Okay, so I'm Lola Young, sometimes
known as Baroness Young of Hornsey, which sounds very grand
and is a little bit and I'm the chancellor
of University of Nottingham, which also sounds grand and is. So who are you? Who are all of you? I'm Beth. I study French and international media
and communications, so joint honors
at the University of Nottingham. And yeah, i’m a student content creator. Yeah. Nice to meet you, Lola. And you too! I'm Gracie. I study liberal arts, which is a lot
of English lin
guistics and film. I'm also a student content creator, which
is really fun and yeah, nice to meet you. And you again. And I'm Dan, and I'm a second year history
and American Studies student and also a student content creator
fairly new to it. So just kind of getting used to it. So all content generators
and all sort of humanities, arts. yeah, which is my area, so
I'm looking forward to this conversation. Yeah. Shall we get into some questions, so I'll, I'll kick off with the questions. So in te
rms of role models, who,
who would you say is your biggest role model or who's inspired you
throughout your career or personal life? I always find this question
a little bit difficult, you know, not not because there aren't loads of people
who have found inspiration, but because there are loads of people
and not necessarily people you would know. So it might be somebody from my childhood,
a teacher who encouraged me to read something, or it would be,
you know, maybe just somebody, I remember whe
n I was at university,
there was a lecturer whose way he conducted himself in meetings I used to
like because it wasn't aggressive. It wasn't Look at me,
look at me. I'm so clever. And so, you know,
I don't sort of name any one person. There are lots of books
I've read that at different times, have been really important. And I think really the idea of role models
know you're familiar with that, right? It's a term you come across a lot,
didn't exist when I was growing up. Nobody talk about role m
odels
because what the heck would that be? So, you know, with two TV channels
and most of it's sort of American popular culture. So it's an interesting question. But as I say,
I always find it a little bit difficult. So does that kind of yeah, I get that. That it's more like,
does it have to be famous people? Exactly. People close to you? Yeah, I think that's really important
because sometimes the trouble with people who are called
role models is if they slip a little bit, then all of a sudden,
you know, that person is no longer a hero. You know, it happened to Raheem Sterling, You know,
the way the press talked about him. You know, one moment
he was a top role model and next minute he's like the devil incarnate
because of a tattoo. Yeah. So it's a bit of an unreliable measure,
I guess. So if there's not really
got any specific role models, then what would you say
motivates you in your work life? And like,
how would you stay focused on your goals? another
tough question, but for differ
ent reasons. I think staying focused,
I have to make myself stay focused because I there's so many things
I think, that's wrong. I want to do something about that. And then somebody says,
Have you thought about this? yeah, I'll do that. And then I find myself
with no time to do anything. So I sort of focus on
sort of area of work, which I would call, broadly
speaking, around social justice. Okay. And it does I know it sounds sort of
slightly weird and self-indulgent to say, but it makes me feel
better to think
that I've tried to contribute to trying to make things better
for other people. And so to me, that's
kind of like potentially a win all round. It's hard to say that I enjoy the work
because it involves meeting people who've have had really
difficult experiences confronting the people, who've perpetrated those experiences, trying to persuade aid politicians to think differently
about what's been happening. But to me, I can't imagine myself doing something that wasn't
sort of like
that. Even in the arts work and the creative work that I do, to me,
it's got to have a purpose. It's got to have a point. So yeah, yeah, definitely. Yeah, of course I'm kind of getting off that.
So obviously you talked about your experience
with like arts and social reform. So how do you see the intersection
between creativity and activism and do you think art can be a powerful tool
for driving social change? Yes, that would be the short answer
to the last part of your question, but to the ear
ly part, you know, so
I'm art and social activism, so I love in a very general sense,
I can say I love the arts and I love the creative sector, fashion
and everything, but the bit, the bits that interest me,
most are the bits that actually do contribute
to this agenda for change. Because to me the status
quo isn't good enough for enough people. So therefore if we want to change that,
then we have to use every tool
we have in the tool box to do that. And actually, you know,
without getting into l
ecturing mode, if you go back even centuries
and you think about enslaved Africans, they made work, they made artworks,
they communicated across the language barriers, using artworks,
using visual arts or using dance or drumming or what have you. And although that kind of might feel
a little bit weird, but it is that sort of sense of
how do you communicate ideas to people, particularly across cultures, across
language barriers, across social classes? How do you communicate an idea
and I've seen
some examples recently that been fantastic
in terms of very simple, very beautiful in a weird sort of way, but able to communicate an idea
that makes people think, this film is highlighting
something thats really bad. I think I have to talk about this
with other people and who knows, I might even
want to do something about it. So I think art as activism for me
is really important. That's not to say I like it all,
and some of it is just too kind of blatant in your face. That doesn't work so well
for me. It's a good question. So your work's been recognised
for the OBE for services to like British Black history. So could you tell us a bit
about some of the initiatives or the projects that you've been involved in
and like the areas like that are important to you
and just to let us know abit about that. Yeah, that was an interesting one because,
you know, when you get a letter that has the sort of ten Downing Street
on the other side of it, sort of like what have I done you know, am I going
to be thrown
into the Tower of London or something? I must’ve said something wrong,
but no, obviously it's an honor, although to me, again, it's like a tool. It enabled me to be able to speak
to people weirdly before some people who never spoke to me would send me
a card and say, congratulations. Perhaps we could have breakfast
or lunch or tea or something because it gives you
that sort of status, right? So at the time I was working, I was
I think I'll still prof at Middlesex University,
but I
had been seconded to black cultural archives
as I think they still call themselves black cultural archives. So I'd done that work in trying
to support the archive to get some substantial
funding to set up a museum or an archive, I should say, of Black history in Britain
and the diaspora. The history in Britain,
but also what I'd done because like not many people
like sitting on committees and I found that I had a particular skill
for sitting on committees and cheering them and things. So all of
a sudden, not due to me. There were loads of people
who have been working in this field for years and years and years
and not being recognised. But it was one of those moments
where the sector, that is heritage
museums, archives in historic environment started thinking,
we're not diverse at all, you know, my gosh,
our visitor numbers are going down. And who's interested in the subject here and why we've got this,
why we've got that. And I know there’s Lola, she's got an OBE. So I got all these i
nvitations,
you know, to to sit on committees and such, like
and that sort of helped to build up my reputation
in that area afterwards. Right. Yeah. So you've obviously come a really long way
and you've had some amazing achievements. So can you share a bit about your journey
from foster care to your current position now
and what kind of pivotal moments along the way of led
you to these kind of big achievements? Yeah, it's a funny one because, you know,
I often say to friends, I don't know how I
got here. I don't know how this has happened. All of a sudden
it feels like in one respect. So and it certainly wasn't like I didn't have that ambition as a child because I was a little bit
depressed for quite a long time. I was in a foster home
and a foster mother died and I went into children's homes
and none of them worked out really. And then I was liberated
at the age of 18. But it was also very, very daunting to be 18 with no safety net. And so I think that's probably
one of those pivotal
moments because I had to think, well,
what am I going to do? How am I going to look after myself? Literally,
I didn't even know how to handle money because I'd never had any money
before bank accounts. All of these things are completely alien
now, today, if you're in the care system, I think you get a little bit
more help and support. And although I had some financial support
when I first left, it wasn't like anybody. So this is how you stay, you know,
in the black in your bank account. I didn't
you know, I was always overdrawn, you know,
I didn't know anything about that. And so in a way,
I had to sort of teach myself by, again, reading,
but also learning from friends. And the bonus was that I didn't have to resort
to parents and say, I think I want to go to drama school
rather than be a local government person. And, you know, have that all go. I didn't have to have that conversation. I just said,
I think I want to go to drama school. And off I went. So that I think that self-sufficie
ncy
was what I learned because when it wasn't nice at the time in being in care,
but at least I sort of felt I was growing to be an independent person
because I couldn't rely on anybody else. So so that, that in a way, in the funny
sort of way was quite helpful. What advice would you give to young people
who aspire to create positive change in their communities and particularly areas
related to social justice and equality? Well, definitely keep at it. I think that's
it can feel really difficult
and lonely right, Because at times
it feels like everybody else thinks differently to you
and therefore you can't make an impact. But I always again
sort of refer to history and say all of those people fought for the right
to vote, to not be enslaved and so on. It wasn't just one person, it was
it was loads of people. But I'm sure at times the people involved
must have felt, Well, this it's only me. Is it only me that thinks that women
should be allowed to vote, you know? And if if those people
had said, you know, what's too tough,
I'm not going to do this, then we wouldn't be sitting here today
as we are. So I think it's important to keep at it
and also to think and I think this is maybe coming from me
as an older person because now I'm
doing a lot of looking back and I'm sort of thinking, well,
what have I done in order to support more people to come into this space
and be activists? Because that's important. So maybe I could say that it's never too
you're never too young to think ab
out who comes after you and to to help, to support other people, to to engage. But I think also at the same time to try I try to recognize that
it's not for everybody. Not everybody has the desire
or the skills, although I think everybody can develop the skills,
but not everybody has the desire. And I try not to be judgmental
about that, but I although I do think that there's enough
around, there’s enough evidence for people to understand that we're in a bit of a hole as a species, and that we c
ould do a lot better. And that needs all of us
to kind of do our little bit, which will then add up to
hopefully some really big changes. So as someone who is like passionate about the issues like gender
and race equality anti-slavery, wealth disparity
and against people's rights, how do you see the universities
like Nottingham contributing to like addressing these,
like societal challenges? Yeah, this is a it's a difficult moment
for universities actually, because in my own personal views,
spea
king personally, I think the government tries
to interfere too much in what universities do at the same time as not funding them
adequately to do what they’re best at. That and no system is perfect, right? No universities perfect. But I think that to me
the role of the university is to help people to understand
what's going on around them and what and where things might change or be done differently. And so
and that's not to say that, you know, everything has to be about social change
and social
justice, but I think that to me, there's no point in having universities
that simply pay lit service to government. So I think
that's a really important thing to do. And I think, you know,
from what I've seen at Nottingham, there's a really good level of student engagement
in lots of different activities. And many of those activities,
such as what you're doing and what's happening elsewhere, does contribute to that idea that we're preparing young people to go out into the world
and make a dif
ference and hopefully the same kind of difference
that I want to see happening. But then, you know, it's a bit like to me, I'd rather people
voted for a party that I didn't believe in than not vote at all,
because I think it's so important. So that's just one
sort of small aspect of it. But I do think it's important
for universities to provide that space. Now, that's not to say that
it's easy, right? And there are any number of topics, particularly amongst
the ones that you've mentioned, that wi
ll make some people really bristle
and think, well, you know, that's not
what university is for or, you know, all this woke nonsense
and all the rest of it. But I happen to think sort of differently
to that. It's like trying to instill
a sense of care of like those sort of topics
within the students. Yeah, I think that's right. Because if we otherwise
what are we saying? If we say it doesn't matter where you come from,
we live in a meritocracy. Well, that to me is blatantly
obviously not true, b
ecause if it were, we'd have a different set of people
who didn't all go to similar schools and what have you, so that you know what
what are we producing from our systems? That we have a narrow
sort of pool of people from which to draw. So that's one thing. So you can't be sort of rosy
tinted spectacles about it, but at the same time,
I don't think it's right to say you will never succeed because there are
so many odds stacked against you. We have to empower
young people in particular, and I t
hink we do that from being exposed
to ideas, many of which come in the form of books and essays and articles
to do a bit of hard graft there. And
and that's that's what university is for, to provide that space
where you can have safe conversations, even though they might be quite fierce
and heated and be exposed to different literatures
and different histories. And so on. So and even in the sort of so-called
hard sciences, there are ways of thinking. We do think differently. I mean, it's comple
te nonsense to say, You
set me off now you see what you've done. It's complete nonsense to say that you can't change history. No you can't change history, but you can change the ways in which
different parts of history are seen. And that's what history is. That's what the study of the past is. look what we found. We now know that people came
from this continent at this time and wore this, that and the other. We didn't know that before. So of course we change history
all the time as we as we gath
er more knowledge. And that's all that I'm
sort of saying about history really, is that we can't, it goes back to earlier
questions around that area, we can't keep pretending history
was like this one monolithic thing. And and the same with literature. People have been writing
in different languages for centuries. I would like to know what they are or what
they've been saying, were they saying the same things as some of the European
scholars or different things. And in terms of science,
if we ha
d just stuck with the science that was developing in Europe
in the 18th and 19th century, then again, we probably wouldn't be here
because we'd all be dead from all the diseases that they thought
came from things flying through the air, you know, so it’s nonsense to say,
you know, the past is something concrete
which you can't change. We don't have access to this kind of monolithic idea of history
because it doesn't exist. As a history student,
I definitely relate to that. Like we are constantly
finding out new piece of information, but also sources don't tell the full story, often
there's a lot of stuff that isn't recorded and therefore it's up for interpretation. And we've got to kind of figure out almost fill in the gaps
and try and create a narrative. But also obviously don't want to impose
a narrative so It's that fine balance but obviously taking into account
all of these things to inform our worldview
and what we're doing in the present. I feel like in Nottingham
I get that part
icularly in my history. That's really good. And I'm constantly like learning
new things and having my worldview challenged and from talking to peers
in that kind of seminar format we have. So I feel like that really gains me
an opportunity to have that like outlook and really,
yeah, debate. And I think that's a really healthy thing. I do too. And can I just say
the way you just talked about that it makes it sound to me like you're
kind of excited by that challenge. But what's interesting is how
many people
feel really threatened by that challenge, you know? So you're open minded. You're
kind of like the perfect example. You come here to learn
and you accept that what you learn one day might be challenged differently
in another day, and you find that an exciting challenge and you want to use
that as an intellectual stimulant almost. But why is it then, obviously
I'm not expecting you to answer this, but I just find it bizarre that
people would come to a subject and say, Well, this is wh
at I learnt about history
20 years ago, therefore that's true. Therefore,
you can't change anything about that without being, you know,
any of derogatory terms being used. So it's really good to hear
you say that. Yeah. And I think this this conversation
really highlights the importance of arts. And as someone who does liberal arts,
I think the intersection of all as well is, is like an incredible
like subject area. And I know a lot of people
are maybe apprehensive about studying arts
or going i
nto a career in arts. And I know definitely a lot of my peers
have kind of said, like liberal arts, arts, or,
you know, it's not really a study of anything,
but I think it is again closed minded. So what kind of advice would you give to young people
who are interested in the arts? But maybe are a bit apprehensive
to kind of get into it? First thing I would say
is ignore the naysayers, because there are plenty of people
in the arts who have a wide range of jobs. If that's your thing, if what you'
re
worried about is financial security and if that's top of people's minds,
which is perfectly legitimate, of course, then there are plenty of people
in the arts sector. And I have to say I'm
going to drop something in here. A bit of self publicity. You may have seen the Christmas edition
of University Challenge. Right? And there were four of us
from Middlesex University. We won. And in the final we beat one of the top
colleges from Oxbridge. We were all art students. We were all old as well. Bu
t I mean, the point is that we all know
were fine artists, you know, architectural historian, me
in media and cultural studies and so on and so forth. So it's like we had that all round
sort of knowledge. And I think my argument for the arts is many, many,
many different reasons. One is that that openness
that you referred to, if you're a creative person,
you want to pick the bits and pieces out of everything.
You want to put things together. It's almost like everything
is part of a collage that
you're making, so there's excitement in that. So you find a, you know, the equivalent
of a bit of tin foil in the garden. You think, I can make something of this,
and you put that on, you stick that in your picture
and then you find a matchstick somewhere. You know, you make
and you can make pictures out of things. That kind of creativity
is absolutely essential to scientists. Yes, it's essential
if you're in computing. And in fact,
you know, in my sort of career, when I've met some
people who
run big industrial, you know, proper companies,
as it were, commercial companies, they'll say, well, we only take
we'll take 50% of the graduates from computing courses
into our computing outfit. We'll take 50% from humanities
and the arts because we find them more creative. And so there's that. And then there's also the issue about, again, an area
that I passionately believe in. Arts helps people to understand themselves
and others. I mean, this is, it’s
so, to me, self-evident. And it's also a
great contributor
to mental health, mental wellbeing and physical wellbeing
and some of the more performative arts. There's many, many reasons
why everybody should be doing arts, and what I can't bear is a government
which will acknowledge, any government, which acknowledges that arts are huge
contributors to the economy. I mean, there was a moment
where Adele was, you know, represented like the percentage
of the GDP of this country or if you’re only going to think about
Taylor Swift and the Am
erican example is huge amounts of money
sort of that contribute to the economy. Why do people come to parts of Britain? Well, when they come to London,
they come see the museums, they come see the art galleries
they come to. So all of this is part of the economy as well as something
that's about health and wellbeing. We talked earlier about on activism. You know, how do people persuade
how was it that the the government
suddenly kind of woke up to the disaster around the post office because a pe
rson
or a couple of people wrote a script that showed a drama on television and then we all knew
that it had happened before, but suddenly it was in the public domain
in a way that it hadn't been before because creative people
were involved in telling that story. And I think, you know, people
would like to deny the arts. I think secretly some people are jealous
because they really want to do it. They haven't got the guts. It takes a lot of bravery
to be in the arts, you have to be quite vulnerab
le
like sharing creativity as well. Yeah, you do. You have to kind of expose yourself
in a way, don't you? If you've written something
or created an image or images and you've got to give it to somebody
or you've got to give it to the world, as it were, and they can say,
That's terrible, show how it be received. Yeah, exactly. But I also think into interdisciplinary
conversation is so important. Or like even studying
multiple disciplines. Obviously I'm joint honors in 2 areas of
the arts, but l
ike, what's the other area? So I'm American studies and history,
right? Okay,
so American studies kind of encompasses literature, culture, everything
film, photography, but particularly like philosophy
and maths as a joint honors degree. I think that the concept
is so interesting. Like I studied maths A-level alongside
my art subjects, and I think that like understanding one
and talking with different people in one helps
you in your approach to the other. I feel like I've got a more logical
app
roach to history now having had that and like that influences my essay writing
and the creative approach to maths. But you see,
the thing is that try to understand a lot of the policy makers
people who are making policy in the last 5 to 10 years and now had a completely different concept
of what education was. I know because I was in it, right? So when I was at secondary school
you were timetabled, so you couldn't mix art and science
and you couldn't it wasn't even the philosophy,
it wasn't the
sociology A-level. There were,
you know, it wasn't American studies. All these things weren't even available. So, you know, you've got a cohort
of powerful, influential people who think that everything has to be
the same way it was then. They can't understand
these new fangled things like philosophy and American studies
and history and maths and all of that. And like you said before, it's
like giving people the space they need because that's one of the reasons I came
to the University of Notting
ham, because they did a course that was so niche,
that was like so ideal for me. What was that? I do French and international media
and communications. So it kind of combined both of my hobbies
because I really loved French and then I went to college
to do a degree diploma in media, and then I kind of combine them
at university and I was like it's perfect because now I'm learning
so much about French history. French literature, like French customs, and I get to mix it with the media
and they kin
d of intersect sometimes. Think of the world's
that opens up for you. It's amazing
and think of all the countries in the world
where they speak French. Exactly. So and it's just theirs
so many great opportunities can come from it because I
I'm going abroad like in the summer after this year, for a whole year
to teach English to French kids. And it's like, you know, I'm really grateful
that the University of Nottingham has been such a good university
as well, like a Russell Group uni. 100%. And i
t's doing a course. that's like perfectly tailored to me
and like my interests because I was like,
Where else can I go and do this? Yeah I know it's a really good point. And then as you were talking,
I was thinking the diplomatic service and all this just opens up
a whole raft of. So this is why I can't understand
why people are so dismissive of the humanities and the arts, because I
sometimes think what we should do is to have artists and people involved
in that sector go on strike for a day. S
o no creative stuff on television. Look what happened when the writers in
Hollywood went on strike because then you you begin to realise how much it is
a part of your life, even down to street art, as you walk along the street,
you think, well, that's interesting. Something to look at apart
from the traffic. Exactly. I think it's because one of our modules was all about
just like noticing what's around us. And it's quite fun to see and implement
into your own life and you're like,
you're walking
down the street and you're like “
that's also hostile architecture. I learned about that the other day”. And then it's fun to like,
tell your friends like, you know, the reason why this is like,
this is because of this. And it's like so intertwined
into our lives that I feel like everyone should kind of,
like you said, get to know a bit more about the art
so they can really appreciate it. But yeah. I think, you know, I think it should be
a two way thing, shouldn't it? Because I do think that ar
t students
should also know more about science and how the two are interconnected,
not see them as to use your to appropriate your word hostile. Do not see them as being hostile
to each other. And most of us, from what I understand, you know, a lot of the world's greatest
scientists were interested in arts because there's certain things
you cannot explain by producing a formula. Yeah, certain
hypotheses just don't work. And in that same respect. There are certain things that with maths,
I mean,
with maths you can't show art, but we're not
you can't say math, that kind of thing. So it's two ways. And I mean, as you were saying earlier,
like a day without the art sector, imagine not being able to stream music
at all. No, no classical music,
no popular music, no radio stations. It would be,
it would have such a huge impact and that's why they are so important. And Nottingham, I think with its diversity
of study, as you were saying, like American studies is so niche
like and I'm off to Ore
gon for a year and there I'll be able to gain
new perspectives on topics as well by, by having a dialog with people
who are in a completely different culture. So I think even that opportunity as well
just demonstrates that like, like the links Nottingham has, is like
that makes it perfect for like studying the arts
and just preparing us like. Yeah I know like we're excited
to make all of these like exciting learning new things
and make exciting memories. But so you've held a lot of positions
and
like amazing art organisations. So what would you say
has been your most memorable moment in these and like,
why have they been so significant to you? Well, there's this one that was
when I was on the Southbank Center board. I mean, it's terrifying as well
because there'd been this multi-million pound makeover, right? Because the South, I don't know
if you know the Southbank in London by the River and Festival Hall
and all these buildings and so The Royal Festival Hall was built
in was opened
in 1951 and so you know quite old and everything
and so we've had all these discussions about how much money,
how many million it was going to cost and you know,
would we be able to raise the money. And there were fundraisers
and all kinds of things going on and there were some hairy moments
where I thought, my gosh, we're going to have to foot the bill
for this personally because we can't find, you know,
now I can contribute £10 or something, you know, But yeah, well,
I didn't have those things
you see. And, you know, there's
no such thing as Go Fund Me or anything like that or Kickstart
or whatever it was called, you know. So, you know, I know it's hard to imagine
that world and it's not that long ago. So anyway, so I went off to
I can’t remember where I went to it might have been
because I went to the States quite a lot. There was quite a lot of conferences and
I did a bit teaching out there as well. And when I came back it had all been done and I did a double take literally because
I thought,
my goodness, it's been transformed. All of that hard work and the anxiety
and the terror had kind of been worth it. So on on, on that big scale
that that was quite an important moment. And then the other one, I would say
was about black cultural archives when so there was the big lottery money
of several millions. But before that,
in order to get on that trail, we had to again, without go fund me,
we had to raise some money. So we applied to Heritage Lottery Fund. And again,
it was l
ike up till midnight writing a bid and phoning people and going round
and you got to get the language right and you have all these meetings with people and you're quite well aware
that you may end up with nothing. And we did all that
and then it came through in the end and that was a big moment
because then from that could go on and get the millions that were needed
for an actual building. So. and then the third one, which I have to mention with nothing,
nothing to do with my doing, but I was in
vited to the opening
of the National Museum and Archives of African American History
and Culture in Washington. Nice. Wow. At the opening,
you know, there was this huge concert with all of those big stars
singing, and Barack Obama and Michelle Obama
were sitting downstairs. And the next day at the actual opening, there was George Bush and Barack Obama speaking
and then seeing the museum seeing it is if you get to Washington, D.C. and have a chance to see it,
I really recommend it because it's by
turns kind of gut wrenching and joyous
because it is a kind of you know, when you think about the history
of African-Americans in the USA, that's what, you know, there's
those moments of despair and darkness. And as you work your way up the building,
you sort of move into an area where you sort of feel, you know,
you cause people have to have hope, right? In order to have aspirations. You have to hope that things will change. And so you need to get people
that sense of it's worthwhile thinking
about what
a better future looks like. And there's evidence of that,
that, yeah, that's great. So you talked a lot about these
like incredible moments, through like your career and personal life. So do you have any and I know you were
talking about hope for the future. What kind of aspirations
do you have personally for the future in terms of your career or what
kind of things you’re wanting to achieve? Gosh. Big question I know. It's also because I overachieved for my for my own sort
of ambitio
ns and aspirations. So I don't feel I can ask for anything more except that I keep
and I do keep getting asked to do extraordinary
get involved in extraordinary projects. And I just hope that that lasts, that
people will think I've still got something to contribute because let's face it,
I'm at the end of my, you know, career really,
all of my friends are retired. And sort go and see movies
and go to the theater all the time and I'm sort of saying, No, sorry,
I'm working on the bid or no Sorry I
'm working on the speech or whatever. So I'm lucky, fortunate to have been able
to have a long, long career. And I think but I do think
going back to the hope thing and something that we talked about
earlier is to try and support as many people as possible into feeling
that they have a voice and the platform from which to express that voice
so that they can, you know, carry on and surpass the work
that my generation have been doing. And specifically as chancellor, like what
do you see going forw
ard with Nottingham? What's your hope
in terms of for Nottingham? How do you see the next ten years
or so at this university? Well I obviously hope
the university really, really thrives and I should say continues to thrive
and in spite of, you know, really challenging circumstances
that are external and beyond the control of anybody
within the institution. I hope that efforts to diversify
both the student and the workforce come to fruition,
because I think there's still a lot of work
we can do a
round that, especially in terms
of thinking about home students and people from the locality,
which, by the way, you know, I when I was in theater, I worked
I was an actor at Nottingham Playhouse. So to me, you know,
I have a sort of an affection for the area
which goes back beyond the university. But I do know that this is often an issue
with particularly with Russell Group Universities because, you know, it's
almost like this aura around them. And some people may not feel
that this is the pla
ce for them because they wouldn't feel comfortable
here. We have to make it clear
that this is a place where you can feel everybody can feel comfortable
and that they belong. That's really,
really important for the university. Great well, thank you so much, it’s
been very interesting. Brilliant questions. I really enjoyed that. And so lovely to interact with you, all day of interacting with students, it's been brilliant. You’re like a celebrity.
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