THE Digital Universities UK event encourages radical collaboration
Last week’s Times Higher Education Digital Universities UK event saw a record number of participants – over 700 – and thanks have been expressed to all colleagues who contributed to its success.
Dear colleague,
We proudly hosted the Times Higher Education (THE) Digital Universities UK event on campus last week, welcoming more than 700 higher education, industry, and policy leaders from across the world who took part in more than 60 panels, talks and workshops delivered by 150 speakers.
We're writing to thank our colleagues who made this possible. This event could not have happened without a huge team effort right across campus. Thank you to everyone from our estates and cleaning staff who make our campus look fantastic, to our catering and events staff who gave our guests a first-class experience, right through to our students and academics who showcased their incredible work or joined us as ambassadors.
As our Vice Chancellor and President, Professor Simone Buitendijk, said in her opening keynote, "we have to collaborate as if our life depends on it, because it does"; that collaboration was right at the heart of the four days and is an area where the University is taking a radical approach, with developments such as Curriculum Redefined and the Knowledge Equity Network (KEN) providing opportunities for us to collaborate locally and globally.
The University of Leeds is a leader in digital innovation, research and student education and THE Digital Universities UK was an ideal opportunity to showcase how our community is making an enormous impact in these areas. Watch our new video to learn more about our digital transformation and why hosting this event was so important for our University and the City of Leeds.
Delegates, including 150 from the University of Leeds, had the opportunity to experience some of our work first-hand, experimenting on dental simulators and digital escape rooms, learning about the Business School’s trading floor, the immersive simulation of Virtuocity, exciting developments in digital libraries and our brand new, state-of-the-art digital creation and collaboration space, HELIX.
In addition, each day we exhibited some of the ways we are harnessing digital opportunities to enhance our education and research, from virtual field trips to world-leading work in healthcare, from virtual reality in arts and performance to viewing tiny insects in larger detail.
The overwhelming positive response we heard from our guests about our beautiful campus, our creative and innovative spaces and the exciting work of our staff and students has been a joy to receive and we hope everyone is feeling as proud as we are.
The Digital Universities UK event has sparked some brilliant conversations and ideas for collaboration and exploration, and we're looking forward to seeing those come to fruition in the near future.
Thank you to everyone for your incredible work.
With best wishes,
Professor Jeff Grabill, Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Student Education
Professor Arunangsu Chatterjee, Dean of Digital Transformation
You can view more pictures from the event on Flickr.