Emerging trends in Higher Education examined
University leaders are to hold a public event to discuss the role of higher education in tackling the world’s most immediate challenges.
President Janet Napolitano of the University of California will lead this year’s Fulbright legacy lecture, which in previous years has been organised annually by the University’s Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH).
University leaders
The virtual event will include a panel discussion featuring Peter Mathieson, Principal and Vice Chancellor of the University of Edinburgh, Ed Byrne, President and Principal of King’s College London and Irene Tracey, Pro-Vice-Chancellor at Oxford University and Warden of Merton College.
The event, titled A Future in Question: Higher Education and the Public Good, is presented by the US-UK Fulbright Commission, in collaboration with the Universities of Edinburgh and Oxford and King’s College London.
The round-table conversation will explore an array of topics, such as universities’ role in tackling the world’s most immediate challenges, including Covid-19.
The university leaders will also examine newly released international survey data on attitudes toward higher education, conducted by market research firm Ipsos MORI and the Policy Institute at King’s College London.
The Commission selected President Napolitano as the 2020 Fulbright Legacy Lecturer, a distinction given each year to a global leader and is usually accompanied by a lecture series in the UK.
This year’s event – chaired by Mukul Devichand, Executive Editor of Voice + AI for the BBC – is taking place online due to the coronavirus pandemic.
President Napolitano was chosen for this honour in recognition of her distinguished 25-year career in public service, including her leadership at the helm of one of the world’s premier public research university and her tenure as the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security from 2009 to 2013.
The Fulbright Commission was established in 1948 to foster mutual cultural understanding through educational exchange between the UK and the US.
The College of Arts and Humanities hosts a Fulbright-Scotland Visiting Professorship at IASH, which enables one US professor each year to teach, give public lectures, and conduct research at the University. Professor
like so many people today, we are experimenting with an on-line format for this major annual lecture. This Fulbright event will explore the changing public role of higher education and, at the same time, represent an innovation in the way that people can engage with global figures in higher education.
The event is taking place on Thursday 2 July.