The process of reflective learning needs to apply to the whole community of scholars, staff and students together. Students reinvigorate and refresh the community, and staff bring experience and history. Both bring wisdom from different standpoints. Sharing together and challenging each other creates a more robust university environment.

As they move on in their careers, graduates will need to repeatedly re-engage and contribute from their experiences beyond university to continue to reinvigorate institutions, creating a continuous learning loop. Create space for new adult learners as society changes where adults can re-find learning appropriate to their changed circumstances.

There is value in the experience of discovery through research across the disciplines that has direct application in a world where graduates will have to gather knowledge, investigate, learn and adapt throughout their careers.

The growing complexity and interrelatedness of the challenges that surround us mean that inter/trans-disciplinarity needs to go further to enable research teams to come together with an eco-system approach that can embrace the dynamic aspect of research investigation. Bridge the arts/science divide and reconceptualise disciplines to meet 21st Century needs.

A core contribution of the research process is to slow things down to answer the big, deep, long-term questions – this can seem particularly at odds with a rapidly changing 21st Century. Navigating this divide is tricky but essential and the approach has to include greater participation and connection to move beyond distrust in expertise to a world where different contributions are recognised, acknowledged, challenged and reformulated.

Governance in the 21st Century is complex and multifaceted. Expecting a single body to complete all aspects of oversight is no longer fit for purpose. Rather a family of inclusive governance structures relevant to specific needs is necessary. Ensure strong communication across each part of the structure with clear lines of responsibility and terms of reference, drawing in diverse voices, for a more appropriate framework in the current climate.

Boards in themselves cannot be representative of all communities but there needs to be appropriate debate and diversity threaded throughout the governance structures.

The core of the university offer must continue to be quality benchmarked, supported by a robust regulatory system but we must also ensure that there is scope for universities to adapt, take risks and innovate.

Regulators need to be clear about the values and purpose they seek to maintain the efficacy of the sector they oversee.

Strong partnerships between policy makers, societal interest groups and researchers to create robust thematic frameworks, using funding to effect policy and societal needs. Enhance assessment capability of interdisciplinary research findings.

Involve different groups in identifying research questions with funders and work with a wider citizens’ panel in assessment of research activity. In the current climate a strong focus on the big challenges facing society is a useful tool to drive interdisciplinary research to find more robust solutions.