台湾六合彩开奖记录

The Vice Chancellor鈥檚 lecture 鈥楿niversities in the age of populism and anti-intellectualism鈥� explored the rise of populism and its impact on universities as well as outlining what universities need to do in order to be popular in the age of populism.

Speaking at the University鈥檚 Luton campus, the Vice Chancellor said: 鈥淔rom Brexit to (Donald) Trump, populism is on the rise.

鈥淲e live in a world where fact and opinion are being deliberately blurred for personal and political purposes. Dispelling this abuse of power is fundamental to social cohesion, genuine advancement and democracy.鈥�

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In 2016, the year of the EU referendum, Oxford University Press named the term 鈥減ost-truth鈥� Word of the Year. In the years that followed some argue that, emotion, rather than evidence, appears to have swayed public debate and set political agendas.

The former Higher Education Minister set out how universities can lead the way when it comes to challenging misinformation.

He said: 鈥淎s institutions charged with the dissemination and creation of knowledge, we have a fundamental role to play in challenging misinformation - whatever its source. We must promote an evidence based approach. And we must create space for our views to be contested, challenged and debated.

鈥淎s creators and disseminators of knowledge, we need to contest the idea that there is such a thing as an 鈥榓lternative fact鈥�. We must always aspire to truth and recognise that finding truth isn鈥檛 always easy.

鈥淲e need to defend freedom of speech, including speech that we find objectionable. However, we should never shy away from challenging views with which we disagree. We must teach our students how to disagree, but in an agreeable fashion, based on reason and evidence.鈥澨�

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The VC ends with a rallying call: 鈥淲e must promote freedom of speech and debate, we must challenge untruths and we must bring people together at this critical time of unprecedented division.鈥�

鈥� UoB Press Office (@uobnews)

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Mr Rammell concluded by calling for universities to better communicate the important role they have to play in shaping communities, teaching, and research.

He said: 鈥淚 think we need to be more proactive in promoting what we do, not just for our students, but for our wider society.

鈥淲e change lives. The lives of our students and graduates. The lives of people within our community. The lives changed and enhanced through our research. Our graduates are our future nurses, social workers and teachers. They will be the driving force in our local knowledge economies.听 Our engineers and our leaders.

鈥淯niversities are engines of economic growth and drivers of social mobility. We have a fundamental role to play in addressing many of the very legitimate public concerns that people have 鈥� particularly when it comes to creating more job opportunities and helping communities to come together.鈥�