Princeton University, Symposium Dinner Speech
Ladies and Gentleman, distinguished guests, it is an honour and a pleasure to speak to you this evening, as it has been to be a guest of Princeton University at this extraordinary symposium. Established in 1746, this University has produced alumni like John Rawls and Alan Turing, Richard Feynman and John Nash and faculty members like Tony Morrison and Joyce Carol Oats, to name but a few. It is one of the finest Universities in the United States, and is New Jersey’s greatest gift to the world... well some would say this was the case until ‘The Sopranos’ first aired on television! I know that to speak to you this evening, Professor Storrar wanted to invite someone from a plucky, up and coming University... but no one from Harvard was available so you are stuck with me. Actually I think I am allowed to say this because I did spend a year as Visiting Professor of Health and Human Rights at Harvard and John Rawls allowed me to sit in on his tutorials – sheer bliss.
All joking aside, Glasgow Caledonian University is a modern, globally networked University, and though the roots of our founding institutions go back to 1875, we do not have the intellectual history or gravitas of a Princeton. Princeton University is ranked amongst the elite institutions in the world today, my own University is not, so why has this gracious invitation been extended to me? I like to think that it is because, Will has spotted that we are very serious indeed as a University, in partnering with others, to take action to address questions of inequalities of health, wealth and wellbeing.
Glasgow is an exciting, bustling and successful metropolitan city. But it is also the home of the ‘Glasgow effect.’ This term refers to the exceptionally poor health and low life expectancy of Glaswegians compared to the rest of the UK and Europe. It is a phenomenon that has challenged epidemiologists, including myself, for years, though it may not surprise those of you who are aware that the West of Scotland’s most famous culinary export is the ‘Deep Fried Mars Bar,’ and of course we have a great love of Whisky. One of the serious consequences of this however, is that Glasgow, and the West of Scotland, has a particular problem with life expectancy for many men, as low as 54 in some areas, with 4 generations of worklessness, and difficulties for those from the most deprived backgrounds going on to further study or to University. Poor health, deprivation and lack of social mobility – a depressing tale with inequalities widening. Our University researchers are really good at describing the problems, but could a University also act to make a difference?
It was for this reason that we established our award winning Caledonian Club, to work with young people and families from the most difficult, chaotic and impoverished backgrounds in Glasgow. Our approach goes beyond many University widening access schemes. We work with children as young as three, their teachers, parents and even grandparents, in order to raise their aspirations and begin to equip them with the skills and capabilities to take up new opportunities, or go on to further study or University. Since its inception four years ago, it now works with over 2,000 parents and 5,000 school pupils, and is supported by 300 of our students and staff. It is such a core part of our University’s activity that we established a Caledonian Club in London for the most disadvantaged young people and parents of the community we serve there, as part of our campus in the city. And to the satisfaction of the States’ Deputy Commissioner for Education, the club will form a part of the city of New York campus’s work when we open there in Soho in September of this year, the first UK University to do so. And we are evaluating the impact of this significant effort creating a new database on learning in families as we do so.
Our University commitment to working for the ‘common good’ has only been strengthened by the appointment of Microcredit pioneer and ‘Banker to the Poor’, Professor Muhammad Yunus as our Chancellor. His installation ceremony in October of last year, at which his speech received a standing ovation from the students present, was one of the most uplifting moments of my career. Not only because a Nobel Laureate was installed as our Chancellor, but also because well, bankers don’t get many standing ovations in Scotland anymore! And what was it he said that was so compelling? Put simply, that our young people are not leaders of the future, they are leaders now and that they should not be at University simply to think about the job they get when they leave, but to think about how many jobs they will create.
So, back to what more our University can do to reduce inequalities and joblessness, despite the fact that we are already an important engine of the economy delivering over 400 million pounds to Scotland’s economy each year. Well, we have, as a University, with the support of Tesco Bank and the Scottish Government, facilitated the bringing of the Grameen initiative to Scotland . It brings our Chancellor’s model of microcredit to the UK for the first time. The first branches will be opened to women borrowers in Glasgow in June this year, but the Foundation will then go on to focus on poverty alleviation and education across the UK, through the introduction of the Grameen model of micro credit . Now there are those who said that bringing the Grameen model from Bangladesh to a developed country would not work. They said this however, about the establishment of Grameen America, and it has worked. It has worked in New York, and in Omaha, and in Indianapolis. I went with Margaret Thompson, a feisty community leader from one of the toughest housing schemes in Glasgow to see Grameen in New York and we were both so excited to see the simple model based on trust and small groups of committed people working together to support each other to create social businesses and climb out of dependency on the welfare state, that we couldn’t get home fast enough to try it. Well it has taken 3 years but it will work just as well in the UK and the independent research led by Professor Cam Donaldson of our Yunus Centre for Social Business and Health evaluating the impact of the initiative will mean we will better understand where it has or has not been effective, and the central role that women play in the process.
In return for the precious gift of the Grameen Bank in the UK, the University has worked with Professor Yunus, and the Grameen Healthcare Trust, to establish the Grameen Caledonian College of Nursing in Dhaka, to produce the nurses and midwives so desperately needed there to tackle maternal and infant mortality. We seconded one of our Professors, Barbara Parfitt, as the Foundation Principal to start the college which was officially opened in March 2011 by HRH Princess Anne and this February the first thirty eight brave young women, from the families of Grameen borrowers, from some of the most disadvantaged and far-flung villages in Bangladesh, graduated with a Diploma in Nursing and Midwifery. This ceremony was a milestone for the college, which is making great progress in delivering high quality courses and research offerings as well as educational opportunities for the poorest, in a country that is in need.
Prior to being a vice chancellor I worked for many years for the World Health Organisations Global Programme on AIDS and then UNAIDS, creating grand national plans for HIV prevention in countries with the worst incidents of HIV. I have been repeatedly struck by the way in which it does not seem to be the overarching policy or global plan that makes change possible, despite the way it unlocks donor contributions. On the ground it is, as anthropologist Margaret Mead observed, small groups of committed people who make the world change for the better.
Why then would I be daft enough to now pursue the notion of a social action MOOC which we will call the “Yunus Uni.”? Well, because I believe this global platform will provide a repository and evidence base for local community activities that are currently not captured in our academic or other databases, but that are nevertheless working to prevent illness, promote health and social cohesion and inclusion at a local level. It could be a new kind of social action learning platform which harnesses the great capacity for debate and scholarship on online platforms and provides divergent problem solving where the young learners and doers really are our current leaders. It is a hugely ambitious project and to be honest big technological brains will have to be engaged to deliver it because.... I can barely work my own I Pad!
So, why is the University doing all this? Why are we striving to align with other organisations quite unlike ourselves? Why did we establish a nursing college in Bangladesh, which does not deliver us a cent of revenue but costs a small University with no endowment funds, quite a lot of money? Why is our creation of the aspiration raising Caledonian Club as part of our New York campus, as high a priority as recruiting to our Executive Education courses?
Princeton alumnus, and Democratic presidential candidate, Adlai Stevenson said in a 1954 address to his alma mater entitled “The Educated Citizen”:
“Don't forget that Princeton is a university, as well as your university; and that it has obligations to the whole of mankind not just to you—obligations which it can neither ignore nor shirk, and which cannot, consistently with its honorable name and its place in the community of scholarship, be sacrificed to passing passions and prejudices.”
In our Universities the drive for internationalisation and pursuit of income can oftentimes make it difficult for the leaders of the Universities of today to keep the social mission of their institutions foremost in their minds. What Stevenson understood then, remains true now, that the knowledge that we generate in our research, and transfer in our teaching, must in the end, help those who need it the most. We cannot allow a dash for dollars to compromise our work for the common good.
Just as Adam Smith understood, that the wealth of nations must always be underpinned by moral sentiments, we must remember that our Universities cannot be guided by a balance sheet, but, rather by an inclusive moral compass. My time here at Princeton, contributing to this important symposium, underpins my confidence2 that my brash, young, ambitious University can remain committed to this principle. We can harness all of our intellectual, social and emotional capital for the common good, we must and we are.
It is an honour and a pleasure to have had the chance to address you this evening. Thank you.
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