University leaders supported to respond to challenges of a multi-faith society
Friday, 29th January 2010
York St John University is leading a major project to equip universities to respond to the challenges of a multi-faith society.
Religious Literacy Leadership in Higher Education is an inter-university, multidisciplinary partnership that provides a two-tiered leadership development programme for Higher Education leaders and managers. Rooted in evidence and new research, and working with Vice Chancellor ‘champions’, the project aims to facilitate a cultural change in Higher Education Institutions and enable them to play a leading role in society with regard to matters of religion and belief.
The project will assist Higher Education leaders to develop outlooks and strategies that engage positively with faith, promoting universities as places that can lead and shape informed responses to faith in wider society. It will also focus on the experiences of staff and students from different religious backgrounds and foster good campus relations through improved engagement with, and between, different faiths.
The inter-university project is based at York St John University. Alongside York St John, the Higher Education partners leading the project are: University of Birmingham; Bradford University; Cambridge Inter Faith Programme (Cambridge University); Newman University College; Surrey University; Warwick University; and University College London.
Speaking at the official launch of the project at the House of Commons on 26 January 2010, Professor David Maughan Brown, Deputy Vice Chancellor at York St John University and Chair of the Religious Literacy Leadership Project Steering Committee, said:
“Religion and belief inform the lives and govern daily rituals of religious observance for millions of people around the world. For many people in the UK and elsewhere their faith is pre-eminent in shaping a sense of who they are, how their lives should be lived, and what their lives are about.”
Dr Adam Dinham, Programme Director and Reader & Director of the Faiths and Civil Society Unit at Goldsmiths College, University of London added:
“At a time of great change this leadership programme will equip university Vice Chancellors to help shape our future society in a way that is coherent, considered and informed about faith.”
The 18 month project, which began in September 2009, was officially launched on 26 January 2010 by Lord Tyler and the Minister for Higher Education, David Lammy MP, in the House of Commons.