We Are The University

About We Are The University

Welcome to We are the University, a podcast which opens a window on to the people that make Cambridge University unique. Students, archivists, professors, alumni: all have a story to share.

Publisher

University of Cambridge

Category

news · science · society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

11 Nov 2019

Latest episode

4 Dec 2020

Latest episodes

18 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   4 Dec 2020

   Welcome to Mind Over Chatter, the Cambridge University Podcast!

   Welcome to Mind Over Chatter, the Cambridge University Podcast! One series at a time, we break down complex issues into simple questions. Subscribe here: https://mind-over-chatter.captivate.fm/listen (https://mind-over-chatter.captivate.fm/listen) In this first series, we’ll explore climate change. Climate change is likely to affect almost every area of our lives… like a toddler with sticky fingers. But how did it become this way? What are we doing about it now? And what does the future hold? We’ll ask smart people some simple questions and see what happens!

2. 

   28 Oct 2020

   How organisational culture works, without an office - Jennifer Howard-Grenville

   We speak to Jennifer Howard-Grenville, Diageo Professor in Organisation Studies, at the Cambridge Judge Business School. This is a fascinating conversation, we look at organisational culture through an 800 year old lens, by examining how Cambridge University sustains and conveys a culture. Jennifer debunks the myths about organisation culture and explains how organisational culture is more than a mere “statement of values” but instead reflects the practices and expectations of people working together. We also discuss what the future of work might look like post Covid-19 and how organisations and leaders can maintain a culture after the shift to remote working We look at organisational culture through an 800 year old lens, when we discuss how Cambridge University conveys and sustains a culture. Jennifer debunks the myths about organisation culture and explains how it can be broken down into practices and beliefs, rather than physical environments and rituals. More info https://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/faculty-research/faculty-a-z/jennifer-howard-grenville/ (https://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/faculty-research/faculty-a-z/jennifer-howard-grenville/) https://sloanreview.mit.edu/video/sustaining-culture-when-everyones-remote/ (https://sloanreview.mit.edu/video/sustaining-culture-when-everyones-remote/)

3. 

   14 Oct 2020

   How to create racial equality at the workplace - Kamal Munir

   In this episode Dr Kamal Munir, reader in strategy and policy at the Cambridge Judge Business School, joins us to talk about how racial inequality is reproduced in organisations and why it continues to escape scrutiny. We think about how the Black Lives Matter protests have prompted organisations to do some soul-searching, and we explore some practical solutions to achieving racial equality at the workplace.

4. 

   29 Sept 2020

   Left out of the conversation: Teenagers and Covid-19 - Sarah-Jayne Blakemore

   In this episode we speak to Professor Sarah-Jane Blakemore from the Department of Psychology, about the adolescent brain and the return to school. We think about the effects of social isolation on teenagers, the long term impact of Covid-19 and we ask if we are doing the right thing by having students return to university during a pandemic. Sarah-Jayne Blakemore is Professor of Psychology and leader of the Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Group. Her group's research focuses on the development of social cognition and decision-making in the human adolescent brain, and adolescent mental health, running behavioural studies in schools and in the lab, and neuroimaging studies, with adolescents and adults. More Information: https://sites.google.com/site/blakemorelab/ Twitter - https://twitter.com/sjblakemore Transcript 1 Speaker 1 0:00 Hello, and welcome to the university. I'm your host, Nick Saffell. In this episode, we speak just Professor Sarah Jane Blakemore, from the Department of Psychology, about the adolescent brain and the return to school, we think about the effects of social isolation on teenagers, the long term impact of COVID-19. And we asked if we are doing the right thing by having students returned to university during a pandemic. We all know that the return to school is looking different this year, from a teenager's point of view, what are some of the biggest differences. So some might be that things are missing, but some might be real pluses. 2 Speaker 2 0:37 Cool is very different. It has a lot of young people that are limited to one or a very small number of classrooms for that essence, to try to minimize movement around the school. There are one way systems they the shedule of the day has changed. Of course, there is isolation, if they get a any of the symptoms of covid. And those symptoms are not, you know, completely unambiguous. So if children are getting colds, often families or schools are worried that they might have covid. So that means they have to stay off school until they get it anyway, it's very, very disrupted education. And I mean, I don't have any good solutions to this, I think schools are, are kind of firefighting in a very, very difficult circumstances. And actually, the schools that I know of are mostly doing a really great job in tough circumstances where there's a lot of worry around, and anxiety. But ultimately, the school teachers head teachers really care about educating the young people there. I mean, young people are, you know, can be quite resilient and adaptive. So, young people I have spoken to my own children, their friends, young people I work with, seem to be coping quite well, with with school with going back to school, what I think they found particularly difficult was locked out and not being in school for so many months, many teenagers were not in school for a period of six months when they should have been. And that really is difficult, not only because of the lack of learning, of education of education, academic subjects, but also because of the lack of social interaction and routine and structure that school provides that I think, is what young people that I know, found particularly challenging. Do you think teenagers are sort of taking it in their stride, then I think there are a huge, huge individual differences, some teenagers seem to be coping really well. Others have really suffered over the last few months, partly because of the lack of social interaction face to face social interaction, in the constant changes of rules with regard to social interaction, and also anxiety, anxiety about the virus about family members getting the virus that has affected young people in many different ways. And some, some are more resilient to it than others, just just as adults, 1 Speaker 1 3:02 we're hearing a lot about the sort of behavior of young people respect to the

5. 

   9 Sept 2020

   Reimagining the future of the post Covid-19 university - Simone Eringfeld

   In this episode, we speak to Simone Eringfeld, MPhil student at the Faculty of Education and producer of the Cambridge Quaranchats (https://open.spotify.com/show/4uSKKUKsoKHzve3UC7TRCC) podcast. We talk about education in the time of Covid-19, how the move to online education will affect the idea of the university and how she sees the disruption as an opportunity to reimagine the future of the post Covid-19 university. Simone shares conversations from her Quaranchats (@CamQuaranchats) podcast where guests reimagine the learners’ journey, possible ways forward, and how institutions like Cambridge might embrace necessary change. Guests Simone Eringfeld @SimoneEringfeld (https://twitter.com/simoneeringfeld?lang=en) MPhil student at the Faculty of Education @CamEDFac (https://twitter.com/CamEdFac) , educationist, writer and photographer. Co-Chair of Cambridge Peace and Education Research Group @CPERGUK (https://twitter.com/CPERGUK) Researching ‘post coronial’ futures of Higher Education. Podcast host of @CamQuaranchats (https://twitter.com/CamQuaranchats). More info http://www.simoneeringfeld.com/ (http://www.simoneeringfeld.com/) https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/ceid/2020/07/09/eringfeld/ (https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/ceid/2020/07/09/eringfeld/) https://www.cam.ac.uk/stories/UE-Simone-Eringfeld (https://www.cam.ac.uk/stories/UE-Simone-Eringfeld)

6. 

   26 Aug 2020

   Working parents in the Age of Coronavirus - Helen McCarthy

   In this episode: We speak to Dr Helen McCarthy, a Historian of Modern Britain at the Faculty of History and Author of Double Lives: A History of Working Motherhood. In recent months, many working parents have had to juggle looking after kids at home with their usual jobs.We talk about how the pandemic has had a disproportionate impact on working mothers. We take the historical perspective and the long view to try and make sense of these gender divisions. We talk about our reliance on childcare, the broader economic impact of the last few months on women, and how to ensure it is truly valued in the coronavirus recovery. Guests: Dr Helen McCarthy (@HistorianHelen (https://twitter.com/HistorianHelen)), Historian of Modern Britain at Faculty of History (@CamHistory (https://twitter.com/CamHistory)) and Fellow of St John’s College (@stjohnscam (https://twitter.com/stjohnscam)) Author of Double Lives: A History of Working Motherhood @BloomsburyBooks (https://twitter.com/BloomsburyBooks) More Info: https://www.hist.cam.ac.uk/people/dr-helen-mccarthy (https://www.hist.cam.ac.uk/people/dr-helen-mccarthy) Transcript: Unknown Speaker 0:00 Hello and welcome to the other university, a podcast about the people who make Cambridge University unique. I'm your host, Nick Saffell. In this episode, we speak to Dr. Helen McCarthy, a historian of modern Britain at the Faculty of History, and author of double lives, a history of working motherhood. In recent months, many working parents had to juggle looking after kids at home with their usual jobs. We talked about how the pandemic has had a disproportionate impact on working mothers. We take the historical perspective and the long view to try and make sense of these gender divisions. We talked about our reliance on childcare, the broader economic impact of the last few months on women, and how to ensure it is truly valued in the Coronavirus recovery. Just tell me a little bit about your experience of lockdown so far? Helen McCarthy 0:52 Well, my experience of lockdowns probably fairly similar to that of many other working parents, I've had my two primary school aged children at home for most of it, they managed to get back to school for a few weeks towards the end of the summer term. But it's been pretty intense and pretty full on. I've been trying to do my teaching and my university work. My husband, who's a lawyer, has been working at home doing some virtual court hearings, which has been a new experience for him. And it's been, you know, we've been sort of tag teaming it, trying to sort of muddle through as best we can. But it's been it's been a pretty stressful period. Unknown Speaker 1:34 So do you think it's changed your working practices as a family? With this sort of future mindset? Do you think it's going to change how you'll go about work? Helen McCarthy 1:43 Well, I've talked a lot about this with with my husband, who has only been into his chambers in central London once since the beginning of lockdown. And it certainly seems that for the legal profession, there may very well be a longer term shift towards doing a lot, a lot more online, including potentially quite a lot of court hearings, virtually. So that could be a permanent shift. And I think for universities, for my for my line of work. I mean, online teaching, obviously, is the immediate future for us, because University of Cambridge is, has...

7. 

   5 Aug 2020

   Taking care of your digital wellbeing - Tyler Shores

   In this episode we talk to Tyler Shores about digital fatigue and distraction, and how we can all take care of our digital wellbeing. We also talk about his experience of setting up an entirely online high school, and how we can think about online learning in a much more holistic way.

8. 

   10 Jul 2020

   The social media professional who's passionate about helping his community - Ibrahim Rahman

   In this episode we talk to Ibrahim Rahman about how he’s been raising money for Cambridge City foodbank and helping Muslim families struggling with hardships during the pandemic. We also talk about his journey from Wimbledon to the social media team at the university, and how he’s been using his expertise to help Cambridge Central Mosque engage with the community during lockdown.

9. 

   11 Jun 2020

   How building cars is a bit like studying the brain - Nicole Horst

   We talk to Nicole Horst about her journey from the body shop of a car manufacturing plant to a research project studying obsessive compulsive disorder, and about finding her true passion for advocacy and supporting other young researchers. As this is our first episode recorded remotely during the coronavirus lockdown, we also talk about her role in a volunteering project that’s supporting NHS workers with vital protective equipment. To find out more about donating PPE supplies, contact covid-response@cam.ac.uk.

10. 

    24 Jan 2020

    The polar explorer using Grime to break the ice - Prem Gill

    It’s not often someone compares the voices of seals to the sounds of space set to a Grime beat. But when he’s not monitoring seals from space, PhD student Prem Gill is using ‘Seal Grime’ as one way to encourage people from a wide range of backgrounds to take up polar science. My PhD research, which is a joint project with the Scott Polar Research Institute, British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and World Wildlife Fund, uses satellite images to study Antarctic seals. By monitoring the seals, we can gain a greater understanding of their habitat preferences and population trends. Through this analysis we can learn more about the health of the entire Antarctic ecosystem. This is crucial because what happens in the polar regions, effects the whole world. The Arctic and Antarctica act like a thermostat for the planet. If you can monitor what's going on in these areas, you can get an idea of what's going on globally, which has huge implications for assessing the effects of climate change. What comes to mind when you hear the words ‘polar scientist’? A sepia-tinted photograph of a Victorian explorer? A modern-day researcher in a brightly coloured padded jacket and sunglasses? You probably wouldn’t picture someone who looks like me. I’m first?-generation British-Indian working class. In the 200 years since Antarctica was first discovered, there have been huge strides in terms of women in polar science. Unfortunately the same can’t be said for people from ethnic minority backgrounds. I’m working to change that. I know from experience that a number of factors can stand in the way of young people like me from pursuing a career in something like polar science– this could be cultural expectations, financial pressures or quite simply not having role models that look like you.

11. 

    11 Nov 2019

    The Student Working to Make Education Accessible to Everyone- Shadab Ahmed

    Final-year chemist Shadab Ahmed reflects on his sabbatical year as Cambridge University Student Union Access and Funding Officer, the importance of role models, and how increasing diversity within universities could be the start of seeing real change in society as a whole. https://www.cam.ac.uk/thiscambridgelife/shadabahmed (https://www.cam.ac.uk/thiscambridgelife/shadabahmed) Final-year chemist Shadab Ahmed reflects on his sabbatical year as CUSU Access and Funding Officer, the importance of role models, and how increasing diversity within universities could be the start of seeing real change in society as a whole. This year I’m returning to Cambridge to complete the final year of my degree. I’ve been at Cambridge for four years now, three as a Chemistry undergraduate and one as the Cambridge University Student Union (CUSU) Access and Funding Officer. I’ve been involved in access work ever since I received my offer from Cambridge. Before I even started here, I took part in an open day at Christ's talking about my experiences of applying to Cambridge. As a fresher I helped with mentoring and summer schools. Later I became the student undergraduate Access Officer for Christ’s College. Access work not only changes the lives of individuals for the better but also begins to address the inequalities in society as a whole. I’ve seen first-hand how people’s lives can take such different directions depending on the support and opportunities they are given. It’s been amazing to see school pupils from minority or disadvantaged backgrounds coming right through the summer school scheme and begin here as students. Now they’re carrying on the cycle by mentoring other young people from similar backgrounds. It’s so important for young people to see students like themselves in university or similar spaces. There’s lots of different mentoring schemes, which cover every aspect of the application process through to starting university as a fresher. Mentors might help with schoolwork to make sure students don’t miss out on entry grades or simply be someone who can give advice and support. Although I didn’t have a mentor myself, what made all the difference for me was the encouragement of my teachers. However, I know from experience that schools can be very different, and some don’t have the resources to help students with applications. Nobody should miss out on university because their school’s funding has been cut. I think it's important that we can bridge the gap wherever we can to ensure that everyone who does want to make a strong application to University can get that chance to do so. With all the good access work going on here, it's really discouraging to see the media pushing a negative narrative. They always say that Cambridge is for the likes of the white middle-class and the elite. This type of coverage is really harmful as it dissuades people from applying. Having figureheads like Stormzy for our access work is great. It's been so powerful to see black students saying: “we belong and thrive here.” Hopefully, there will be a shift towards this sort of positive perception – towards thinking that Cambridge is a place for all of us. Going forward I’d like to see greater diversity of support, especially from other ethnic minority groups, such as Bangladeshi and Pakistani advocates. Universities have a responsibility to diversify our intake. The makeup of university populations means that certain groups of people often dominate influential spheres of work: government, media,...

12. 

    11 Nov 2019

    The Neuroscientist Working To Prevent Suicide In Teenagers - Anne - Laura Van Harmelen

    We talk to Dr Anne-Laura van Harmelen, a neuroscientist, who became fascinated by the brain as a teenager, after her dad gave her a copy of Oliver Sacks’ The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. Today she’s investigating adversity and resilience and is part of an international collaboration working to understand, and ultimately prevent, suicidal thoughts and behaviours in teenagers. www.riskandresiliencegroup.uk/ (https://gate.sc/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.riskandresiliencegroup.uk%2F&token=99116c-1-1573484443072) twitter.com/ProjectHOPES (https://gate.sc/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FProjectHOPES&token=4ba882-1-1573484443072) twitter.com/DrAnneLaura (https://gate.sc/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FDrAnneLaura&token=4b9224-1-1573484443072)

13. 

    11 Nov 2019

    The Woman who Brought Space Invaders to the UK - Pat Marsh

    In this episode, Charis and I speak to Cambridge University alumna, Pat Marsh. When we recorded the interview, we didn’t have any of the studio equipment with us, just a phone, but we thought it would be a crime not to share Pat’s incredible story. Pat was the first woman in the UK to hold a gaming licence and in 1979 she brought Space Invaders, the arcade game sensation, to the UK shores. Pat has had a distinguished business career, most recently serving as Executive Chairman of Philip-Treacy. Philip Treacy’s hats have adorned the heads of royals and celebrities alike, including Grace Jones, Lady Gaga, Madonna, Sarah Jessica Parker, Beyonce and Victoria Beckham. https://medium.com/this-cambridge-life/the-woman-who-brought-space-invaders-to-the-uk-and-is-championing-womens-sport-7f1aa8ffedb8 (https://medium.com/this-cambridge-life/the-woman-who-brought-space-invaders-to-the-uk-and-is-championing-womens-sport-7f1aa8ffedb8) I grew up in Tipton, a working class town in the Midlands. All my family lived locally so we were always in and out of each other’s houses. People always think that, if you are hard-up, things are difficult but everyone was the same, so we didn’t know any different. My sister reminded me recently that we had to sleep with our coats on the bed to keep warm. We had a flat roof and each year someone put up a new tarpaulin to keep the rain out. But it wasn’t completely watertight so there were always buckets around. Although we were poor we were also proud, with polished shoes. My father joined the Grenadier Guards at the age of 15 and fought with the Desert Rats in North Africa. Since reading Malory Towers I’d always dreamed of going to boarding school. But then I heard of such a thing as university, after watching the The Student Prince and The Wild and the Willing at the local Odeon, and thought that sounded even better. I was the only girl from my school to go to Grammar School and the only girl to go on to university. In those days girls went to secretarial or teacher training college so this was unusual. I got a place at Hull University to study geography, which was my best subject at school. University in the 1960s was magical. One time at the Old Hill Plaza George Harrison held my hand – what more could a girl want in life? After university, my career started with slot machines. I’d set up a business to service these machines in cafes. We started being asked about a new game called Space Invaders, so went to a trade show in Japan and ended up forming a joint Japanese company, which was the first to bring Space Invaders to the UK. We had to file down the slots, which were just big enough for Yen, so that 10 pence pieces could fit in. Everyone wanted one and we found ourselves airlifting these arcade games to businesses all over the UK. It was a crazy time. We had two Japanese colleagues living with us, one dealing with imports and exports, the other with technical issues. Because of this my children picked up Japanese. Later we decided to just import the electronic components and build the machines in the UK at Ace Coin Equipment Ltd in South Wales. This meant we needed to design a circuit board for the new range of machines, which led to my first association with Cambridge. One of our directors, Keith Arnold, knew of two young men, Hermann Hauser and Chris Curry in Cambridge who were paid £20,000 to design the new board. With this money they founded Acorn Computers. Haute couture hats have been my most recent business venture. I served as Executive Chairman of, and was a major shareholder in, Philip...

14. 

    11 Nov 2019

    The star rower whose research examines teachers’ perceptions of intelligence - Daphne Martschenko

    Daphne Martschenko, president of Cambridge University Women’s Boat Club, is determined to make the sport of rowing more accessible. Her mission to pave the way for greater diversity in rowing chimes with her study of the charged concepts of race, socio-economic status, intelligence and genetics. Read more here: medium.com/this-cambridge-life…igence-59467a7e18e2 (https://gate.sc/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmedium.com%2Fthis-cambridge-life%2Fthe-star-rower-whose-research-examines-teachers-perceptions-of-intelligence-59467a7e18e2&token=d025a9-1-1573484299972) In 2015 I became the first person of colour to row in the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Races. The Men’s Boat Race originated in 1829 and the Women’s Race in 1927. To realise that I was the first non-white face to take part was a shock. Rowing has always been seen as an elite sport but I hope this is changing. I would like for people to see me and think there is a place for someone like them in the sport as well. As a child growing up in the USA I absolutely hated sport. My parents thought it was important for me and my younger sisters to do outdoor activities and they tried very hard to interest me. I did swimming, ice-skating, baseball, soccer and basketball. I didn’t really click with any of them, and most certainly not with swimming and ice-skating. I thought of myself as more of a nerd than an athlete. One day I spotted a rowing eight on the Potomac River. I did lots of drama and I was in the school mini-bus on the way to a Shakespeare theatre competition in Washington DC. I said to the friend sitting next to me “What’s that?” Her sister rowed and she explained what rowing was. I liked the idea of being on the water and not in it. My state school in Virginia offered rowing. I knew I needed to get fit before the season started so I joined the cross-country running club. I was a big kid and one of the slowest. But, when you’re learning the basics of rowing, it’s all about strength. I was strong, even if I wasn’t the most fit. At last I’d found a sport I was good at. Rowing opened so many doors for me. It gave me confidence and that helped me to do well academically. Without rowing, I wouldn’t have applied to universities on the west coast which seemed a world away from Virginia. I went to Stanford University where I majored in Russian language and literature and medical anthropology. My father is Ukrainian and my mother Nigerian. At home we speak English. For several years when I was a child we lived in Eastern Europe and Central Asia — Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Ukraine. Because of this, I love learning languages. At school I took Latin and at Stanford I studied Arabic in addition to Russian. Languages are like a superpower, I would love to be able to speak every language in the world. In Cambridge I’ve continued with my Russian. At Stanford I continued to row. I took part in the Under 23 World Championships in 2012 and 2014. In my four years there I learnt how to pack a lot into life. I love lists. In my room at Magdalene College in Cambridge I have a white board with a weekly schedule of tasks I need to do. Just at the moment writing up my doctoral thesis is top of the agenda. I came to Cambridge to do an MPhil and stayed on to take a PhD. My MPhil was in Politics, Development and Democratic Education. My doctoral research looks at the social and ethical implications of behavioural genetics research. It examines teachers’ perceptions of intelligence, class, and race — and the possible effects of these views on student achievement. In the USA, where I carried out my fieldwork, people don’t want to talk about race. They avoid it. I think this happens in the UK as well.

15. 

    11 Nov 2019

    AI and the classroom. Using machine learning to identify why children struggle at school - Duncan Astle

    In this episode we chat to Duncan Astle, a developmental neuroscientist, who’s based at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit. Duncan and I talk about his recent study that uses machine learning to identify learning difficulties and why children may struggle at school. We also talk about his work with Pride in STEM and how the current scientific research publishing model needs to change.

16. 

    11 Nov 2019

    The Doctor Using Smartphones to Save Lives in War Zones - Waheed Arian

    Having survived the civil war in Afghanistan, Waheed Arian arrived alone in the UK aged 15. He went on to study medicine at Trinity Hall, Cambridge. Today he’s using smartphones and volunteer specialists to provide life-saving medical advice to doctors working in areas of conflict. www.cam.ac.uk/thiscambridgelife/waheedarian (https://gate.sc/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cam.ac.uk%2Fthiscambridgelife%2Fwaheedarian&token=be4f66-1-1573485071751) My father knew we had only minutes before the bombs reached us. He grabbed me and ran to a nearby village. There he found a house and inside a bread oven in which he hid me. I remember the billowing dust, coming from every direction. I was five years old and we were escaping the conflict in Afghanistan. The Khyber Pass and Torkham border were closed and so we were taking the Tari Mangal route to Pakistan. We travelled in a caravan of 20 to 25 families, the donkeys and horses tied together, carrying the women and children. We had some oiled bread and a little sugar to eat throughout the whole journey. For safety we travelled at night, with only the moonlight to see by. As the sun rose, we would find places to hide until we could continue our journey. It took us seven days to reach the refugee camp. Over the course of that week we were attacked three times by air and tanks. We felt safe at the refugee camp in Peshawar Pakistan, but the conditions were very poor. Our family of ten lived in one room. We had a few cushions and a fan – but still the temperature reached highs of 45 degrees. Within a few days of arriving we contracted malaria and three months later I caught tuberculosis (TB). I decided I wanted to become a doctor when I was recovering from TB. The doctor who was treating me was always smiling despite the conditions of the camp. I didn’t have any toys so he gave me an old stethoscope to play with. He also gave me a well-thumbed medical text book which I treasured. We stayed at the camp for three years before returning to Kabul, my home town. The Soviet troops had left but the civil war continued. Each day we hid in the cellars as the rockets, shells and bombs fell. War became normal. Waheed as a child. Credit: Andrew Price/ View Finder Pictures I learnt English by tuning into the BBC World Service, after my father had finished listening to the radio, hoping for some good news. The schools were closed so I taught myself using books brought off the street from people trying to make a little extra money to pay for food. My parents, neither of whom had been to school, knew there was no future for me in Afghanistan, so at 15 years old they sent me to the UK. I arrived in London, alone, with $100 in my pocket. I felt daunted but also happy and excited. For the first time in my life I was safe, and ahead of me lay so many opportunities. For the first week I stayed with a family friend on Portobello Road; I then moved into a flat with other refugees. I was told I should stick to labour work – perhaps working in a chicken shop or becoming a taxi driver. These are hardworking jobs, and I admire people doing them, but my dream was to become a doctor. So I took a job on Edgware Road as a salesman, found some GCSE books and studied every spare moment. I even hid my books under the counter so I could read them when the shop was quiet. I persuaded a local college to allow me to take an assessment to see if I could study...

17. 

    11 Nov 2019

    From Discovering So Solid Crew to Researching Hate Crimes - Julian Hargreaves

    Welcome to We are the University. A podcast about the alumni, staff and students who make Cambridge University unique. In this episode we chat to Julian Hargreaves about his life in the music industry discovering talent like So Solid Crew and why he chose to leave the music industry and pursue a career in academia. We talk about Julian’s research with British Muslim communities; the issues around anti-Muslim discrimination and hate crimes.

18. 

    11 Nov 2019

    Releasing the Imagination: the University of Cambridge Primary School - James Biddulph

    Welcome to We are the University. A podcast about the people who make Cambridge University unique. In this episode we meet James Biddulph, the headmaster of the University of Cambridge Primary School. www.cam.ac.uk/primaryschool (https://gate.sc/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cam.ac.uk%2Fprimaryschool&token=3eff6c-1-1573483994741) We talk about the school’s character and vision, how a trip to Nepal helped him realise that he wanted to teach as a career and we find out how he inspires the team of teachers that work with him. www.educ.cam.ac.uk/people/staff/biddulph/ (https://gate.sc/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.educ.cam.ac.uk%2Fpeople%2Fstaff%2Fbiddulph%2F&token=798873-1-1573483994741) More than just an outstanding Ofsted rating sets the University of Cambridge Primary School apart: it places research at its heart, informing education practice and furthering research at Cambridge’s Faculty of Education and elsewhere. Visitors walking through one of the ‘learning streets’ that run through the core of the University of Cambridge Primary School (UCPS) soon notice something unusual. It’s not the fact that they end up back where they started – the school’s Polo-mint-shaped structure is just one of its radical features – but the startling lack of doors: classrooms open up invitingly on each side of the street, with snatches of lessons, storytelling or music audible within. The open-plan design both facilitates and symbolises the school’s role as the first, and still only, University Training School at primary level in the UK (the only secondary UTS is in Birmingham). Sponsored by the University of Cambridge, its role is to provide brilliant and inclusive primary education for its local community, and also to work alongside the University’s Faculty of Education and others to be research informed and research generating. Building from the work of the Faculty of Education, the school identified three ‘golden threads’ that bind together its curriculum: habits of mind (the resilience and problem-solving skills that help children learn); dialogue (exemplified in the new DIALLS project); and playful inquiry. The aim, looking forward again, is to “empower children to make sense of the complex world in which they live” and nurture “compassionate citizens who want to make a positive contribution to their local and global worlds.”

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