Episode 13: Higher Education My Way at Bandersnatch University

This episode is a bit of a landmark in the My Imaginary University podcast series. For the first time we recorded the podcast in front of a live and indeed lively audience at this year's Wonkhe Festival of Higher Education at Senate House, University of London. My imagineer this time is Amatey Doku, Senior Consultant at Moorhouse Consulting and he presents us with a genuinely novel package of higher education innovations.

Amatey holds up a black mirror to higher education with his creation of Bandersnatch University, derived from a TV show from a few years ago with a variety of viewer-driven endings. Amatey sets out a really bold vision for his strongly student-oriented university based on five campuses in a number of higher ed cold spots which are a bit different from the norm but each with a huge atrium to host the very important Wednesday night dinners which bring the whole community together.

We learn about the typical week for every student, coaching, individual study, novel learning sessions and a big end of week show and tell session. The university is not concerned with league tables but prospective students find the model very attractive and fans of Call of Duty can find a home here too. Other novelties include committee meetings which last no more than 15 minutes, compulsory plates for catering and rotating famous and yet unmemorable presiding officers at graduation in lieu of a chancellor.

I hope you will agree it is a landmark episode in more ways than one.