Interview with new Wolverhampton University Vice-Chancellor
The new Vice-Chancellor of Wolverhampton University has said he is determined to enhance its civic links and provide 'more opportunities for people in the city.'
Professor Ebrahim Adia took office at the start of the month and said he wants to make sure the university is doing more than just providing degree courses, but opportunities for all people who aspire to different careers.
Professor Ebrahim Adia took office at the start of the month and said he wants to make sure the university is doing more than just providing degree courses, but opportunities for all people who aspire to different careers.
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00:00Welcome to your new position at Wolverhampton as the new Vice-Chancellor.
00:05I know you've been in in situ for a few weeks now. How have you found it early weeks?
00:11Well thank you very much Paul. Absolutely great. I've enjoyed every minute of my
00:17time here. I'm in my fourth week so still very early days. I've been made very
00:25welcomed by staff and really enjoyed speaking to a really broad range of
00:32staff at all our campuses. So I'm beginning to kind of form an early view about what
00:37works well here, what areas we might need to kind of concentrate on. And the one
00:42thing I've really picked up as I've gone around is a real sense of pride in what
00:46the University does, particularly around social mobility and transforming lives.
00:53I'm really pleased to see that and really keen that we hold on to that as we move
00:59forward in the next few months and years.
01:02You come from a similar background in terms of geography from Bolton and then you worked
01:07in Burnley and worked within the Greater Manchester area. Do you see that as helping you to assimilate
01:16if you like into the area of Wolverhampton and the Greater West Midlands?
01:20Yeah, absolutely. I think you're right, there are many, I mean no place is identical of
01:26course and every place has its own history and tradition and legacy and is therefore
01:32kind of shaped very significantly by that. But there are a number of common areas in
01:37terms of probably some of the heritage there and the fact that places like parts of the
01:45Midlands, the North West, Greater Manchester, Lancashire have come out of a background
01:51that had a very heavy industrial basis and foundation and clearly every area has had
01:58to kind of work out what a post-industrial landscape looks like for itself. And indeed
02:03what that means for the residents who live there in terms of their life opportunities,
02:08their prospects, their jobs. So to that extent it's quite helpful that I spent a good part
02:16of my time for the last 20 years within Greater Manchester. Again, a dense urban area, lots
02:25of exciting things happening as well but with its fair share of challenges and then again
02:30moving to East Lancashire, a place like Burnley, again not that too dissimilar in terms of
02:36some of the economic and social challenges that are faced by communities there. So there
02:41is a lot of that experience that I can bring here to this role and really importantly within
02:46this role then to kind of really understand what the role of the university should be
02:51in terms of helping partners and communities achieve better things over the next years
02:59and months.
03:02Because you've worked within the NHS, you've worked within the devolved Greater Manchester
03:07Combined Authority as well as your educational background, how do you see that as helping
03:13you in this role?
03:14Yeah, both are really relevant. So I think the advantage I have is to be able to see
03:22the world of university from a number of lenses from the outside. So when I kind of think
03:29about the Combined Authority and what Combined Authorities are trying to deliver along with
03:36their other statutory partners, it's very much about thinking about how we help communities
03:45and families start well in life, how to live well, have meaningful, prosperous, fulfilling
03:53lives and then at the other end of course die well and within that you've got all the
03:57statutory agencies playing a role, you've got the private sector playing a role clearly
04:00in terms of jobs and the NHS playing a role at either end. Of course it's there right
04:05at the start, it's there right at the end. So understanding that kind of ecosystem of
04:12organisations and partners all coming together to make that possible is really helpful. And
04:20then within that kind of real understanding then exactly where a university makes its
04:25contribution and it's quite amazing that a university like Wolverhampton, where we
04:31see ourselves as a civic university, actually our contribution is quite wide. So we start
04:35right at the one end in terms of working with children in primary schools and secondary
04:39schools in terms of raising their aspirations, kind of thinking about university is a possibility
04:44for you, don't think it's a possibility for somebody else. And there the work we do with
04:50those schools and children is not about encouraging them to come to this university, it is just
04:54about raising aspiration and saying universities is a place for you should you decide that's
04:59where you might want to be when you're 18 or indeed even older. We then kind of think
05:07very carefully about how we give the widest possible access to the university in terms
05:12of opportunity, you know, so as well as relying on the kind of traditional kind of entry qualifications
05:18like A-levels, you know, we will look at kind of wider criteria and if we can assess
05:24anybody in the community who we deem has the potential to benefit from higher education
05:29then we are keen to kind of ensure they have the opportunity to access the university.
05:35What we do whilst they're here is really important, so it's not just about the academic side of
05:39gaining subject knowledge, it's all the softer stuff we do in terms of emotional intelligence,
05:46communication skills, you know, all the stuff that really matters as they go out into the
05:50wider world or, you know, many of them already have jobs of course but, you know, they're
05:54kind of thinking about going that bit further. And then it's that graduate retention piece,
06:00so fundamentally what we do as a university in terms of that wider combined authority
06:06piece and where our local authorities are trying to make a change is we are upskilling
06:14the residents of Wolverhampton and just beyond. And just to say on that point that around
06:2277% of our students come from within a 20-mile distance of the university. We are a very
06:28local university, we're very proud of that. But that upskilling piece is really important
06:33because what we know about a graduate-level workforce is you get more entrepreneurship,
06:43you know, students will leave here and set up their own business, create jobs for others.
06:48You get students who are going into businesses, helping them become more productive, and productivity
06:53is a big challenge for UK PLC, so that graduate-level workforce really matters. Then the other bit
06:58is investors, particularly foreign direct investors, but also kind of investors beyond,
07:06tend to like to invest in areas where there is a graduate-level workforce. The higher
07:11the skills, the greater the confidence of that investment coming in. So you can see
07:14how the university kind of contributes on a number of those strategic areas of importance
07:21for our other statutory partners, you know, that's kind of really important. And then
07:26when you think about the NHS, of course, you know, we are one of the bigger providers of
07:30things like nursing, we've got lots of other areas as well, social work, allied health
07:36professionals for example, and therefore we are one of the biggest providers of the key
07:40worker, you know, key workers' workforce. And given some of the challenges the NHS faces
07:48around workforce, you know, it's really important that what we do is we take residents from
07:52the community and we skill them into being able to take up jobs in the NHS, you know,
07:58that's a really, really important piece of what we do. So that contribution is quite
08:02significant, it's broad, and understanding health, because I was fortunate enough to
08:10be the chair of a teaching hospital in Lancashire, again is really helpful because I've seen
08:15it from that side as well in terms of the challenges the NHS faces and again I can see
08:19how as a university what we do is really important. And in my kind of very few weeks that I've
08:27spent here, my early impression is we could probably do much more in terms of NHS workforce
08:32development, you know, there are lots of areas that the NHS has shortages in terms
08:38of skilled workforce, and whilst we're doing things like nursing etc, you know, I think
08:43there's lots more we should be doing and hopefully we'll be doing over the next few years in
08:46that space.