What's the University for?

The University of Edinburgh Chaplain, Revd Dr Harriet Harris, ran The “What’s the University for?”  (WTUF) Series from 2012 - 2019, bringing people together from across and beyond the University of Edinburgh, to deepen our attention to the purpose, culture and community of the University. In collaboration with multiple Schools and Departments across the University, the Chaplaincy held the following large-scale events and programmes:

• ‘What’s the University For?’
• ‘Why are we here?’
• ‘On Being a Global University’
• ‘Can the University afford to have values?’
• ‘Creating a University’
• ‘The Humane University’
•  ‘Conversations Towards a Compassionate University’, roadshows
• ‘The Personal Politics of Climate Change’
• ‘Slow University’ workshop series

‘What’s the University for?’ is a form of question that has been adopted and taken out to other contexts: ‘What’s South Edinburgh for?’; ‘What are Cathedrals for?’. It is an open question that brings people of a community together for serious, playful focus on what is important to them. The question could go anywhere, and so, of course, could the responses!

Follow this link for reflections on the Series, and what it has shown us about Educational Community and Values 

PhD students have blogged on various WTUF events:

Creating a University

Measuring the immeasurable

The Humane University

National and International interest in the Series

The Scottish Government, and colleagues in UK and international universities (Oxford, LSE, Durham, Georgetown, Stanford, Latakia in Syria, and Suzhou in China), enquired about the Series, which has also been profiled in Berlin at an MIT Presencing Foundation Programme, ‘From Ego to Eco’.

Film: ‘The University Listening Project’

Film-makers Tracey Fearnehough and Holger Mohaupt, inspired by the WTUF endeavour to create stronger connections and deepen our educational values, worked with Harriet to create the film The University Listening Project, in collaboration with the Edinburgh College of Art and Room8 Studios. [See the film here]

Other collaborators in our events have included Cities that Listen, and the International Futures Forum.

In 2019, based upon our findings from our multiple WTUF events, it was time to shift the focus to:

1. fostering a culture of compassion within the University
2. exploring the role of the UoE as a Global University, in addressing current global challenges.

During the disruption of the COVID19 pandemic, the Chaplain drew on her sense of the needs of the University community in order to create the Abundant Academy personal and leadership development programme, which continues to run both within the University of Edinburgh and further afield.