My Imaginary University
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.
Episodes
May 27, 2025 • 40 mins
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 an...
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April 30, 2025 • 37 mins
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 t...
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March 3, 2025 • 31 mins
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 ...
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February 17, 2025 • 40 mins
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 Ha...
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February 10, 2025 • 37 mins
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 c...
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November 17, 2024 • 54 mins
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 V...
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October 7, 2024 • 47 mins
This episode of My Imaginary University features Debbie McVitty, Editor of Wonkhe and prominent higher ed commentator who creates a rather special institution, the University of All the Feels or Feels Uni, a place where, as their slogan has it, "when we do something we meant to do it that way."
Debbie gives us a broad sweep of information about the university covering many dimensions of curricula, structure and...
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August 12, 2024 • 35 mins
In the latest episode of the podcast in which notable sector figures are invited to dream up a fictional university we have Professor Adam Tickell, Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of Birmingham, who delivers a novel idea to improve Parliament, politics and public discourse.
Adam presents us with Democracy University, a very special kind of institution which provides compulsory training for all l...
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July 16, 2024 • 33 mins
Season 2 of My Imaginary University kicks off with a thoroughly novel creation from Professor Mark Peace, the newly appointed Academic Director of the King's Experience at King's College London. Mark presents Cuckoo University, an incredibly lean organisation with no buildings and very few staff, which is dedicated to enabling students to make the most of the Lifelong Loan Entitlement, assuming full implementation. (For t...
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July 12, 2024 • 35 mins
Our latest imaginary vice-chancellor is Paul Clark, formerly of HESA and UCL and now an independent strategy consultant.
Paul has created a novel institution which is rooted in the past but with an eye very much to the future. There aren’t huge numbers of students on campus at this super-connected ivory tower of an institution but it does have a large online presence. It's a full service university but with a s...
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Time for a further landmark in the My Imaginary University podcast series. It is another live recording but our first at an international conference. This recording was made at the 2024 HUMANE annual conference at the University of Amsterdam and features not one but two imaginary higher education institutions. Our creative presenters are Leon Van de Zande, Secretary General at the University of Amsterdam, and Marianna Bom, Chi...
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March 26, 2024 • 31 mins
Our innovative creator in the latest edition of the My Imaginary University podcast is sector stalwart and HE consultant at large, Aaron Porter. Aaron's bold university idea is to create an institution dedicated to serving the public sector and educating prospective public service professionals from nurses to teachers to fast stream civil servants. With campuses based in former department stores in both Blackpool and Be...
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March 19, 2024 • 39 mins
My guest on this episode of My Imaginary University is Alistair Jarvis, Pro-Vice-Chancellor Partnerships and Governance at the University of London.
Generously supported by a billionaire philanthropist, Alistair's university is based on three campuses on estates by the sea on the south coast of England, Dubai and Nigeria. The three campuses are equal in every way and every student is mobile, studies other...
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February 20, 2024 • 42 mins
This episode of My Imaginary University stars Johnny Rich, who is Chief Executive of the Engineering Professors' Council and of Push, the independent university guide, among other roles. Johnny is proud to be the Vice-Chancellor of Camford University, a post he was appointed to some years ago with a bold remit to change the ancient institution.
As VC he has instituted a radical approach to contextual admis...
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January 29, 2024 • 39 mins
This edition of the podcast stars Professor Julie Sanders, Vice-Chancellor and Principal at Royal Holloway, University of London. Julie offers a novel concept, Greenworld Univerisity, a constellation of campuses based on the notion of green world spaces in Shakespeare or spaces of possibility. Her university has a very broad offering - not just Shakespeare - and provides huge flexibility in learning patte...
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January 15, 2024 • 49 mins
This episode of My Imaginary University is rather longer than usual and follows a slightly different course to previous editions. My guest this time is Professor Sir David Eastwood, most recently, until his retirement, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Birmingham but someone with over 25 years of senior leadership in the sector.
David explores some of the history of higher education, starting with ...
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November 11, 2023 • 42 mins
This episode is a bit of a landmark in the My Imaginary University podcast series. For the first time we recorded the podcast in front of a live and indeed lively audience at this year's Wonkhe Festival of Higher Education at Senate House, University of London. My imagineer this time is Amatey Doku, Senior Consultant at Moorhouse Consulting and he presents us with a genuinely novel package of higher education innovations.
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August 29, 2023 • 29 mins
The latest episode in the My Imaginary University podcast series stars Vicki Stott, Chief Executive Officer of the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education. Vicki's imagined institution is very much in a utopian vein with a near unlimited funding stream (thanks to Bill and Melinda) and little regulatory intervention. The university is described as a coalition of mavericks but where everyone has responsibility for deliveri...
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August 21, 2023 • 34 mins
This episode of My Imaginary University features Heidi Fraser-Krauss who is Chief Executive Officer of Jisc. Heidi offers us a distinctive northern university which has been built by the people for the people. Whilst traditional redbrick in some ways it has a strong research portfolio as well as a substantial adult education programme and is a very open campus. The university town benefits significantly from the vibrant multic...
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August 10, 2023 • 32 mins
The latest episode of My Imaginary University draws on the creative capabilities of Professor Emma Flynn, outgoing Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and Enterprise at Queen's University Belfast and shortly to start as Provost at the University of Warwick.
Emma offers us the most remarkable and fantastical institution - a World University which seeks to recognise the huge power of institutions across the globe to...
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