In this epiosde we have a festive round up of all the Univeristy of Glasgow's top news stories from 2024, along with some insights into how the communications team work and what they do. I am joined by Richard Warburton - Head of Commmunications and External Relations at UofG, and Charlotte Morris -  the Communications Manager for The College of Social Sciences for a light hearted chinwag. Ever wondered how media requests are managed and how our staff end up on TV or radio? How does the Principal get advised on political or financial news that could affect the HE sector? It's all fascinating stuff, so join us for what ended up being a very long but highly enjoyable chat!

In epiosde 71 we speak with some 2024-25 anatomy student society committee members on the importance of student societies within Higher Education Institutions. I'm joined by University of Glasgow final year students, Olivia Campbell, Hannah Clark and Fraser MacLean to discuss all of this, their ambitions as a team, the extra curricular wokload, staff/student partnerships and a whole lot more!

In episode 70 we chat with Aileen bell, who is Deputy Head of School for Medicine, Dentistry and Nursing, Head of the Dental School and Professor of Oral Surgery & Dental Education at The Univeristy of Glasgow. In this one we chat about the NSS, where Aileen and her team have a sustained exemplary record, that has often led the way for further conversations on how things should be done, or could be improved in other disciplines. The conversation unpacks some of these aspects and we get some tips from Aileen about how to tackle areas that trouble many institutions, such as feedback and how it is acted upon.

In episode 69 we are joined by Ashley Lewis Cole, who is a curriculum support manager at Glasgow and has been involved in driving the COIL innitaitive. This stands for Collaborative Online International Learning and is a University wide project aimed at offering our student population opportunities for a more diverse cultural experience, especially when it is not possible to travel. Ashley has a wider role in policy and governance too, but here we mainly focus on the benefits of cultural diversity in undergraduate teaching at Glasgow, and how it can enrich the student experience.

In this one we get chatting to Hamish (a lectuer in biomedical Science at Glasgow) and Lauren,(a graduate teaching assisstent in Anatomy at Glasgow) to discuss the launch of a new MOOC on the considerations and applications of generative AI in educational settings. This has been a project led by Dr Ourania Varsou, who has been on the podcast prevsiously to discuss generative AI in higher education. We chat about why such a course is desirable, who it is for, and what it covers. Check it out!

In episode 67 we welcome Anton Muscatelli to the podcast to chat about the legacy he will leave at The Univeristy of Glasgow having served as its Principal and Vice Chancellor for 15 years. Sir Anton anounced his intentions to retire earlier this year, so we thought it would be a great idea to have him on the show and to have a reflective conversation about his time in office and to discuss some of the big changes/ challanges that he and the sector as a whole has experienced throughout that time. Since this is a teaching focused podcast, we take the opportunity to delve into Anton's approaches and attitudes to learning and scholarship and talk about aspects of the UofG education strategy. We even managed to squeeze in a brief chat about his favourite football team too, the mighty Inter Milan of course!

In episode 66 we chat to Dr Claire Fitton, who is the anatomy lead for the early years of the medical degree programme at Glasgow. She holds a BSc (Hons) in Biomedical Sciences (anatomy) from Cardiff University and an MSc in Forensic Anthropology from the University of Dundee. Claire’s PhD focused on biomechanical properties of Thiel embalmed arteries to help validate this as an endovascular research model. Since then Claire has developed some innovative teaching approaches to overcome the challanges of increased student numbers and enagagement levels in large practical anatomy classes, so this is our chance to chat about all this stuff and more - enjoy!

In epiosde 65 we catch up with British entrepreneur and former ostetrics doctor Johann Malawana. This is his second visit to the podcast, but his first in person. The Healthcare Ladership Academy was running face to face sessions from The University of Glasgow so this was the perfect opportunity to catch up with him about leadership training, and digital education, as well as finding out what he has been up to and how his initatives have developed since our previous conversation a few years ago. Since we are old pals, we also engage in a bit of banter and go off topic a few times, sorry about this, very unprofessional behaviour (sorry not sorry).

In this episode we catch up with Claire Donald who works in The School of Infection and Immunity at The University of Glasgow. Her background is in virology but she is passionate about supporting early career researchers in becoming passionate about teaching and has been part of a project that seeks out opportunities for them. We have a great chat about her interest in public engagement and discuss issues around pressures on modern academics and if aspiring to be a well balanced researcher and teacher has now become a thing of the past.

In this episode we chat to Rahaf Omran who is an Orthodontist (a what now?) a researcher, and an educator. She undertook her undergraduate and postgraduate training in Tishreen University Syria. In 2019. After that she began teaching dental students how to study dentistry in English, since Syria is the only country in the world that teaches dentistry solely in Arabic. This program became super popular among students there, and it was eventually adopted by Tishreen University as an optional subject in the curriculum. We chat about all this, her amazing success, plus her move to Glasgow and what it is like to be an educational influencer on Instagram!