Welcome to Higher Education!

The transition from secondary school to university is often challenging, not least for first-generation students. It has been particularly difficult to navigate for those students who came of age during the Covid-19 pandemic and spent the best part of two years learning on-line.

Back in October, I opened my first-year seminar discussions with remarks I had often found myself repeating over the years. I thought it might be useful to share them during our first meetings; to establish a set of principles and expectations which are not always made clear to university students.

Since feedback from both students and colleagues has been rather positive, I decided to share this on my blog. Bear in mind this was simply meant to serve as a memo for my first class with Year 1 History students. It turned out to be much longer than planned and it was never intended for publication. It is pretty rough and frank, but I hope it might be of some use to students and colleagues within and outside Warwick.

Warwick – Ukraine Solidarity

Here is the letter I sent earlier today to Prof. Stuart Croft, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Warwick where I teach.  He very promptly and encouragingly responded to indicate he is already working with our European partners on ways to express our solidarity and to provide support to Ukraine.  Let’s work to ensure the academic […]