Why is innovation and research important to the University of Derby? video transcript
[Lewis Allsopp]
Hello and welcome. This is 'For a Better Tomorrow' the University of Derby's Innovation and Research podcast with me, Lewis Allsopp and in each episode, I chat to someone in Academia about what they're working on and how it'll make our lives better. Now previously, we've spoken to researchers answering questions like how can proteins help combat the onset of Alzheimer’s, and why is signing good for you.
But today, I want to do things just a little bit differently. You see, this whole series revolves around questions which researchers are working on answering here at the University of Derby, and I wanted to gain a better understanding of the Uni and why innovation and research are so important to it. So, to help me do just that I’m joined today by Professor Kathryn Mitchell, the Vice Chancellor at the University of Derby and a Professor of Psychology.
It’s lovely to see you and thank you for popping down, but before we get into all of that just tell me a bit about you.
[Kathryn Mitchell]
I come from a placed called St Helens which when I was born was Lancashire, but it is now Merseyside. So, my home city is Liverpool, and I was just a normal kid in St Helens. My life probably is about lots of little opportunities that I decided to take, because you would never imagine that you would end up being a Vice-Chancellor because it’s not a job you sort of have on your CV at the beginning to think I need to achieve that. And so, I went to University in York, I followed my sister who also went to the University of York, so I wasn’t that ambitious or adventurous in a sense, but going to university for me was a really big change. I went from being in a sort of nervous disposition to realising that there’s lot of opportunities and being confident enough to take those opportunities on my own.
[Lewis Allsopp]
So, you went through those sort of building blocks I suppose didn’t you, and obviously now you’re here at the University but I suppose your background is in something a lot more specific isn’t it, you are a psychologist by trade, aren’t you?
[Kathryn Mitchell]
Yes, so my degree at York was in Psychology and I suppose my first break was at the end of my degree, and I feel we are often very focused on our students today about ‘where are you going?’ ‘What do you want to do?’ I probably didn’t know what I wanted to do, but the Wellcome Trust which is a big research organisation, decided that they put out ten PHD students across the country and one of my tutors said to me ‘why don’t you apply for one of these scholarships?’ So I did and I got one. But again, it was quite an unfocused approach. They gave me some names so I rang some really famous people at the University of Oxford and that didn’t go so well in my phone conversation with them as I hadn’t really prepared enough and of course the second call I went to Kings College to the Institute of Psychiatry and I had a phone call with the professor that led it at the time, Jeffrey Grey, who is world famous for research in anxiety and so I took the opportunity down in London.
[Lewis Allsopp]
What interests you about Psychology?
[Kathryn Mitchell]
Probably not the reasons why I love it now, so I suppose I was interested in human behaviour, I suppose I felt that I was interested in why did people behave differently in the same situations. But when you go and do psychology as a degree, most people if you haven’t done it at A level probably didn’t know what it was about. The bits I really liked was the bits around how do we get people to buy products through advertising and marketing and the psychology and the brand psychology, which I found really exciting. But I did end up doing much more neuroscience, so I then got into much more the health side, which was probably that interest of people, but I ended up moving much more into looking at long term conditions and the psychology of long-term conditions.
[Lewis Allsopp]
I want to chat about your research actually into this side of things, what’s something that you really, I suppose are proud of?
[Kathryn Mitchell]
So, when I arrived at Kings College, I realised it was surrounded by geniuses and it was just like wow. I was sort of just a normal person and these people were really, and I supposed I was still young, but you realise they were career researchers and academics and their whole life was in this area. But I moved into a research area that was a little bit beyond what I’d done in my undergraduate which was working on a project which was looking at Alzheimer patients and finding out what was missing in their brains. And although that research is still ongoing, we worked with a group in Sweden in looking at what the neurotransmitters were missing and I suppose I am really proud of that research that I worked on in that group, and the three reasons probably are that it was way beyond where I ever thought I would end up, as you are working with neuroscientists who have won Nobel Prizes. And the second was that I pushed myself and I never thought I’d be able to push myself out of a comfort zone so much. The third thing was, that I met really amazing people that I am still friends with and they really shape your future life and give you that confidence to be, still the person you are, but push you over the boundaries because I think when you are confident and you have people around you that believe in you, you probably can be much more successful.
[Lewis Allsopp]
And like we’ve said, I suppose since the start it’s all about those building blocks and obviously now you’re here at the University of Derby as the Vice Chancellor and I’m sure the schedule is fairly busy. Do you still get a chance to work in that research side and look into things, as I suppose that’s what you always have done isn’t it?
[Kathryn Mitchell]
Yes and I suppose at heart I’m an academic, I lead a big organisation and I’m a leader, but I’m an academic. I’m not sure that’s the case for all Vice Chancellors as people come from different remits, but I am an academic. So, I am really fortunate that I still have PHD students and many of those are staff, who have got great talent and I want them to be really successful in their roles. But I do work on a project with the Renal team at the University of Derby hospitals and we are looking at the psychology of people with end stage renal disease and looking at the treatments and seeing how they respond to these different types of treatments.
[Lewis Allsopp]
So first of all, what is renal disease?
[Kathryn Mitchell]
Oh, kidney disease. So people that have not been able to have a transplant probably, but they might be on a kidney dialysis, you know, people whose kidneys do not work anymore.
[Lewis Allsopp]
So what are you trying to find?
[Kathryn Mitchell]
The sort of medical research is looking at patients in a much more individualised way, so the treatment that they might need is about the individually rather than a blanket approach to how they might get the treatment. Because it’s quite a technical procedure in terms of the medical bit, we are working with the patients to look about if they are accepting of that treatment, as it’s sort of different to what the normal individual would get in kidney conditions normally in term of their treatment. So I’m looking at how accepting are they of the treatment, and I am also looking at how accepting some of the nursing professional are in delivering that treatment.
[Lewis Allsopp]
It’s really interesting stuff, and I suppose it all comes back to that idea of making sure the patients are at the centre of everything that’s happening. It’s about their wellbeing and I suppose we can take a lot out of that for daily life can’t we?
[Kathryn Mitchell]
Yes, the bit for me on looking at that individualised approach is really important. Running an enormous organisation is sometimes quite difficult and I suppose the one thing that we need to be completely focused on is what it all means to students, and I sometimes think people get quite wound up in what’s their daily thing happening in their department. Whereas I think if you can all stand back and think what would that mean to a student doing well at the University of Derby, I think that we could all pull together a bit closer in remembering why people come to University and what they want to look like when they leave. And there is huge opportunities, like sitting here with you is a great opportunity to being interviewed by a student but that’s when I feel it’s successful.
[Lewis Allsopp]
And I just want a word, obviously I couldn’t bring you here and not ask about the University. This podcast is all about the University innovation and research that is being done across the campuses and the different schools. We’ve had some amazing people sat in your chair talking to me about a range of different things, from how singing can help us with our wellbeing, to people looking at proteins and how they can genuinely help to prevent Alzheimer’s. Why is it important for a University like Derby to continue to innovate and research into these things and not just do the teaching.
[Kathryn Mitchell]
So, I think that’s a brilliant question and you used the word innovate before research. For me, the value of a university is being able to create new knowledge, that’s why universities I think exist. And the purpose is then that the most exciting thing is that students see real life innovation and practice in action through their lecturers. Because in a way otherwise, very didactive approach like saying ‘this research has happened’, I don’t think is as inspirational and therefore seeing that creation of knowledge and using students to help in that creation of new knowledge is fundamental. But you know, you will have talked to people where their research is very pure and they are asking a research question with a hypothesis and they are happy with the outcome of that. But many of our courses are applied, so what we do have in our staff what I think is really fundamental is many of them in those applied course are constantly innovating and use students to innovate. And in a way that innovation leads to a research paper. And so it doesn’t have to be at Derby for me that we do the research and we lead to innovate. I think that the value of coming to the University of Derby is, we are innovating in those practical programmes; how we would deliver something, how we would design something, all of the time. And that is creating new knowledge that you can then write up.
[Lewis Allsopp]
I must say, I do media production here and obviously the media landscape as with most to be fair, is quickly changing with the advancement of technology and a lot of our work is to do with social media now. It’s really interesting that actually sometimes the lecturers will come to us and say, ‘how do you think this works.’ We know how to film something but how can we then use that film footage in a new way and we often work together on things and I suppose that’s what is important as at the end of the day, it's us students that are going to be doing it one day, so we need to be prepared to move things on don’t we?
[Kathryn Mitchell]
Yes and I think that you could say that’s teaching but in a way that’s innovation to me, because otherwise teaching is giving you information and you digesting it to tell us what it is. So yes, that for me is the most critical bit, and I don’t think that the concept that you could go to university and be taught is enough, and I don’t think that you would be a good graduate and be successful in future employment if you have not been exposed to how to innovate, and how to put that innovation into practice.
[Lewis Allsopp]
Just finally before I let you go, have you got any goals? Whether they be personal or for the University as a whole or for the world. What would you like to see happen?
[Kathryn Mitchell]
So, the University, I spend most of my life here and I love it. I suppose the one thing that I feel we, the university, I would love to see is that, whatever industry I went into, they would all want to employ graduates from the University of Derby. That is my ambition, that we’ve been able to profile the University and our student body in such a positive light that everybody would say: I want to graduate from the University of Derby. That is my ambition and goal before I go.
[Lewis Allsopp]
Thank you very much for talking to me.
[Kathryn Mitchell]
Thank you.
[Lewis Allsopp]
That is Professor Kathryn Mitchell, the Vice Chancellor at the University of Derby as well as being a Professor of Psychology. And that’s it for this episode on For a Better Tomorrow, the University of Derby’s Innovation and Research Podcast. Now in other episodes, we’ve been looking at the research and answering questions like how we can use computers and understand the world, and how mirrors can help us to make sole energy more efficient. So be sure to check them out wherever you get your podcast and follow the University at Derby. I’ll see you next time. Bye.
Why is innovation and research important to the University of Derby? video