Remarkably (to me at least) it seems to have been two years since I started this podcast in which a notable sector figure is asked to create and describe their ideal imaginary university. My Imaginary University is a sort of Desert Island Universities concept but without the desert island, the music, the book or the luxury. OK, there is a wee bit of music but you get the general idea.

Will their imaginary university be a bit Christminster, rather Rummidge-like or more in the Manchester Medlock mould? You’ll have to listen to find out. And to discover what kind of VC our guest will be and what their university’s anthem is.

Here are a couple of early examples which give you a flavour of the kind of impressive creations people have come up with, in this case universities created by sector legal legend Smita Jamdar of Shakespeare Martineau and Alex Usher, international HE consultant:

Going live

There have also been a couple of live editions of the podcast with the most recent recording happening at this year’s Wonkhe Festival of Higher Education. Nick Hillman of Hepi was the creator on this occasion and he came up with a novel approach to the residential university which involved taking over a National Trust property and adding a new stop on the HS2 line.

My Imaginary University LIVE! – Never Knowingly Undertaught

And back in 2023 our live imagineer was Amatey Doku, Senior Consultant at Moorhouse Consulting who presented us with a genuinely novel package of higher education innovations.

Amatey created Bandersnatch University, derived from a TV show from a few years ago with a variety of viewer-driven endings. He set 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. 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.

You can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Castbox, Deezer, Jiosaavn, Podcast Addict, Podchaser or via the RSS feed.

There are plenty more examples of the podcast to catch up with should you wish and there will be new ones along in due course.