Speaker :  Janice Kay (Provost and Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor University of Exeter )

Date :  March 11, 2016

Time: 14:30 - 15:30

Venue :  Room 208, Cheng Dao Building

Language  : English

Speaker Profile:

Professor Janice Kay is the Provost and Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of Exeter. Prior to her role as Provost, Professor Kay spent 10 years as Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Education and also chaired the group that developed the university's strategy for science, engineering and medicine. She is a Professor of cognitive neuropsychology, first appointed to Exeter through a Wellcome Trust University Lectureship. Her research, funded most recently by ESRC as well as Wellcome and MRC, is concerned with theoretical modelling, assessment and rehabilitation of disorders of perception, speech, language and memory.

Professor Kay also holds numerous external positions linked to health sciences, further to her integral role in creating the University of Exeter Medical School. She is on the boards of the South West Academic Health Science Network, Health Education South West and is a non-executive director of the Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust.

Abstract:

Professor Janice Kay will explore the role of the university in the twenty-first century, and how universities prepare their students to be the leaders of the future in a globally competitive jobs market.  Universities in the UK and around the world are in the midst of a process of great change, as they respond to governments redirecting funding towards new priorities. In the current environment, many universities are being compelled to diversify their traditional income streams and to redefine their core missions.  Meanwhile, the longer-term process of the marketisation of higher education creates alternative pressures, where entrepreneurialism and innovation are central to future success and student satisfaction is more important than ever before. Using her experience of the rapidly changing UK higher education policy environment, Professor Kay will reflect on the increasingly pivotal role of universities in society, chart some of the major trends in higher education and explore the implications for students. Professor Kay will investigate the function of universities within global economies and the massive demand from companies and organisations worldwide for the higher level skills that a university education provides concluding with an evaluation of what skills students will need to succeed and excel in their careers as global citizens.