Today’s HEPI blog is the text of a speech by Nick Hillman, Director of HEPI, to a joint meeting of the Senate and Council at Lancaster University.
It is a great pleasure to be back at Lancaster University. I have visited many times before of course, perhaps most notably for a debate hosted by some of your students in which I defended the current tuition fee system against the (then) Labour politician Chris Williamson. My side of the debate went down to a crushing defeat, but the event was followed by further (good-natured) argument in a local pub, showing lively student-promoted free speech in action. I note the tuition-fee system has lasted for another eight years since that debate occurred – so perhaps my side of the debate lost the battle but won the war?
My last visit to this University, however, though not my last visit to Lancaster, came at the very start of 2021/22, when I spoke to a senior management strategy meeting. At the time, we were all hoping things were about to revert to normal after the impact of COVID and the end of lockdown, though we had yet to hear of Omicron and we were not out of the woods yet. It was a fascinating session because it was the first time that a number of your senior managers had been in a room together, and yet Lancaster University – like higher education institutions more generally – had continued to thrive during the worst of the pandemic.
