Prof Damien Page

- A 20% reduction in prices yet sales growth of 18%
- 40% increase in footfall
- 2000 free meals for students so far this year, 9000 by the end of the year

Grand strategies are great but sometimes you’ve got to go full Maslow.

In a cost of living crisis, food needs to become central to university life. At BNU, where once we contracted an expensive external company, last year we worked with our Students’ Union to take over our entire catering operation. The results have been amazing:

Accessing support should be easy. Engaging with the digital environment should be easy. Managing the difficulty of learning and the demands of personal lives should be easy.

Universities need as much focus on ease as difficulty.

Universities should contain both difficulty and ease.

Learning should be difficult. The process of learning is, by its very nature, difficult, and that is no bad thing.

For everything else, for every other element of the student experience, there should be ease. Applying should be easy. 1/

International students should not be treated as migrants Framing a tax on students as a migration control is a misguided move that punishes one of Britain's greatest assets, says Virenda Sharma.

Stop treating international students like a problem, start treasuring them for the immense social, cultural and economic value they bring. www.cityam.com/internationa...

networks and serious economic value. They aren’t here to “inflate migration numbers.” They’re here to learn, collaborate, and become lifelong ambassadors for the UK.

If we want thriving universities, stronger trade relationships and a globally relevant economy, the solution is simple. 2/

International students aren’t migrants, they’re an engine of growth.

The article nails it: we’ve allowed the narrative to drift from talent attraction to border control through a levy on international students. And the consequences are real.

International students bring ideas, energy, global 1/

courage to face consequences.

Accountability only works when everyone is accountable, from top to bottom. That’s the *only* way it can work.

Everyone wants accountability until they get it.

Everyone says it should be the norm but real accountability is uncomfortable. It means owning outcomes, not just intentions. It means hearing hard truths.

Real accountability isn’t about blame or control, it’s about trust, transparency, and the 1/

Clear diaries, get the right people in a room, ask the right questions, co-create the right solution.

Directness works. Simplicity works.

Solving problems in organisations is too often over complicated. Sure, some problems require months of task and finish groups and working parties and extraordinary committees but most don’t. Usually it’s a lack of will to make a decision and take accountability that forestalls resolution. 1/

‘It’s about shaping the story of a university in transformation’.

Now we’ve appointed a superb new Director of Brand, Marketing and Communications, we’re recruiting two more posts for our new in-house agency: a Senior Creative Lead and Senior Marketing Lead. jobs.bucks.ac.uk/vacancies.ht...

Governing Body - Council Council is our governing body and is responsible for the educational character and mission of our University.

We’re now recruiting for an independent member of our BNU Council and we’re particularly interested to hear from candidates with a background in entrepreneurship, innovation, and start-ups. Fantastic opportunity to join our governance and help us continue our recreation of what a university can be.

rather than pulling the ladder up. Pay attention to the quiet experts. Remember the ones who live their values more than they expound them. Recruit perpetually.

Always be recruiting. Always be looking out for the talented, the original thinkers, the ones who do more than talk. Take note of those who create impact regardless of their position, the big successes, the small achievements that signal real ability. Keep an eye on those who develop others 1/

the thinking that got us here, thinking that was right at the start of our careers but doesn’t necessarily work for the context that we face now.

The real test isn’t how fast we can learn, it’s how willing we are to unlearn.

We celebrate learning. New skills. New systems. New technologies.

But we rarely talk about unlearning. Unlearning is harder. It means letting go of what once worked, of habits that once brought success, of assumptions that once felt true.

It’s uncomfortable because it asks us to question 1/

communities, and identity. We need historians to remind us that every technological revolution before this one brought unintended consequences. And we need artists to keep the human experience at the centre.

AI doesn’t diminish the value of the humanities; it amplifies their urgency.

After three days spent with AI researchers from around the world, one thing is very clear to me: we need the humanities and social sciences more than ever.

We need philosophers to ask about ethics and responsibility. We need sociologists to understand how technology reshapes relationships, 1/

vanity projects; we’re only interested in giving students the campus they need and deserve.

free student parking, a GP service and affordable food. Investing within our means rather than taking out exorbitant loans. An estate that earns its keep and generates income to invest further in the student experience.

We’re not interested in winning architectural prizes or 2/

We have a very clear philosophy of estates at BNU now. For us, it means creating a physical environment that meets the needs of students first and foremost. Spaces that prioritise learning, community and wellbeing. Spaces created in a cost of living crisis context that include commuter kitchens, 1/

Recruitment is an act of imagination. Yes, it’s about role purpose, criteria, job descriptions, reporting lines, accountabilities, all of that. But at its heart, at its essence, it is the imagination of potential.

That so many recruiting managers lack imagination is the problem.

Leadership is knowing when to compromise and when to be uncompromising.

Be uncompromising with purpose and values, ethics, the student experience, responsible spending, developing people, respect and dignity.

Everything else is suitable for compromise.

Chief Student Experience Officer at Buckinghamshire New University Start your UK & international job search for academic jobs, research jobs, science jobs and managerial jobs in leading universities and top...

Just over 2 weeks left to apply to be our first Chief Student Experience Officer, overseeing the entire student journey from outreach to alumni. Superb opportunity to create a student experience beyond expectations.
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DOY621/c...

The questions that made you stop. The ones that made you rethink what you thought you knew. The ones that made the room go quiet for a moment.

We need more people asking better questions.

We don’t value questions enough at work.

We prioritise answers and solutions, we reward confidence and promote people who ‘know’. But the best people I’ve worked with weren’t the ones with all the answers, they were the ones who asked the best questions.
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Reimagining recruitment for senior leaders at Buckinghamshire New University Rachael Cornwall tells People Management how the institution shares interview questions with all candidates as standard and allows some roles to write their own job descriptions

Interview questions sent out 72 hours in advance; mandatory diverse panels; applicants designing their own job descriptions; recruitment as dialogue. Great piece from our Chief People Officer Rachael Cornwall on our inclusive recruitment strategy www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/article/1934...

and arts were seen as desirable to a country’s wellbeing. When there were voices, loud, powerful voices, who were evangelists for higher education rather than apologists.

Maybe I’m just getting older and nostalgia has set in. But I miss them nonetheless.

I miss the days when higher education was seen as a social good, a national treasure. When the social, cultural and intellectual contribution of higher education was valued as highly as economic contribution. When students from poorer backgrounds had proper financial support. When the humanities 1/