From Vision to Impact: 60 Years of the University of Bradford
In collaboration with Bradford Literature Festival.
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In collaboration with Bradford Literature Festival, and in celebration of our 60th anniversary, this lively and thought-provoking conversation will explore how bold political vision and shifting social attitudes opened the doors to higher education for generations, and why that legacy still matters today.
Author and Labour politician, Alan Johnson, joins Vice-Chancellor of the university to reflect upon the attitudes towards higher education during Wilson’s time and his pivotal role in advancing opportunity. From our roots as Bradford Technical College, the university has continued to build on Wilson’s legacy, championing the transformative power of higher education in unlocking potential, driving world-leading research and changing lives.
Join us for a unique opportunity to reflect on the past, engage with the present, and be inspired by what comes next in Bradford.
Tickets: Free
Event Speakers
Professor Nick Braisby:
Born in Swansea, south Wales, to Yorkshire parents, Nick studied at Olchfa Comprehensive School before earning a place at the University of Cambridge to read Natural Sciences including Psychology. He went on to complete his PhD at the University of Edinburgh’s Centre for Cognitive Science before taking up a British Academy Postdoctoral research fellowship at the London School of Economics.
An accomplished scholar and senior leader, Professor Braisby has held several executive positions across the higher education sector as is currently the Interim Vice-Chancellor of the University of Bradford.
His experience spans institutional strategy, academic development and organisational transformation, underpinned by a strong commitment to student success and academic excellence.
Alan Johnson:
Alan Johnson is an award-winning British author and former Labour Party politician, having served as a Cabinet Minister under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown as Work and Pensions Secretary, Trade and Industry Secretary, Education Secretary, Health Secretary and Home Secretary.
Following his parliamentary career, he transitioned to writing, producing acclaimed memoirs and successful crime fiction, including ‘This Boy’, ‘Please Mr Postman’, and ‘The Long and Winding Road’.
In 2017 Alan was the guest speaker at the inaugural event in the Harold Wilson lecture series, titled’ Harold Wilson: Statesman and Visionary’ which can be viewed here.
About the Book:
Part of Swift Press’s The Prime Ministers Series, this is an in-depth look into former Prime Minister Harold Wilson.
Harold Wilson was one of the most successful politicians of the twentieth century.
Prime Minister from 1964-70, and again from 1974-76, he won four elections as well as a referendum on UK membership of the European Community. The achievements of the Wilson Era – from legalising homosexuality to protecting ethnic minorities, from women’s rights to the Open University – radically improved ordinary people’s lives for the better.
In this book, former Labour cabinet minister and bestselling author Alan Johnson presents a portrait of a truly twentieth-century man, whose ‘white heat’ speech proclaimed a scientific and technological revolution – and who was as much a part of the sixties as the Beatles and the Profumo scandal.