The Vice-Chancellor's Colloquium on Climate

In the 2023 Vice-Chancellor's Oration, Professor Irene Tracey outlined a critical challenge in higher education: while our educational system is very good at specialisation within academic disciplines, this focused curriculum isn’t always well suited to addressing the challenges of our time, like climate change, which are complicated and require interdisciplinary problem-solving. 

In response to Professor Tracey’s challenge, this Hilary term we have launched The Vice-Chancellor's Colloquium. This pilot programme has been designed and will be delivered by the Department for Continuing Education, in collaboration with a wide range of stakeholders from across the collegiate University. Through our 2024 theme of climate change, the Vice-Chancellor's Colloquium will develop students’ tangible skills related to critical thinking, numeracy and communication, while fostering intellectual curiosity and creative collaborations. 

This unique learning experience will involve 200 undergraduates from 25 academic departments – 100 students from STEM subjects and 100 from social sciences and humanities – and all 33 undergraduate colleges. 8 senior academics from the 4 academic divisions will deliver keynote lectures in the colloquium. In addition, 20 postgraduate students will facilitate discussion groups at 10 host colleges. 

I’m involved in a number of interrelated projects at the University, serving as a Research Officer in the Education and Training for the Climate interdisciplinary research hub, the Curriculum Project Lead in the environmental sustainability team and the creator of the Museum of Climate Hope trail with the Environmental Change Institute and GLAM. In each case we are exploring opportunities to study environmental sustainability. Each of these threads came together a few months ago when I joined Continuing Education as a Programme Officer to lead the development of the Vice-Chancellor's Colloquium. 

To illustrate a typical colloquium session, in Week 1 Helen Johnson, Professor of Ocean and Climate Science and convener of the ONE Climate Research Network, and Amanda Power, Associate Professor of Medieval History and co-convenor of the TORCH Climate Crisis Thinking in the Humanities and Social Sciences network, both responded to the question: what are the causes of climate change? Matthew Weait, Director of the Department for Continuing Education, moderated the lively discussion; mathematician Tom Crawford (@Tomrocksmath on YouTube) and philosopher Alice Evatt then introduced a series of activities exploring concepts like causation and responsibility. 

Going forward, students on the programme will also work together in teams on pitches, posters and creative projects that apply their interdisciplinary skills to local and global challenges. The colloquium concludes with a student showcase on 22 April – which, appropriately, is Earth Day. 

The theme of climate also represents an alignment of strategic priorities for Oxford, advancing the curriculum priority of the University’s Environmental Sustainability Strategy – which I work on in parallel to the colloquium – and reflecting Continuing Education’s vision of promoting sustainability and social justice.  

I am very excited to see so many aspects of the Oxford community come together into this initiative, and want to thank our hosts at the Department of Physics, the Mathematical Institute and the participating colleges. For more information, visit the Vice-Chancellor's Colloquium page on the Continuing Education website.

I would also encourage people from across the University to join Green Action Week, running from 19 to 23 February, events to explore a range of environmental learnings and actions activities from across the University, and to check out the resources on the Student Union’s Sustainability Hub.