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.