Campus Talks by Times Higher Education

Drawing on research into the experiences of Chinese academics in the UK, we hear how these subtle but powerful discriminatory acts manifest in universities and what could be done to address them

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Microaggressions are often overlooked in the official literature on discrimination which tends to focus on more explicit behaviours that can be readily identified and dealt with.

Yet these seemingly subtle acts can have a big impact on those subjected to them, as this week’s podcast guest explains.

Ming Cheng, professor of higher education at Sheffield Hallam University, carried out research into the experiences of Chinese scholars working in English universities and found a striking prevalence of microaggressions.

On this week’s episode of Campus Talks, she shares her definition of microaggressions and gives examples of how they manifest within universities, drawn from her research.

We hear about the impact of these behaviours but also what action universities could take to prevent microaggressions going unnamed and unopposed.

You can read Ming's full research paper here: Navigating microaggressions in the workplace: experiences of Chinese international academics in England | Higher Education | Springer Nature Link.

As open research moves closer to the mainstream, how it is practised is also responding to broader changes in technology and the research ecosystem. Uses of generative AI – to synthesise data, write academic papers and create funding applications – challenge the status quo, even as the tools bring gains in accessibility and efficiency. How can young scientists take on practices that align with open research goals for outputs that are findable, accessible, reusable and interoperable while still working within traditional measures of academic success?

To provide insight and practical advice, this episode talks to two experts in open science, with expertise in teaching, research, publishing and policy:

Julia Priess-Buchheit is a professor and researcher at Kiel University in Germany and, since 2018, has been scientific director and chair of the board of the Centre for Constructive Science. Priess-Buchheit has provided scientific advice to international and European initiatives, including the Global Research Initiative on Open Science and the European Open Science Cloud Association. In June, the report she co-authored with a large interdisciplinary team, Open Science and the Effects of Generative Artificial Intelligence in Scientific Exchange, was presented at the meeting of the Panel for the Future of Science and Technology at the European Parliament. 

Sarahanne Field is an assistant professor in pedagogy at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. With a background in psychology and metascience, she teaches on ethics, research practice, scientific knowledge production and its relationship to society, as well as qualitative research methods. Field is editor-in-chief of the open access Journal of Trial and Error. 

To learn more about how to foster an open research culture, head to our latest spotlight guide.

You’ll find a previous Campus Talks episode about open access here.

While academia offers some well-trodden career paths – from PhD then post-doc to lecturer, professor, departmental head and ultimately into university leadership – there are plenty of alternative routes to success in higher education.

On this week’s episode of Campus Talks, we find out how individuals can carve out their own unique careers within the university hierarchy while still demonstrating the necessary knowledge and skills to those all-important promotion and recruitment panels.

Harriet Dunbar-Morris, the new deputy president and chief academic officer at South East Technological University (SETU), in Ireland, offers her take on how those in higher education can best prepare for the next career move and what university recruiters themselves could do to attract a greater diversity of talent.

Harriet, who was previously pro vice-chancellor academic and provost at the University of Buckingham, shares her own career building strategies, what success looks like for her and why demonstrating impact can and should go beyond just publication and funding records.

When course design is undertaken backwards, learning outcomes become the starting point, then assessment and finally classroom activities. The aim is to create a learning environment where students feel motivated and engaged. 

But what are the key considerations for creating effective modules and units and the indicators that show this has been achieved? 

For this episode, we talk to Daniel Guberman, a senior instructional developer and assistant director of student-centred pedagogy in the Center for Instructional Excellence at Purdue University. Guberman is co-author, with colleagues Emily M. Bonem and Chantal Levesque-Bristol, of Designing Impactful College Courses: Applying Self-Determination Theory to Unleash the Potential of Autonomy-Supportive Learning Environments (Routledge, 2026). He brings to this conversation a keen interest in grading protocols and insights from Purdue's long-running Impact instructor development programme.

To learn more about course design for a new age, head to the latest Campus spotlight guide.

To book a place at the Innovation & Impact Summit 2026 in Seoul on 17-19 November: Book tickets | THE Innovation & Impact Summit 2026. 

A world leading data visualisation expert talks about leading the global Human Reference Atlas initiative and how collaboration enables researchers to think far bigger

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“Oftentimes it's said that if you want to go fast, you go alone, but I don't think you can go far this way. If you want to go far, you have to go together.”

So states Katy Börner during this episode of Campus Talks, in which we ask her about her ground-breaking project aimed at mapping all the anatomical structures and human cells in the human body, the Human Reference Atlas (HRA).

This project relies on the input of thousands of researchers across multiple disciplines from all over the world, including several other ambitious physiological ‘atlasing’ efforts which are working in parallel to the HRA.

The Victor H. Yngve Distinguished Professor of Engineering and Information Science at Indiana University, Katy is also a founding director of the Cyberinfrastructure for Network Science (CNS) Center and she is a curator of the international Places & Spaces: Mapping Science exhibition.

She explains how she developed such an interest in data visualisation work and why she has embraced an interdisciplinary and collaborative approach to research throughout her career.

To find out more about the Human Reference Atlas:

Human BioMolecular Atlas Program (HuBMAP): 3D Human Reference Atlas construction and usage

Human Reference Atlas introduction and training

Upcoming events for those interested in the Human Reference Atlas

Whole Person Physiome Jamboree, August 24 to 25, 2026

Human Reference Atlas, Human Phenotype Ontology, Whole Person Physiome and other EU efforts hackathon, August 27 to 28.

To book a place at the Innovation & Impact Summit 2026 in Seoul from 17 to 19 November: Book tickets | THE Innovation & Impact Summit 2026. 

Outreach is the way in which universities share their research and expertise with groups beyond the institution. Think school visits, science demonstrations, workshops, campus tours, online resources, summer school or festivals. These activities are often aimed at widening participation and inspiring children, teenagers and others – no matter their background – to pursue higher education. 

And it is works. The Higher Education Access Tracker service found that UK students eligible for free school meals who engaged in intensive outreach were up to 48 per cent more likely to progress to higher education.

For this episode, we speak to Lorraine Coghill, who is the deputy director of science engagement at Durham University. With a PhD in biomedical and clinical laboratory sciences, she has over 20 years’ of educational engagement experience, working with schools, universities, science centres, festivals, and educational and community organisations in the UK and Europe. She also contributes to national and international engagement initiatives, including Project Earth, and serves as co-chair of the Space North East England Skills and Outreach Group. Durham’s Stargoal project, which brings together football, physics and gender representation in sport, won the Partnering with Schools category at the 2024 Odgen Trust Outreach Awards. 

To learn more about the secrets of successful university outreach, head to our latest spotlight guide.

In a globalised world, and the increased internationalisation of higher education, multilingualism can be a key strength for universities. The ability to communicate in more than one language has cognitive and learning benefits, as well as boosting communication skills, employability, cultural awareness and an open mindset.

So, how can universities, which often host speakers of scores of languages, capitalise on this skill set?

For this episode, we talk to Anwei Feng, a professor in language education whose research and extensive publications focus on bi- and trilingualism with a particular interest in Chinese minority languages. He is chair professor of multilingual education in the School of Education and English in the Institution of Asia and Pacific Studies at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China. Feng, who speaks Mandarin, English and several Chinese dialects, has worked at universities in China, Qatar, Hong Kong, Singapore and the UK, where he did his PhD. He is a key founder and vice-president of the Chinese Society of Multilingualism and Multilingual Education and is co-editor, with Bob Adamson, Zhen Li and Christine Lee, of Nurturing Glocal Talents: The Role of China’s Transnational Higher Education (Routledge), which will be published later this year.

For more advice and insight to support student success in the multilingual classroom, head to the latest spotlight guide on Campus.

A behaviour change expert explains what is required to shift a whole campus community towards more environmentally sustainable habits.

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To reach net zero, institutions need to shift the behaviour of their whole campus community towards reducing their carbon footprint and making greener daily choices. This means changing long established habits among thousands of diverse students and staff. How can universities do this without becoming too dictatorial?

We asked behaviour change expert Esther Papies, a professor at Radboud University in the Netherlands, to explain what drives successful behaviour change and therefore what strategies universities need to employ to reduce their overall emissions and create greener campuses.

Esther’s research examines the social and psychological processes in the transition to healthier, more sustainable and more equitable choices, particularly relating to diet. She has published extensively on the motivations and barriers for reducing meat and dairy intake, the motivation for climate action among privileged individuals and emotional experiences relating to climate change.

She provides a clear break down of what is needed to support long term behaviour change in favour of more sustainable lifestyles and shares advice on how to overcome inevitable resistance to altering long held behavioural norms such as meat eating and driving cars.

How can universities develop sophisticated systems for data sharing and analysis that can guide communications and student services? Alain Pompilus was tasked with putting such a system in place and shares lessons from the experience

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Universities hold a huge amount of data, with information collected at each stage of a student’s journey. The challenge lies in how to make best use of this data to support insights that can shape university services and communications.

Alain Pompilus, associate vice-president for constituent knowledge and insights at the University of Florida, was bought in to address this challenge and create more effective market research efforts in order to better understand and engage key groups such as prospective students and parents, current students and alumni.

His work focuses on using research, data, and strategic analysis to deepen the university’s understanding of its target audiences and strengthen how it responds to the needs and expectations of these different communities.

Here, he discusses this work, what has been learnt so far and how he has started to build a more joined-up approach to developing and sharing insights across a huge and decentralised organisation like the University of Florida.

Thanks to the University of Florida for sponsoring this episode.

The challenges of being an LGBTQ+ researcher in the US have multiplied since Donald Trump returned to the presidency. Funding cuts, closures of LGBTQ+ resource centres on campus, attacks on trans rights and backtracks on Pride Month celebrations have all harmed not only scholars’ crucial work, but also their ability to support the next generation of queer academics. A New York Times data analysis estimated that $800 million (£596 million) worth of research into the health of LGBTQ people had been pulled as a result of the administration’s campaign against diversity, equity and inclusion programmes.

One of the LGBTQ+ scientists affected was Lisa Diamond, a renowned researcher of women’s sexuality who lost her own NIH grant in the wake of the sweeping funding cuts. Diamond is distinguished professor in psychology and ethnic, gender and disability studies at the University of Utah. She has a PhD in human development from Cornell and is the author of the groundbreaking, award-winning book Sexual Fluidity: Understanding Women's Love and Desire.

In this interview, she talks about the heartbreak, trauma and chaos that the wave of grant terminations brought about. She explains how her experience under the current administration has led her to rethink her role as an LGBTQ+ scientist, how data collection is its own form of resistance, and how she now finds herself giving her students that same kind of cautious career advice she received back in the late 1990s. For her, 2025 was a turning point for LGBTQ+ health research. And in November, she and co-principal investigator Scout, a trans researcher from the LGBTQIA+ Cancer Network, began a survey of the LGBTQ+ community that has grown into an oral history project.

For more advice and insight into supporting the LGBTQ+ community in higher education, read our Pride Month spotlight guide on Campus.