Last week I went off on my travels to Leeds and a place called Weetwood Hall and very nice it was indeed. I was attending a Higher Education Academy conference on building inclusive cultures in HE, it is part of a wider project that myself and a colleague are working on with 16 other institutions. It is not directly linked to the PhD (as in it wasn’t a conference where I was presenting my research) however most of the debates and topics discussed were very relevant as they focussed on how not to exclude people unnecessarily, which links nicely with my work on disability and societal barriers.
It was a pleasure to be surrounded by colleagues from across the sector who are showing a level of commitment to not just introducing a couple of tokenistic policies but thinking around ideas of institutional change that could drive forward a more inclusive culture within their university and the sector. Chatham House rules so I can’t blog too much about some of the discussions but I can say that there was a real mix of institutions and it was fascinating to hear the challenges of other colleagues. Real mix of attendees too academics, support and professional staff and PVCs and Deans – meant discussions about change at all levels had real substance and weren’t just lip service at a workshop.
My colleague and I have come back with a real drive to push forward our work around the evidence base required to make cultural change. Having listened to some of the other institutions I have realised that our cultural change will not need to be as significant as some others. There was also discussion about getting senior management involved or interested – it appears not everyone’s VC is on twitter – CRYING SHAME, if you ask me. So in some ways we are very lucky, but that luck shouldn’t allow us to be come complacent and having such a sound platform to start from should allow us to start some really valuable work.
That is as soon as colleague’s toe gets better – she broke it – on the bedside table. Nit.
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