The Vice-Chancellor's Colloquium
The Vice-Chancellor’s Colloquium
Expressions of interest for Hilary term 2025 have now closed.
Hilary 2025 theme: Climate change
The Vice-Chancellor's Colloquium is a unique, interdisciplinary, extra-curricular offering for all degree and award-bearing undergraduates at the University of Oxford.
With the need for broad, creative thinking to respond to the challenges of our time, students have an exciting opportunity to work outside of their subject of study to gain additional knowledge and skills.
This new programme brings together leading Oxford academics and interdisciplinary student teams to respond to big questions about the causes, impacts and solutions to the global climate crisis through lectures, group discussions and interdisciplinary projects.
Key areas of skills development
- Numeracy and data analysis: In our age of information, how can we make sense of the world and effectively use the insights of data analysis to guide policy, our own understanding, and our ability to engage in critical reflection?
- Critical thinking, curiosity and imagination: Thinking deeply about social and cultural systems, how do we ask questions about the harms and benefits of individual and collective actions, and develop the capacity to offer solutions?
- Communicating to different audiences: When faced with complex and potentially divisive issues, how can we communicate effectively to key stakeholders from the classroom to the boardroom?
What do students think about the Colloquium?
'The most valuable aspect of the Colloquium was the storytelling element. All the sub-themes were intelligently interrelated, meaning I was better able to understand the relevance of keynote lectures to the bigger picture even if it wasn't something familiar to my reading and my discipline (Economics/Politics). The fact that we had the opportunity to engage with scientists, historians, writers, economists, anthropologists, mathematicians, philosophers and more in a short period of time was particularly valuable, as it showed how research can't be siloed into disciplines and the contributions every student can make, regardless of their degree background.'
Read more about the 2023-2024 Colloquium.
During an episode of the Vice-Chancellor’s Fire and Wire podcast series in July 2024, Professor Tracey was joined by Programme Lead, Bill Finnegan, Pablo Mukherjee, Professor of Anglophone World-Literature, and first-year students, Michal Pietrzak and Erin Adlard, to discuss the initiative from their personal perspectives. You can listen below or read a transcript.
What is included?
- Keynote lectures and talks: The cornerstone of the Colloquium will be the delivery of keynote lectures by senior Oxford academics from across the academic divisions. Each session will bring together two professors from different disciplines to respond to a big question related to the annual theme and explore how their academic disciplines and research methodologies provide insights.
- Interdisciplinary group discussions/activities: Oxford Colleges will host small group discussions and activities in the alternating weeks from the keynotes. These sessions will be guided by a cohort of doctoral teaching assistants who have been trained by the organisers and respond to the lectures and deliver skill-building content.
- Interdisciplinary projects: Participants will be formed into small interdisciplinary groups to identify a local problem related to climate change and propose an interdisciplinary solution. These projects will synthesise the key themes of the lectures and skill-building content, harnessing interdisciplinary perspectives to result in new insights for local and global engagement.
- Panel and celebration: The Colloquium concludes with a celebratory event, with a small group of undergraduate and postgraduate students joining the Vice-Chancellor in a dynamic panel discussion. The group project finalists will present their projects, with the winning group provided with funding to continue their project.
- Summer micro-internships: A summer micro-internship programme will be offered through which selected participants will have the opportunity to continue the work outlined in their pitches/posters, especially in terms of supporting the University’s goals for local and global engagement and environmental sustainability.
