Campus Talks by Times Higher Education

Campus by Times Higher Education
  • 4.0 (11)
  • How To
  • Updated Semimonthly

Campus Talks is a fortnightly podcast from Times Higher Education. We talk to academics and administrators at universities around the world to share advice, insights and solutions addressing the big questions facing higher education today. Gather academic career advice and tips to improve your teaching, research practices, writing and public engagement work, alongside discussions on the most pressing issues in global HE.

  1. Aug 12

    Campus Talks: Want to think bigger and achieve more? Then collaborate – a leading academic makes the case for collective research

    A world leading data visualisation expert talks about leading the global Human Reference Atlas initiative and how collaboration enables researchers to think far bigger - - - “Oftentimes it's said that if you want to go fast, you go alone, but I don't think you can go far this way. If you want to go far, you have to go together.” So states Katy Börner during this episode of Campus Talks, in which we ask her about her ground-breaking project aimed at mapping all the anatomical structures and human cells in the human body, the Human Reference Atlas (HRA). This project relies on the input of thousands of researchers across multiple disciplines from all over the world, including several other ambitious physiological ‘atlasing’ efforts which are working in parallel to the HRA. The Victor H. Yngve Distinguished Professor of Engineering and Information Science at Indiana University, Katy is also a founding director of the Cyberinfrastructure for Network Science (CNS) Center and she is a curator of the international Places & Spaces: Mapping Science exhibition. She explains how she developed such an interest in data visualisation work and why she has embraced an interdisciplinary and collaborative approach to research throughout her career.   To find out more about the Human Reference Atlas: Human BioMolecular Atlas Program (HuBMAP): 3D Human Reference Atlas construction and usage Human Reference Atlas introduction and training Upcoming events for those interested in the Human Reference Atlas Whole Person Physiome Jamboree, August 24 to 25, 2026 Human Reference Atlas, Human Phenotype Ontology, Whole Person Physiome and other EU efforts hackathon, August 27 to 28.   To book a place at the Innovation & Impact Summit 2026 in Seoul from 17 to 19 November: Book tickets | THE Innovation & Impact Summit 2026.

  2. Jul 29

    Campus Talks: How co-creation and interdisciplinarity enrich university outreach

    Outreach is the way in which universities share their research and expertise with groups beyond the institution. Think school visits, science demonstrations, workshops, campus tours, online resources, summer school or festivals. These activities are often aimed at widening participation and inspiring children, teenagers and others – no matter their background – to pursue higher education.  And it is works. The Higher Education Access Tracker service found that UK students eligible for free school meals who engaged in intensive outreach were up to 48 per cent more likely to progress to higher education. For this episode, we speak to Lorraine Coghill, who is the deputy director of science engagement at Durham University. With a PhD in biomedical and clinical laboratory sciences, she has over 20 years’ of educational engagement experience, working with schools, universities, science centres, festivals, and educational and community organisations in the UK and Europe. She also contributes to national and international engagement initiatives, including Project Earth, and serves as co-chair of the Space North East England Skills and Outreach Group. Durham’s Stargoal project, which brings together football, physics and gender representation in sport, won the Partnering with Schools category at the 2024 Odgen Trust Outreach Awards.  To learn more about the secrets of successful university outreach, head to our latest spotlight guide.

  3. Jul 15

    Campus Talks: The strengths that multilingualism brings to universities

    In a globalised world, and the increased internationalisation of higher education, multilingualism can be a key strength for universities. The ability to communicate in more than one language has cognitive and learning benefits, as well as boosting communication skills, employability, cultural awareness and an open mindset. So, how can universities, which often host speakers of scores of languages, capitalise on this skill set? For this episode, we talk to Anwei Feng, a professor in language education whose research and extensive publications focus on bi- and trilingualism with a particular interest in Chinese minority languages. He is chair professor of multilingual education in the School of Education and English in the Institution of Asia and Pacific Studies at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China. Feng, who speaks Mandarin, English and several Chinese dialects, has worked at universities in China, Qatar, Hong Kong, Singapore and the UK, where he did his PhD. He is a key founder and vice-president of the Chinese Society of Multilingualism and Multilingual Education and is co-editor, with Bob Adamson, Zhen Li and Christine Lee, of Nurturing Glocal Talents: The Role of China’s Transnational Higher Education (Routledge), which will be published later this year. For more advice and insight to support student success in the multilingual classroom, head to the latest spotlight guide on Campus.

  4. Jul 1

    Campus Talks: How can universities nudge students and staff towards greener choices

    A behaviour change expert explains what is required to shift a whole campus community towards more environmentally sustainable habits.  --- To reach net zero, institutions need to shift the behaviour of their whole campus community towards reducing their carbon footprint and making greener daily choices. This means changing long established habits among thousands of diverse students and staff. How can universities do this without becoming too dictatorial? We asked behaviour change expert Esther Papies, a professor at Radboud University in the Netherlands, to explain what drives successful behaviour change and therefore what strategies universities need to employ to reduce their overall emissions and create greener campuses. Esther’s research examines the social and psychological processes in the transition to healthier, more sustainable and more equitable choices, particularly relating to diet. She has published extensively on the motivations and barriers for reducing meat and dairy intake, the motivation for climate action among privileged individuals and emotional experiences relating to climate change. She provides a clear break down of what is needed to support long term behaviour change in favour of more sustainable lifestyles and shares advice on how to overcome inevitable resistance to altering long held behavioural norms such as meat eating and driving cars.

  5. Jun 25

    Campus interview: Alain Pompilus of the University of Florida on how to better understand - and connect with - current and prospective students

    How can universities develop sophisticated systems for data sharing and analysis that can guide communications and student services? Alain Pompilus was tasked with putting such a system in place and shares lessons from the experience - - - Universities hold a huge amount of data, with information collected at each stage of a student’s journey. The challenge lies in how to make best use of this data to support insights that can shape university services and communications. Alain Pompilus, associate vice-president for constituent knowledge and insights at the University of Florida, was bought in to address this challenge and create more effective market research efforts in order to better understand and engage key groups such as prospective students and parents, current students and alumni. His work focuses on using research, data, and strategic analysis to deepen the university’s understanding of its target audiences and strengthen how it responds to the needs and expectations of these different communities. Here, he discusses this work, what has been learnt so far and how he has started to build a more joined-up approach to developing and sharing insights across a huge and decentralised organisation like the University of Florida. Thanks to the University of Florida for sponsoring this episode.

  6. Jun 18

    Campus Talks: Why being a queer researcher ‘means speaking truth to power’

    The challenges of being an LGBTQ+ researcher in the US have multiplied since Donald Trump returned to the presidency. Funding cuts, closures of LGBTQ+ resource centres on campus, attacks on trans rights and backtracks on Pride Month celebrations have all harmed not only scholars’ crucial work, but also their ability to support the next generation of queer academics. A New York Times data analysis estimated that $800 million (£596 million) worth of research into the health of LGBTQ people had been pulled as a result of the administration’s campaign against diversity, equity and inclusion programmes. One of the LGBTQ+ scientists affected was Lisa Diamond, a renowned researcher of women’s sexuality who lost her own NIH grant in the wake of the sweeping funding cuts. Diamond is distinguished professor in psychology and ethnic, gender and disability studies at the University of Utah. She has a PhD in human development from Cornell and is the author of the groundbreaking, award-winning book Sexual Fluidity: Understanding Women's Love and Desire. In this interview, she talks about the heartbreak, trauma and chaos that the wave of grant terminations brought about. She explains how her experience under the current administration has led her to rethink her role as an LGBTQ+ scientist, how data collection is its own form of resistance, and how she now finds herself giving her students that same kind of cautious career advice she received back in the late 1990s. For her, 2025 was a turning point for LGBTQ+ health research. And in November, she and co-principal investigator Scout, a trans researcher from the LGBTQIA+ Cancer Network, began a survey of the LGBTQ+ community that has grown into an oral history project. For more advice and insight into supporting the LGBTQ+ community in higher education, read our Pride Month spotlight guide on Campus.

  7. Jun 3

    Campus Talks: What does ‘AI across the curriculum’ look like in practice?

    We find out how one US institution has led the way in embedding AI across all its majors and what has been learnt in the process --- Many universities are now racing to embed AI literacy across their curricula and equip students with knowledge that may prove critical to future careers. But the University of Florida had embarked on this mission years before large language models exploded into everyone’s consciousness with the arrival of ChatGPT. In this episode of Campus Talks, we speak to Hans van Oostrom, director of the University of Florida’s AI2 Center, which supports the university’s AI initiatives across teaching and research, including the university-wide Undergraduate Certificate in AI Fundamentals and Applications. We discuss what ‘AI across the curriculum’ means in practice, how the University of Florida has built AI expertise across all its academic departments, what drives AI resistance and how to balance AI use against the other foundational skills that students need to develop. For more advice and insight on building AI literacy from higher education experts all over the world, head to our latest spotlight guide: Boosting AI literacy across your institution.

  8. May 20

    Campus Talks: How to create university assessments that serve learning

    What purpose does, or should, assessment serve? How can educators shift the focus of assessment towards feedback? Who is really driving higher education’s unhelpful obsession with grades? And how does GenAI affect all this? In this episode of Campus Talks, we explore all these questions and more with David Boud, Deakin distinguished professor at Deakin University and a leading scholar on assessment and feedback. David is the foundation director of Deakin’s Centre for Research in Assessment and Digital Learning and an Emeritus Professor at the University of Technology Sydney. He has been a pioneer in learning-centred approaches to assessment and is one of the most highly cited academics in the world on teaching, learning and assessment in higher and professional education with dozens of books bearing his name, including The Impact of Feedback in Higher Education (2019) and Assessment for Inclusion in Higher Education (2022). We discuss what constitutes good feedback, strategies for engaging students in the feedback process, how to design assessments that centre feedback and learning and where universities have been going wrong on assessment and grading.

See All (100)

4
out of 5
11 Ratings

About

Campus Talks is a fortnightly podcast from Times Higher Education. We talk to academics and administrators at universities around the world to share advice, insights and solutions addressing the big questions facing higher education today. Gather academic career advice and tips to improve your teaching, research practices, writing and public engagement work, alongside discussions on the most pressing issues in global HE.

Information

  • Creator
    Campus by Times Higher Education
  • Years Active
    2012 - 2026
  • Episodes
    100
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2023 THE WUI LTD. All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    Campus Talks by Times Higher Education