Times Higher Education is such an important voice for the sector, and I’m delighted to be speaking to you again.
I want to start with a personal story about my relationship with higher education.
I was born with a form of cerebral palsy, spastic diplegia. The doctors told my father I’d never be able do anything - to walk, live independently or, for example, go to university.
Thanks to a Great Ormond Street doctor, I did learn to walk and went on to do things no one would have predicted - included going to university. I never imagined I’d be able to walk or cycle up the steep hills of Exeter, but I did. Going to university was the greatest time of my life. I greatly enjoyed getting my degree, and then staying on to do a masters.
My experience taught me not just to highly value higher education - but to cherish it.
