My Imaginary University

Paul Greatrix

An exciting higher ed podcast brought to you by Dr Paul Greatrix in which a notable sector figure is asked to create and describe their ideal imaginary university. My Imaginary University is a sort of Desert Island Universities concept but without the desert island, the music, the book or the luxury.  Will their imaginary university be a bit Christminster, rather Rummidge-like or more in the Manchester Medlock mould? You'll have to listen to find out. And to discover what kind of VC our guest will be and what their university's anthem is.

  1. Episode 11: Global Scale Research at World Multilateral U

    17/11/2025

    Episode 11: Global Scale Research at World Multilateral U

    Everything has gone global at the Olympic-style university This episode of My Imaginary University was, excitingly, recorded live in front of an audience at the recent Wonkhe Festival of Higher Education. Many thanks to Wonkhe for inviting me and special thanks to Jim Dickinson for all the help with making the recording happen. Our creative force on this occasion is Graeme Wise who is Director of Strategic Programmes and Engagement at University of London who has imagined a big and bold institution operating on a genuinely global scale. World Multilateral University - also known colloquially as Olympic University - is a worldwide research institution operating under a treaty which brings the world’s best academics together in focused groupings to address the biggest research challenges there are for four years at a time. There’s a well-staffed permanent secretariat based in a pleasant city and all staff enjoy some special privileges, including magic passports which get them through all borders without delay. Every four years the University has a two month long in person plenary session to review progress and plan the next round of research - it sees itself as the opposite of the Davos experience. Our audience chip in with some excellent questions for aspirant president Graeme covering topics ranging from strategic planning to IP to secret handshakes, We also learn that the University’s theme tune leads staff to imagine they are running along a beach whenever they hear it played. Or maybe not. Anyway, it is a terrific proposition and a really good discussion.

    39 min
  2. Episode 10: Rejoicing at Enlightenment

    24/07/2025

    Episode 10: Rejoicing at Enlightenment

    Let us Rejoice at the Scottish Institute for the Enlightenment In the latest episode of My Imaginary University Professor Sir Anton Muscatelli, Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Glasgow, shares his vision for a Scottish Institute for the Enlightenment, a body focused on advancing human reasoning for purpose of improvement.  Working closely with the Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow and based in both cities this largely postgraduate and research institution is fundamentally international in outlook and covers a broad range of subjects. Embodying an interdisciplinary approach, the institute delivers high quality research and real policy impact, engaging directly with governments and big organisations.  As a light touch vice-chancellor, broader issues like the food offer really matter to Anton as does the range of cultural activities on offer, from Bonnie Tyler-focused karaoke to arts festivals, and there is a strong sense of the importance of community engagement too. It is, of course, a largely rational institution which really helps with management operations and there are few concerns with controversial speakers thanks to the enlightenment ethos. The institute's anthem is a traditional one and its Latin lyrics are no obstacle to celebrating the joys of work and study.

    34 min
  3. Episode 9: Life's Just Fine at BIVB University

    27/05/2025

    Episode 9: Life's Just Fine at BIVB University

    Fine, fine, fine This latest episode in the My Imaginary University podcast series stars Ben Vulliamy, Executive Director at AHUA, the Association of Heads of University Administrators.  Ben creates an interesting and distinctive Yorkshire-based university which is busy connecting with everyone and everything but has no time for mission groups. It enthusiastically partners with organisations and agencies across the country to deliver education and research in novel ways and places, from Grimsby to East London. Good citizenship is central to every part of student life and, working closely with the students' union, the aim is to have the healthiest students around. There are also some novel approaches to hotel-style student accommodation and food and beverage provision. Ben, unsurprisingly perhaps, sees himself as Registrar rather than Vice-Chancellor of this new university and, having a culture which fosters constant reflection among the student population is confident that everything will be just fine.

    41 min
  4. Episode 8: Climbing Every Higher Ed Mountain in Nairobi and Nuneaton

    30/04/2025

    Episode 8: Climbing Every Higher Ed Mountain in Nairobi and Nuneaton

    This episode of the podcast stars Professor Sir Chris Husbands, latterly Vice-Chancellor of Sheffield Hallam University and now founder and Director of Higher Futures a consultancy, strategy and policy advice company. In dreaming up his imaginary university Chris made the wise choice not to worry at all about finances but rather focused on a set of core precepts drawing on his own diverse experience to ensure that every part of higher education is reflected in his institution. Chris presents us with a genuinely global university which is embedded in the community and embraces co-operative and lifelong learning. It is a university of scale and based on a federal model with its first campuses in the landmark locations of Nuneaton and Nairobi.  Distinctively, students are expected to return no sooner than 10 years after graduation to undertake a fourth year of study to round off their learning journey, responding to the notion that university is wasted on the young. Education is immersive and full-service from 18 onwards and students can expect to graduate at whatever level being able to climb every mountain. There are no single subject degrees and all programmes are genuinely interdisciplinary with all students also undertaking 25% of their degree in the community or in practice or research settings. Although this inevitably creates timetabling challenges the broad-based comprehensive model is arguably a return to more traditional approach and bears more than a passing resemblance to the California State system. The legacies of George Eliot, Ken Loach and Larry Grayson, notable Nuneaton residents are also reflected in the offer as the university looks to promote access, diversity and encourage everyone to think locally and act globally. It's a bold and distinctive model for a global university, led by academic design and with a very benign president for life overseeing all.

    38 min
  5. Episode 7: Italian Style HE at the Polytecnico di Wakefield

    03/03/2025

    Episode 7: Italian Style HE at the Polytecnico di Wakefield

    Work experience, wine and rhubarb at a brand new Poly This latest episode of the series, in which a notable higher ed figure creates an entirely new university out of thin air, features Martin Edmondson who is CEO of AGCAS, the Association of Graduate Careers and Advisory Services. Martin wants to bring Italian style plus work experience to a Yorkshire higher education cold spot and has created the Politecnico di Wakefield - PoliWak for short - to fill a big gap in the rhubarb triangle. PoliWak has a strong arts and music focus as well as dynamic work-based learning opportunities for all leading to super-employable graduates. In addition to the obvious rhubarb focus for research, wine-related developments are important as is the investment in sports science with the aim of enhancing the prospects of the Vice-Chancellor's beloved Bradford City football club. A generous benefactor has ensured that there are excellent residences on campus and outstanding shared social, learning and working spaces for all in the centre of town. Students from around the world - including Lancashire - are welcomed with a Yorkshire onboarding pack which comprises a range of essential local delicacies. Despite the inclusion of crisps within this pack, their consumption in lecture theatres is strictly forbidden - such is the VC's distinctive brand of benign direction. Finally Martin has also chosen a popular anthem for the ages, albeit from a Londoner rather than a Yorkshire musician.

    31 min
  6. Episode 6: If Timpson's did Higher Ed - it's the University of Harold Wood

    17/02/2025

    Episode 6: If Timpson's did Higher Ed - it's the University of Harold Wood

    The latest episode of the podcast finds me talking to Richard Brabner, Executive Chair of UPP Foundation and Director of ESG about his very specific imagined university. James Timpson is Richard's (non-cricketing) hero and the university embodies his approach to social purpose, combining this with the civic university ethos championed by the much-missed Bob Kerslake. The university's home will be a campus in Harold Wood - hence the name -  a less than prosperous community to the north east of London in the London Borough of Havering where Richard grew up. Not only will it be a will be a beautiful, inspiring and sustainable campus, with no concrete visible, it will also have community learning zones distributed across the borough. Student housing will be based on a new model with some on- and off-campus provision. The undergraduate offer is centred on five novel interdisciplinary degree programmes and includes a major service learning element as a core feature as well as strong community engagement activity. The university also has, unsurprisingly, an innovative approach to widening participation including a bridging module for the homeless, care leavers and ex-offenders to provide them with an opportunity to start a degree. As Vice-Chancellor Richard will be aiming to maintain a strong focus on the core mission of the university and keep structures as simple as possible (although he does not rule out expansion to other locations if a big Timpson donation can be secured). He has employed a Director of Happiness to support the well-being of all staff and will seek happiness feedback on a weekly basis. Meanwhile, the only thing banned at Harold Wood Uni is the banning of other people. Finally, the  institution's anthem is a quirky number by the Kinks which is sure to cause some debate at graduations.

    40 min
  7. Episode 5: Education for All - It's the University for Everyone!

    10/02/2025

    Episode 5: Education for All - It's the University for Everyone!

    In this edition of the podcast we hear from Jenny Shaw, Higher Education External Engagement Director at Unite Students, who has developed an imaginary university which is genuinely intended for everyone and can be found everywhere. The University for Everyone is a distributed national operation which takes elements of the Open University, the Workers' Educational Association and Community Organisers to come up with a very broad range of offerings suitable for everyone who is curious and wants to learn something. Nothing is standard and lots of material can be drawn from other providers as learners define their own course, supported by a learning mentor, but always with a purpose. Funding comes from a variety of sources - some of them very entrepreneurial - and the University is very open to collaboration with similar institutions as it seeks to reach all educationally underserved parts of the UK both rural and urban. Jenny is a pretty relaxed Vice-Chancellor who lives the University's values and believes strongly in the importance of the Students' Union but she is keen to ensure that there is a strong internal regulatory framework too. Most importantly the University and its members are going to spend a good deal of time working through all the challenges of the moment in relation to free speech and respectful dialogue. It's a genuinely novel and wide-ranging offer and the University's anthem is one which will surprise everyone I am sure.

    37 min
  8. Episode 4: Never Knowingly Undertaught- Vale University's Boarding School Experience

    17/11/2024

    Episode 4: Never Knowingly Undertaught- Vale University's Boarding School Experience

    This episode is another landmark in the My Imaginary University podcast series. For the second year in a row the podcast was recorded in front of a live audience at the Wonkhe Festival of Higher Education at Senate House, University of London.  This time, my guest is Nick Hillman, Director of HEPI, the Higher Education Policy Institute, who creates an intensively residential institution, the seductively named Vale University, rooted in the English tradition and based in the worst place in the country to live. The aim is for the university to be the first of a chain of institutions with particular specialisms in coldish but interesting spots around the country, with outstanding architecture and exceptional transport links (including HS2). The residential experience is critical though as is ensuring everyone is in the same position so the aim is to have no more than one student from every 6th form and all of them will experience identical semi-Spartan accommodation and communal dining. There are no en-suite or self-catering offers at Vale,  illegal drugs are banned but there is a huge range of social and community activities to keep students and staff engaged every day. Vale's prospectus is a broad one with a particular emphasis on languages and French history (reflecting the origins of its principal campus building) and a strong extra-mural programme to cater for a highly engaged local community. All staff, including the VC, are very involved with students and do their utmost to care for everyone. Sport is for all and no-one cares about rankings although there is close attention paid to academic standards and the impact of research. There are many other exciting features to Vale including an anthem commissioned from a famous badger-loving rock star. And the questions from the floor (which have had to be relayed by the host because of poor recording quality -apologies!) extract even more detail from Nick about this remarkable institution.

    54 min
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About

An exciting higher ed podcast brought to you by Dr Paul Greatrix in which a notable sector figure is asked to create and describe their ideal imaginary university. My Imaginary University is a sort of Desert Island Universities concept but without the desert island, the music, the book or the luxury.  Will their imaginary university be a bit Christminster, rather Rummidge-like or more in the Manchester Medlock mould? You'll have to listen to find out. And to discover what kind of VC our guest will be and what their university's anthem is.

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