network. He talks about the digital infrastructure required to support inclusive digital education at scale, looking to Hollywood-style immersive storytelling to teach STEM, and why it’s vital to align digital goals with the institution’s overall mission.

In this episode, we sit down with two panellists from Times Higher Education’s Digital Universities Asia 2024 event to talk to them in more detail about how their institutions have embraced advancing digital technologies in different ways – and brought their staff and students along for the ride. Julia Chen is director of the Educational Development Centre at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and leads a multi-university project focused on best practice in relation to generative AI. She talks about how her institution is rethinking teaching and assessment in the light of AI advances and supporting faculty in making the necessary changes to their course design and delivery. Helen Cocks is head of digital strategy and engagement at the University of Exeter, responsible for setting the direction and driving engagement for the institution’s digital transformation. She explains how her team has partnered with students and staff to roll out a university-wide digital strategy focused on improving student experiences and upskilling staff. These conversations were recorded live, in-person, at Digital Universities Asia in Bali in July 2024.

This episode of the Campus podcast comes at a time when many UK universities are changing leaders. A total of 30 institutions have either had a new leader start or have begun the process of finding a replacement in 2024, according to a Times Higher Education analysis last month. So, what are the skills and experience that underpin good leadership and how do you prepare for a senior role? Our interview is with Shân Wareing, the new vice-chancellor of Middlesex University in northwest London, arranged after she posted on LinkedIn about the five things she focused on in her first day in the role. In that post, she listed sense-checking the mandate she had first pitched, identifying the key people to meet, understanding the underlying issues, how to make decisions “stick”, and seeing the life of the university. As she explains, the clarity of that road map comes from over 20 years’ leadership experience in roles such as deputy vice-chancellor of the University of Northampton and pro vice-chancellor of education and student experience at London South Bank University. But her acuity comes from other sources, too. She offers fascinating insights into how to put a career together, the skill that is more important than confidence, and finding joy in what you do.   Our conversation took place in May, when she’d been in post for just over a month.

With frozen tuition fees, falling international student enrolment and the very real possibility of a university going bankrupt, the UK’s new Labour government has inherited a sector in crisis. The need for fast action is apparent, but where should priorities lie? Two higher education leaders share their perspectives on what the sector needs in the short and long term.  For this episode of the Campus podcast, we talk first to Vivienne Stern, chief executive of Universities UK, about universities’ valuable opportunity to make a first impression, where Labour might turn for advice on higher education and how the sector may “tilt” in a quest for balance and stability.    Our second guest, Chris Day is chair of the Russell Group of research-intensive universities and vice-chancellor of Newcastle University. He details what is at stake for a sector amid a funding crisis, job cuts and department closures – and where new revenue streams might come from – as well as hope that the 4 July election has brought a chance to reset the sector’s relationship with Westminster.

One way to future-proof students in our globalised world is to improve their cross-cultural communication skills. With students and academics more mobile than ever, the ability to reach across divides – be they language, culture, religion, economic or location – will be in demand whatever the workplace. These skills offer a path to belonging, innovating, being effective and thriving in higher education and industry. For this episode, we talk to two very different experts in cross-cultural education; one works in medical and healthcare communication in Hungary and the other teaches creative writing and other media in the mountains of Central Asia. They share their advice for creating a classroom that supports language learning and understanding, how teaching can adapt to maximise the benefits of an international student cohort, connecting practical clinical skills with functional language, and how language learning itself creates more empathetic communication. Lucy Palmer is a senior lecturer of communications and media based at the Naryn campus of the University of Central Asia in Kyrgyzstan. She is also a former foreign correspondent and a successful memoir writer. Katalin Fogarasi is an associate professor and director of the Institute of Languages for Specific Purposes at Semmelweis University in Budapest, Hungary.

Will the UK general election offer a ray of hope for the beleaguered university sector? On this episode of the Times Higher Education podcast, two policy experts give their take on opportunities that 4 July may bring and how a new UK parliament might tackle hot topics such as international students and research funding. Our questions include what is on higher education’s wish list for the new parliament, and how might university leaders demonstrate the value of their institutions to policymakers? Over two interviews, we also tackle “blue sky” research funding, the future of skills training, how immigration policy might shape international student flows, and whether higher education will be a priority regardless of who wins the race to Whitehall. Nick Hillman is director of the Higher Education Policy Institute and worked as chief of staff for David Willetts when he was minister for universities and science from 2007 to 2013. Diana Beech is CEO of London Higher. Her policy experience includes being a policy adviser to three ministers of state for universities, science, research and innovation.

For this episode of the Times Higher Education podcast, we talk to award-winning author, cultural historian and literary critic Alexandra Harris about the research and writing practices behind her new book, The Rising Down: Lives in a Sussex Landscape (Faber, 2024). Alexandra is a professorial fellow in English at the University of Birmingham in the UK. Her books include Romantic Moderns: English Writers, Artists & the Imagination from Virginia Woolf to John Piper, which won The Guardian First Book award and a Somerset Maugham award, and Weatherland, which was adapted into a 10-part radio series for the BBC. This conversation explores what a literary scholar can bring to the study of local history, the power of place, and how “trespassing” researchers can find new insights in familiar records of everyday and celebrated lives.

Katie Normington, vice-chancellor and CEO of De Montfort University, has proved to be adept at both leading by example and change management. Not only did she join the Leicester institution during Covid amid the longest lockdown in the UK, but in the three years she has led the institution she has overseen large-scale curriculum reform. De Montfort has moved most of its undergraduate and postgraduate courses from traditional curriculum structure to block plan, with significant boosts in student satisfaction. The way that Normington talks about leadership demonstrates the very qualities she champions: clear strategic direction, communication and empowering others to lean into their strengths. She is a past winner of a Times Higher Education leadership and development award. This conversation covers her journey from aspiring ballet dancer to university head, early leadership challenges, and why higher education needs bold leaders, courage, creativity and agility as it faces global challenges.

Imagine a learning environment where an AI professor fields infinite student questions, where business students practise difficult conversations with an avatar that models an array of personas and reactions, where automated feedback is not static but dynamic and individualised. Artificial intelligence and XR tools are changing education and preparing students to live and work in an unpredictable world.  In this episode of the Times Higher Education podcast, we talk to an expert in immersive technology, whose experience includes big tech companies such as Amazon and Meta, where she was head of immersive learning, as well as her current role in higher education. Monica Arés is executive director of the Innovation, Digital Education and Analytics Lab at Imperial College London. In this conversation, she tells us about the evolution of edtech from the early days of virtual reality, immersive technology’s potential for unlocking curiosity (and the costs that come with it), and what she thinks teaching technology will look like in 2034. Hint: it’s a personalised, creative world with fewer screens.

For this episode of the Times Higher Education podcast, we talk with an academic, practitioner and policy commentator who uses phrases such as “burning platform” to describe the state of universities’ digital landscape. Mark Thompson is a professor of digital economy in the research group Initiative for the Digital Economy (Index) at the University of Exeter, and his work focuses on the complexity and velocity of the digital economy. A former UK government policy adviser, he is recognised as one of the architects of digital service redesign of the UK public sector. In this interview, conducted at Digital Universities UK at Exeter, Thompson shares his concern that the sector is drifting away from its true north of research, teaching and impact (he uses Jeff Bezos idea of “day one”), citing statistics that less than 40 per cent of university staff are academics. He suggests reasons for this and talks about the need for leadership at institutional and government level as well as the prisoner’s dilemma of whole-sector transformation.  

What difference does human connection make to student success? Does it matter if students come to in-person lectures? And what if students turn to AI for help with academic tasks rather than asking libraries or someone in student support? This episode of the podcast takes on these questions, ones that have driven headlines on Times Higher Education, to examine the topics of student attendance in lectures and whether students’ use of AI might be making them lonelier. We talk to two Australian academics who both touch on questions of human connection in their work. Jan Slapeta is a professor of veterinary and molecular parasitology and associate head of research in the Faculty of Science at the University of Sydney. He first talked to THE in 2022 when his tweet of a photo of an empty lecture hall touched a nerve in the Twitter-verse. Here, he explains why he is feeling optimistic about in-person teaching in 2024. His insightsare insightful and heartening as are his tips for new teachers. Joseph Crawford is a senior lecturer in management in the Tasmanian School of Business at the University of Tasmania. His paper, co-authored with Kelly-Ann Allen and Bianca Pani, both from Monash University, and Michael Cowling, from Central Queensland University, “When artificial intelligence substitutes humans in higher education: the cost of loneliness, student success, and retention”, was published last month in Studies in Higher Education. Our conversation ranged from what belonging and loneliness actually are to what happens when students turn to AI over real-life relationships.

In this episode of the Times Higher Education podcast, we talk to two experts – one in the US and one in the UK – about open access, the global movement that aims to make research outputs available online immediately and without charge or restrictions. Heather Joseph has been an advocate for knowledge sharing and the open access movement since its earliest days. Based in Washington DC, she has been executive director of the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) since 2005, and is known for her policy work, leadership and international consultancy for organisations such as Unesco, the World Health Organisation and the World Bank. In 2021, she won the Miles Conrad Award, the National Information Standards Organization’s recognition of lifetime achievement in the information community, and her lecture as the recipient is a detailed history of the movement, its goals and strategies. Steven Vidovic is the head of open research and publication practice at the University of Southampton in the UK. A palaeontologist with a passion for scholarly communication and knowledge exchange for public benefit, he is also chair of the Directory of Open Access Journals advisory board and Southampton’s institutional lead for the UK Reproducibility Network, and he is a member of Jisc’s transitional agreement oversight group.

In this episode we discuss a rare creature: the female higher education leader.  Indeed, according to the American Council on Education’s most recent American College President Study, women remain outnumbered by men in the college presidency by a ratio of 2:1, with about 33 per cent of presidencies currently held by women. Women in higher education were also more likely to work a part-time or reduced schedule or postpone a job search or promotion to care for minor dependents We’d be hard pressed to find a better person to speak with about female leadership in higher education than Sian Block, an award-winning cognitive scientist and an expert on performing under pressure. She is also the 19th president of Dartmouth, and the first woman elected to the position in the institution’s 250-year history. Sian speaks about navigating failure and dealing with anxiety on the job. She also gives some very helpful advice on how to turn imposter syndrome into something positive and shares her personal experience of female leadership, a journey that began with working in the provost office at the University of Chicago before serving as president of Barnard College at Columbia University and then moving to Dartmouth in 2023. 

In this bonus episode of the THE podcast, we continue the theme of universities’ role in fostering civic engagement with an interview with renowned human rights scholar and award-winning author Kathryn Sikkink. Sikkink is the Ryan Family professor of human rights policy at Harvard Kennedy School, as well as faculty co-chair of the Harvard Votes Challenge, a non-partisan initiative that promotes student voter registration and turnout. Her books include The Hidden Face of Rights: Toward a Politics of Responsibilities (Yale University Press, 2020) and The Justice Cascade: How Human Rights Prosecutions Are Changing World Politics (W. W. Norton & Company, 2011), which won the Robert F. Kennedy Center Book Award. In this discussion, we talk about the origins of Sikkink’s interest in human rights, what support students need to navigate the mechanisms of voting, and why showing up on election day is not just a right, it’s a responsibility.

In 2024, more people than ever in history will be going to the polls to vote in elections in more than 80 countries, including the US and the UK. As pillars of democratic societies, universities and colleges are integral to the exercise of choosing our public representatives. In today’s episode we speak to two political scientists about voting habits, including among Generation Z, and how universities can encourage their students to engage in the democratic process. Elizabeth Matto is director of the Eagleton Institute of Politics, a research professor and teacher-scholar-practitioner of democratic education and director of the Center for Youth Political Participation at Rutgers University. She talks to us about what civic engagement is, how campuses can support their students to vote and engage as citizens, and universities’ mission to prepare young people to be part of a democratic society. She also gives tips for facilitating political discussion in the classroom and creating an environment that allows students to be brave, respectful and open with their views. Her new book, To Keep the Republic: Thinking, Talking, and Acting Like a Democratic Citizen (Rutgers University Press, 2024) is published in April. Michael Bruter is a professor of political science and European politics in the department of government at the London School of Economics and Political Science and director of the Electoral Psychology Observatory. Michael has published seven books, including his latest book with Sarah Harrison, Inside the Mind of a Voter (Princeton University Press, 2020), and multiple articles in the fields of elections, political behaviour, political psychology, identities, public opinion, extreme right politics and social science research methods. He told us what their research has shown about first-time voters, including debunking misconceptions such as that young people don’t care about elections, and why voting is like bungee jumping.

James Purnell has been the president and vice-chancellor of the University of the Arts London since 2021. He joined UAL after a career that included key positions at the BBC (as director of strategy and digital, and director of audio and education) and as a research fellow on the Institute of Public Policy Research’s media project. He has served as special adviser on the knowledge economy to UK prime minister Tony Blair and as an MP and cabinet minister. This wide-ranging Campus interview draws on Purnell’s wealth of knowledge of public policy, the digital landscape and the creative industries. The conversation covers universities’ social purpose, the potential of online to widen access to a creative education, what AI could mean for the arts, and how government policy could be shaped to better support students. He also talks about how urban development can foster creativity, and how his experience as a film producer shaped his view of the arts’ potential to make a difference in the world.

From employers to policy makers, universities and their students, everyone agrees that alternative credentials are a good thing for the economy and for expanding access to higher education. But it’s one thing to think it’s a good idea and another to make it happen. The truth is demand for microcredentials remains low among students, the business plans are patchy and higher education providers haven’t fully embraced the new models.  In this episode we hear from an institution who has managed to get alternative credentialing right in a big way. The University of Edinburgh has been building Moocs (massive open online courses) and microcredentials for over 10 years. It currently offers 80 online master’s courses and 100 Moocs and microcredentials, reaching 4.7 million learners around the world. Melissa Highton, assistant principal of online and open learning at the university, is here to tell us about their strategy behind developing Moocs, how they remain relevant to millions of learners and the secret behind their commercial success.  Michael D. Smith, a professor of information technology and public policy at Heinz College and Tepper School Of Business at Carnegie Mellon University, speaks with us about his recent book The Abundant University. Having observed disruption in the television and music industries, he urges universities to leverage technology to reach more students and secure their futures.    Read more from Melissa Highton on Campus "A look back over 10 years of Moocs"

January is a month of change and new beginnings and our guest for this episode speaks about his experience of both, in terms of his career, the relationship between the arts and sciences and the state of US science.  Microbiologist Mike Ibba joins us to discuss Chapman University's decision to move its philosophy department into the Schmid College of Science and Technology and why he wants training the next generation of scientists to be his lasting legacy. Ibba has been the dean of the college since 2020 after spending nearly 20 years at The Ohio State university. He also shares his experience of making the transition from a large, publicly-funded R1 institution to a small, private R2 institution.  Thanks to Chapman University for sponsoring this episode.

In the lead-up to the Times Higher Education Awards 2023, for this episode, we talk to two winners from last year, both of whom share their advice, insights and best practice for engaging the public. King’s College London and health science company Zoe won the award for Outstanding Marketing/Communications Team for the Covid Symptom Study app. Tanya Wood, talks about the agile methods the team used to communicate the science in real time in a way that saw millions sign up for the app and impacted UK Covid policy. Hugo Bowles joins us to explain the Dickens Code, an ongoing project in which he and principal investigator Claire Wood, of the University of Leicester, enlisted the global public to unravel the mysteries of Charles Dickens shorthand. 

  Can spending time in natural environments support students’ well-being? The is the question that an interdisciplinary team of researchers and educators at Trinity University in San Antonio Texas wanted to answer.  Despite research showing that spending time outside does support students’ mental health, the team struggled to get students to actually spend time outdoors. So they developed an innovative course combing theory, research and practice to help students improve their mental wellness and better understand how it’s connected with the natural environment.   On today’s episode of the podcast, Laura Allen, co-developer of the course and a professor in the department of education at Trinity University joins us to talk about what inspired her and colleagues to develop this programme, how it combines forest bathing and undergraduate research, and, most importantly, if it’s helped their students.    Thanks to one of our newest Campus+ members Trinity University for sponsoring this episode.  Watch the video recording of this episode on Campus. 

Academic freedom and free speech are the defining values of higher education institutions. But sticking to those principles becomes very difficult when polarising political events divide communities on and off campus. In this episode, free speech champion and the chancellor at Vanderbilt University, Daniel Diermeier, discusses how academic leaders should respond to the Israel-Hamas war. Civil discourse is part of Dr. Diermeier’s solution to tribalism on campus and he gives examples of how that has been coached and encouraged at Vanderbilt. He also shares what is was like in the first few months of his chancellorship when researchers at Vanderbilt’s University Medical Center were on the cutting edge of Covid-19 vaccine development. Find more resources from colleagues and peers on how to protect academic freedom on Campus 

Find out how engaging non-academics in research can uncover and disperse new knowledge and ways of thinking that could help shape solutions to seemingly intractable problems

For this episode of the podcast we handed the mic over to the Campus network to get their top tips on how to be a good mentor and mentee. These relationships can make or break academic careers so getting them right is crucial. Our contributors offer suggestions on how to choose a mentor or supervisor, how to give advice, how to do reverse mentoring and how to lay the ground rules so that everyone gets what they need from these relationships.  This episode's contributors are: Eve Riskin, dean of undergraduate education, Stevens Institute of Technology  Monika Foster, head of department marketing, operations and systems, Faculty of Business and Law, Northumbria University  Jon McNaughtan, associate professor, educational psychology, leadership, and counseling, Texas Tech University  Sioux McKenna, director, Center for Postgraduate Studies, Rhodes University  Preman Rajalingam, director, Centre for Teaching, Learning and Pedagogy, Institute of Pedagogical Innovation, Research and Excellence, Nanyang Technological University Bryan Hanson, graduate student ombudsperson, Virginia Tech Tara Brabazon, dean of graduate studies and professor of cultural studies, Charles Darwin University  Barbara Kensington-Miller, associate professor curriculum and pedagogy, University of Auckland Elena Riva, associate professor and director of education, Institute for Advanced Teaching and Learning, University of Warwick Gabriel Paquette, associate provost for academic affairs and faculty development, University of Maine Lucas Lixinski, professor law and justice, UNSW Sydney  

Ngiare Brown is the first female and the first indigenous chancellor of James Cook University. She’s joined the institution at a time when efforts to indigenise Australian higher education are taking root, with the recent interim report of the Universities Accord saying that putting First Nations at the heart of Australian higher education would result in positive, long-term changes.  Dr. Brown intends to make higher education a place for indigenous students, starting with James Cook, one of her alma maters – a goal which she balances with an acknowledgment of the legacy of the university’s namesake. In this interview, she talks about what she’d like to see changed in Australian higher education, how researchers should engage better with First Nations communities and how a welcome to country statement can make a big difference when it’s done the right way. 

Eve Riskin is on a mission to broaden the definition of diversity. The newly appointed dean of undergraduate education at Stevens Institute of Technology is determined to make sure they are "student ready" in order to support more women, mintoritised groups and students with disabilities through STEM degrees. She's also an award-winning mentor, having received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring in 2020, and encourages her colleagues to not confuse confidence with talent. "If you give someone an opportunity they may take it and run," she counsels.  This episode is sponsored by Stevens Institute of Technology

In an episode last year with the chief scientist at Georgia Tech’s Center for 21st Century Universities Ashok Goel, we asked: Is AI in higher education worth the hype? It turns out that, yes, it is. Ashok is back to help us understand what the developments of ChatGPT and other generative AI systems mean for teaching and learning and how they fit with the machine learning frameworks that were already in place. He also makes some predictions of how things will develop, including the arrival within five years of a university in which every operation is powered by AI. Hear the previous conversation with had with Ashok on Spotify, Apple podcasts or Google podcasts.    

This episode of the Campus podcast comes as record temperatures beat down through the northern hemisphere summer, with wildfires engulfing Greece and Spain, and deadly floods engulf India. With the UK recently approving new oil and gas licences, it’s easy to feel that reversing the climate crisis is a lost cause. However, our guests both offer elements of hope despite the bleak outlook. Bryan Alexander is a senior scholar at Georgetown University and a futurist. His latest book, Universities on Fire, implores universities to wake up and realise that they can make a profound change in the climate crisis. And he is cautiously optimistic about their ability to do that. Our second guest is Sebastian Pfautsch, an associate professor in urban planning and management in the School of Social Sciences at Western Sydney University, with a background in tree physiology and, of all things, interior design. His multidisciplinary research is built around the complex issue of urban heat. He talks about some of the actions WSU, which has topped the Times Higher Education Impact Rankings for the past two years, has taken to meet the SDGS and what Australia’s experience of extreme heat can teach the rest of the world about cooling their cities.

Watch the video recording of this podcast on Campus    Findings from a recent Gallup survey of Americans found that only 36 per cent have a "great deal" or "quite a lot of" confidence in higher education. That’s about 20 percentage points lower than the same survey in 2015. For Jonathan Koppell, president at Montclair State University, it’s time for universities to own their part in that loss of trust in American higher education. The big question universities need to ask themselves is: What are we doing to change the modus operandi to make it easier for people to get the dream universities are selling them, i.e.: get a degree, have a better life?  In this interview Dr Koppell  discusses accessibility to higher education for minoritised groups as well as the merger with Bloomfield College and how the affirmative action ruling will change the higher education landscape. Montclair State is the newest member of the Campus+ network. Find out more about Campus+. 

In this episode of the Campus podcast, we’re embarking on a journey into a realm of the unknown. A world full of possibilities and creative opportunities but not without risks and ethical quandaries. Three intrepid pioneers are our guides as we learn how tools such as ChatGPT can enhance student feedback and academic research. Jennifer Rose, a senior lecturer in accounting and finance at the University of Manchester, and David Nicol, a research professor in the Adam Smith Business School at the University of Glasgow, explain how they are using the AI generator in their teaching – while being sensitive to its limitations and risks. They use it to help students use inner feedback to improve their writing (through comparison with ChatGPT output), to save time, to make thinking visual, and to foster critical thinking and academic skills. Our third guest is Brooke Szücs, a research assistant and advocate for diversity in education at the University of Queensland. Brooke, who has autism, uses ChatGPT as “a conversation partner” to enhance her academic writing through feedback, polishing and drawing out key ideas, and even asking it to suggest journals where she could submit her work. Read more from Jennifer Rose on Campus. Read more from David Nicol on Campus. Read more from Brooke Szücs on Campus.

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.   

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.    

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. 

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.

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.   

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.

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.   

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. 

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

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.   

Ruth Simmons was the first African American president of Brown University which she led for 11 years. Before that she was president at Smith College where she set up the first engineering programme at a women’s institution. She was recently called out of retirement to lead Prairie View A&M an historically black institution in southeast Texas. As she approaches the end of her tenure there, THE Campus editor Sara Custer interviewed her for THE Campus Live US. Here she speaks about her pioneering work to research Brown’s historical links to slavery, the future of affirmative action, legacy admissions and how to get more people that look like her into university leadership. 

How can faculty and staff address the real issues, however forbidden, that make students feel isolated and voiceless? When teams research difficult topics, how can they establish two-way, equitable participation with their community? Members of the teams that won the Times Higher Education 2021 Awards for Outstanding Contribution to the Local Community and Outstanding Contribution to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion join us in this episode to discuss working with taboo and difficult topics. Anna Walas, faculty research impact officer and honorary research fellow in the Faculty of Arts at the  University of Nottingham, talks about her team’s research into gender-based violence. And Lindsay Morgan, a placement officer for the School of Arts & Creative Industries at Edinburgh Napier University and co-producer of Bleeding Soar, tells us about the campaign to increase awareness of period poverty around the world.   Related links: Website for the Bleedin' Soar campaign Website for the The Language of Hate Crime project "Talking about taboos: how to create an open atmosphere for discussing difficult subjects" by Lindsay Morgan "In this together: developing meaningful community engagement" by Anna Wales Resources from 2022 Times Higher Education Awards nominees   

Artificial intelligence has a lot of potential for higher education. It can automate onerous repetitive tasks for teachers, help researchers leapfrog mountains of data crunching and make higher education more accessible and personalised for students. But AI also presents risks, including biases that can become embedded into algorithms and a lack of transparency around data use. Though we may be a long way from understanding exactly how higher education can harness AI and machine learning’s great potential in a safe way, this episode's guests say that continuing to test and explore it is the only way to make progress. Join THE Campus editor Sara Custer and senior content curator Miranda Prynne as they speak with Ashok Goel, a professor of computer science and human-centered computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the developer of the first automated teaching assistant, as well as John Wu an assistant astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute and an associate research scientist at Johns Hopkins University.   Find resources from your peers exploring the benefits and costs of AI in higher education on THE Campus.  

Even the most experienced faculty member could benefit from teaching advice from their peers. In this episode of the THE Campus podcast, we feature short tips from university educators around the world to create a mini teaching community in podcast form. And we speak with David Dodick, a sessional lecturer at University of California, Berkeley and the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto, about the the arts and humanities employability myth and common mistakes he's seen university lecturers make.   So sharpen your pencils and make sure your laptop is charged – prepare to get schooled on how to teach. Find more teaching resources in our THE Campus spotlight "Teaching 101: advice for university educators"   This episode is sponsored by Routledge. THE Campus listeners can use code THE20 before 22 October 2022 to get *20 per cent off* all orders.   

Education is often offered as a solution to tackling misinformation, particularly training in critical thinking and analytical skills. But what does that actually look like in the day to day running of a university? Or for the average higher education instructor not specialised in fields like media, politics or social sciences? And is there more that institutions could be doing to inform public policy and technology companies to help get ahead of the disinformation wave?  Phil Napoli the senior associate dean for faculty and research at the Sanford School of Public Policy and the director of the DeWitt Wallace Center for Media & Democracy at Duke University shares his ideas about how universities can support local journalism and researchers can work with third parties to impact public policy.  And Simge Andi, a lecturer in quantitative Political Science at the University of Exeter, talks about her research into why people are vulnerable to misinformation and what she's learned from studying elections in Turkey.  This episode is sponsored by The Wall Street Journal. Visit wsj.com/timeshighereducation to learn more about integrating WSJ into your classes. And for more advice from your peers on what universities can do to fight fake news, check out our THE Campus spotlight: The role of higher education in separating fact from fiction.  

Whether teaching or writing up research, there is a strong incentive for academics to try and make their work as interesting as possible. If people are intrigued by what they’re doing, it is likely to have a greater impact. But since everyone has their own unique take on what is or is not interesting, this can seem an impossible task. So, we spoke to three academics to find out if there are any universal characteristics that academics could try to develop in their work that will successfully pique people’s interest. Kurt Gray, associate professor in psychology and neuroscience at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and director of the Deepest Beliefs Lab and Center for the Science of Moral Understanding, shares a beginners guide to what makes something interesting. Manuel Goyanes, assistant professor in the Department of Media and Communication at Carlos III University of Madrid (UC3M), discusses the qualities likely to generate greater interest in research. Emily Corwin-Renner, research scientist at the University of Tübingen’s Hector Research Institute of Education Sciences and Psychology, shares insight and strategies to help teachers hold the attention of their students. Further reading: Find dozens of helpful resources on how to make your teaching more interesting on THE Campus. Manuel Goyanes’s 2018 study “Against dullness: on what it means to be interesting in communication research: Information” published in Information, Communication & Society

During his 30-year tenure, Freeman Hrabowski, the outgoing president of the University of Maryland Baltimore County, has transformed UMBC from a small branch of the University System of Maryland into one of the leading producers of Black STEM graduates in the country.   In this interview, Freeman talks about how to have the difficult conversations that identify where students needs are not being met. How UMBC uses granular data to identify students who might be falling behind, and how inclusivity work is the tide that raises all boats so everyone benefits.   Find more resources about how to champion inclusion on your campus on THE Campus   Freeman's first book: The Empowered University by Freeman Hrabowski III with Philip J. Rous And Peter H. Henderson   Research quoted in the intro: “A critical exploration of inclusion policies of elite UK universities”  by George Koutsouris, Lauren Stentiford, Brahm Norwich, in British Educational Research Journal  

We’ve asked academics, authors, publishers and postdocs to share with us their advice for how to improve your academic writing and chances of getting published.    They cover everything from tips to establish a consistent writing practice like Jack London and how to find the hook in your work, to why your article might be rejected and how to bring in voices beyond just those writing in standard North American or British English.      Hear pointers from:    John Weldon, an associate professor and head of curriculum in Victoria University’s First Year College   Dorsa Amir, a postdoc in the department of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley   Tara Brabazon, a professor of cultural studies at Flinders University Daniel Martin, a publisher at Elsevier, a fiction author and creative writing teacher at Delft University   Joe Moran, a professor of English and cultural history at Liverpool John Moores University   Marnie Jo Petray, an associate professor and graduate coordinator of TESOL at Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania   Stone Meredith, a teacher of college-level composition, literature and philosophy courses at Colorado State University Global   Anne Wilson, a consultant fellow at the Royal Literary Fund    Avi Staiman, CEO at Academic Language Experts   Gaillynn Clements, a visiting assistant professor in linguistics at Duke University   Read We must end linguistic discrimination in academic publishing by Avi, Marnie Jo and Gaillynn   And find more tips for success in academic publishing on THE Campus

Three university leaders heading up their institutions’ public affairs and community engagement in London, Melbourne and Chicago speak with us about the value of mutually beneficial partnerships with First Nation communities, local neighbourhoods and government.   They talk about using their strengths of teaching and research to engage with the community and what that means for increasingly digital campuses.  This episode features: Deborah Bull, vice-president, communities and national engagement at King’s College London   Derek Douglas, vice-president for civic engagement and external affairs at The University of Chicago Julie Wells, vice-president, strategy & culture at University of Melbourne  

Social media is an increasing part of public scholarship and for some academics, it’s a way to bring their work to a wider audience and develop new skills. We speak to two scholars who have embraced sci-comms on platforms from YouTube to podcasts to find out how they got started and what works.   YouTube scientist Simon Clark shares how he got started doing science and PhD vlogs and Christina Zdenek, a post-doc and lab manager of the Venom Evolution Lab at The University of Queensland, gives her top three tips for communicating your research.    Read more form Christina: Get your research out there: 7 strategies for high-impact science communication  

As we reach the two-year anniversary of the global pandemic, two university leaders and innovators tell Miranda Prynne and Sara Custer what they've learned about institutional resiliency, teaching practices and what the future holds for higher education, online and in-person. Peter Mathieson, the principal and vice-chancellor at The University of Edinburgh, and Anant Agarawal, CEO and co-founder of edX, the COEO at 2U and a professor at MIT, both offer their own unique perspectives on a tumultuous period for global higher education.

Academics, colleagues and friends Sebastian Kaempf and Alastair Stark from the University of Queensland share the evolution of their podcast, Higher Ed Heroes, which they created in 2020 to mimic the incidental corridor conversations that have been missing during the pandemic. In this episode, they explain how the podcast replicates peer-to-peer sharing of best teaching practice. Their down-to-earth, buzzword-free approach has seen their audience grow from just UQ colleagues to listeners in 70 countries. Listen to Higher Ed Heroes here. Find resources and advice on how to create a happy campus in our latest THE Campus spotlight. 

A new book of essays from librarians, students and academics around the world offers insights into the work of decolonising a library.    For this episode we spoke with the book’s editors, Jess Crilly, an independent author who was formerly the associate director for content and discovery, library services at the University of the Arts London and Regina Everitt, the assistant chief operating officer and director of library, archives and learning services at the University of East London.    We cover what it means to decolonise a library, how a project like this stretches far beyond the archives and learning services of a campus and what practical advice they’d give to someone interested in doing this work. Not surprisingly, it starts with a conversation.    Learn more about their book Narrative Expansions: Interpreting Decolonisation in Academic Libraries   And find more advice pieces about decolonisation on THE Campus including How to support academic staff starting the journey of decolonising the curriculum  and Decolonising the curriculum – how do I get started? 

Authors of two of the most-read resources on THE Campus in 2021 give us a behind-the-scenes look at the thinking and research that went into their pieces.    Joining us is Pardis Mahdavi, dean of social sciences in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Arizona State University and Scott N. Brooks, an associate professor with the T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics at ASU.  They co-authored one of THE Campus' most popular resources, "Diversity statements: what to avoid and what to include".  And Elena Riva, an associate professor and director of studies at the Institute for Advanced Teaching and Learning at the University of Warwick, is here to speak about the research that informed her piece "Well-being pedagogies: activities and practices to improve the student experience online". See more of this year's top resources, collections and spotlights that have helped academics and university staff around the world do the best teaching and research imaginable. 

To commemorate the annual THE Awards, Sara Custer and Miranda Prynne interview previous winners to find out how their work has developed since taking home a trophy and any advice they might give to their colleagues working towards similar goals.    Interviewees: Tara Moore, professor of personalised medicine at Ulster University and winner of the 2020 Outstanding Research Supervisor of the Year   Judith Francois, senior lecturer at Kingston University and winner of the 2020 Most Innovative Teacher of the Year Award   David Green, vice-chancellor at the University of Worcester, the 2020 winner for Outstanding Contribution to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion   Sara Baldwin, head of student support services at Nottingham Trent University, the winner for Outstanding Support for Students in 2020.    Julian Skyrme, director of social responsibility at the Manchester University, the 2020 winner for Outstanding Contribution to the Local Community   David Worsley, a professor at Swansea University, the winner of the 2020 International Collaboration of the Year See the shortlisted nominees for the 2021 THE Awards and read their advice on supervising researchers, innovative teaching methods and student support. 

Ahead of the United Nations’ Climate Change Conference, we spoke to two university leaders about the sustainability initiatives at their institutions and how universities can be leaders in tackling the climate crisis.  Joining us is Katy Fleming, the provost at NYU, and Tercio Ambrizzi, a professor of climatology and superintendent of environmental management at the University of São Paulo. We also asked Katy and Tercio what they expect from the discussions in Glasgow over the next couple of weeks. Read more insight and practical advice on how higher education institutions support a fair transition to a low carbon future in our latest Spotlight.    Music: Beauty Flow by Kevin MacLeod https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5025-beauty-flow License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license