Series puts future of higher education in focus

The Shifting Light video series features filmed conversations exploring questions and decisions shaping the future of universities.

During the opening discussion, students Amelie Jeeves and Luca Parrish asked Professor Sir Peter Mathieson questions about his career, funding pressures across sector and how these issues are being addressed at Edinburgh.

Sir Peter welcomed perspectives from the undergraduates, who are also journalists for The Student newspaper. Founded in 1887 by famed author Robert Louis Stevenson, the publication is thought to be the oldest student newspaper in the United Kingdom.

The students also shared viewpoints they had gathered from staff and fellow students, prompting further discussion about the broader pressures facing universities today, and what is required to secure their future.

The Shifting Light series will feature discussions with University leaders and a range of voices from across the sector, exploring how universities are adapting to shifts, both nationally and internationally.

The podcast-style video series takes its name from a quotation by the celebrated author and Edinburgh alumnus, Sir Alexander McCall Smith.

The passage was originally written as part of a campaign to promote the capital as the world's first UNESCO City of Literature. It reads: “This is a city of shifting light, of changing skies, of sudden vistas. A city so beautiful it breaks the heart again and again.”