While the Vice Chancellor agreed that universities have flourished within the EU and acknowledged that 90% of university staff were in favour of Remain, he said:  “If we simply focus on protecting our own interests in the Brexit negotiation we will miss out on the opportunity to be part of forging the next stage in British politics.”

Over the course of his lecture Mr Rammell explained how universities needed to reconcile, “the hard evidence with a humanistic attention to people’s deepest concerns about their national identity and their sense of their stake in society.”

The Vice Chancellor argued that Britain had never fully bought into the EU because its conception of itself was still rooted in the nineteenth century when it was a world power and commanded an empire.

“Our relations with the world outside cannot be left to be only understood by and negotiated by the political elites. Universities, along with schools, colleges, community organisations and businesses, must take seriously and foster an evidence-based public conversation.”

He continued: “Universities cannot be the sole agents of change. But we can lead and encourage that change in our spheres of influence.

“We can foster real debate in our communities, through public lectures, through the protections we afford for freedom of speech, through support for our students to debate and develop their civic engagement and through the positive relationships we build with organisations in our communities.”

The importance of the role universities play in fostering public debate is one Mr Rammell addressed in a policy pamphlet published by the Higher Education Policy Institute earlier this year. In the paper ‘Protecting the public interest in higher education’ he wrote how the role of universities in fostering public debate was in the public interest but how it risked being put to one side with the increased marketisation of higher education.

Photos from the event are available here.