Hi, everybody. Welcome to this week's broadcast.
And my guest this week is Helen Parish, our still relatively new senior tutor.
Welcome, Helen. Oh, thank you very much for the invitation. David, tell us, how long have you been at Worcester?
I arrived at the beginning of January, so we're four months in.
And how are you finding college is being a tremendously warm and welcoming environment to find myself at.
And I spent about 20 years in my previous role and got rather used to the fact that I knew everybody knew where everything was.
And now that first new day at school feeling and in January was a little bit disconcerting.
But my colleagues have just been fantastic and constructive and helpful and made me feel very much at home here.
Great. Great. And before we go on to your role as senior tutor, tell us about your previous role.
So I was a member of staff in the history department at the University of Reading, and I was engaged primarily in research and teaching.
So I'm a historian of religion and belief, broadly understood.
I've written some books and papers on the institutional church, Christian churches of the the early modern period,
clerical celibacy and discussions about magic and the supernatural in the same period,
and some more recent work on the relationship between the natural world and the and the supernatural.
And I was teaching students very much on the same kinds of topics to some extent at their request.
I think my original teaching, which was a lot more than traditional in its nature and with a bit of a nudge from the students.
A lot more now on witchcraft and magic and related topics, but I've been head of department in history for a couple of terms,
and at the point at which I came to Worcester, I just stepped down as head of school and humanities.
We must get you to talk about your research at some point in Worcester, because I'm sure there'll be a lot of interest in it.
And having heard you talk to a few of our old members about it, it was fascinating.
But moving on to your current role, you decided that you wanted to move on from reading.
Oxford is a place that's familiar to you, isn't it?
Well, yes, but from a long time ago, I was a Dphil student here in the late 1990s and then held a junior research fellowship.
Wilson So I have a geographical knowledge of the city,
but I'm on a relatively steep learning curve when it comes to the local customs and traditions that prevail.
But you knew about the collegiate structure of Oxford and have these rather wonderful but quite unique institutions work.
Well, yes, I had three very enjoyable years, Jesus College and then three more years at Wilson and the two colleges.
And their outlook, their environment, their architecture, their purpose were very different.
But that's, I think in some ways the attractiveness of the collegiate system.
There are parts of the university that are engaged in the same activities, but with very different perspectives and and outlooks.
So we've tempted you back to Oxford. You're now in the wonderful Worcester College, and for many people listening,
they don't always understand the role that people are playing in college.
So forgive me, but what does the senior tutor do?
I think that's a perfectly reasonable question, and I would give a different answer depending which day of the week it is.
But I'm one of a growing group of what I think are referred to as professional senior tutors in Oxford.
So individuals who haven't necessarily been engaged in teaching or research at the college to which
they're appointed and who are taking on the senior tutor role as effectively a full time job,
often in conjunction with two different missions, which is part of my my job at the moment.
And in some cases, senior tutor was actors as tutor for graduates.
And it's a fascinating job. Some of it is is because higher level strategy and planning, thinking about the education that we're providing,
how we're offering our students the best experience that we can.
A lot of it is liaising with other parts of the university and with the senior tutor community more widely,
but often the most enjoyable bits of the parts that involve day to day, sometimes serendipitous contact with students in college.
Can I ask you about that? Because I know people will be interested to hear what you do.
It sounds like a wide ranging role, but what sort of things do people bring to you when they come to see you?
So in some cases, I will make contact with students if there are concerns about academic progress or if I think a conversation might be useful.
And on academic and pastoral matters, students will genuinely come to me if they have some good news they want to share.
It's always a delight to hear if.
They want to talk in a bit more detail about the course that they're taking,
about the teaching arrangements, about their current performance ambitions,
or if there are that there are other parts of college life that they want to get
involved in or think I ought to be getting involved in to provide help where I can.
So in the last three or four months, actually,
some of the most interesting project work has been around around sustainability and environment, but also around equalities,
diversity and inclusion, where it's nice to be working alongside members of college, but also a very active and thoughtful student population.
It sounds like you're doing a whole range of things, but are you always the bad cop or are you sometimes the good cop too?
No, it's nice to be the good cop. So I send lectures out to students when they win prizes and bursaries.
Students get letters of congratulations for good performances in collections and in films.
And when students get close to graduating, it's nice to be part of that,
that sense of occasion and satisfaction that comes from from completing a programme of study.
And you're not doing this all on your own. You are part of a much bigger academic team, aren't you?
Tell us about the team. Yeah. So a lot of my time is spent working with colleagues in the academic office.
I couldn't wish for a better group of people to work for is that their knowledge is is extensive and generously
shared and they're willing to provide advice and support and well-placed to do that on a daily basis.
So I work very closely with the academic administrator for the photographer and
at the stands after Elizabeth Smith and Sophie Clayton and Henrietta Smethurst,
who are responsible for effectively the smooth delivery of academic activity within college.
And I also work very closely as tutor for admissions with our admissions office
and I and so are tremendously enthusiastic and do a lot of positive work.
And in that area it's really easy to take that for granted.
And I know they work and you work as a team incredibly hard.
It's the purpose for which was to and Oxford really exists.
And what are your observations coming in from from writing about how perhaps Oxford does things differently?
To some extent, there is just a shared language across the higher education sector.
Almost every university will be concerned about the same issues,
talking about the same concerns and prioritising and the business of education and providing our students with a challenging educational environment,
but one in which they can can thrive and develop as scholars and as individuals.
There are some notable differences. Teaching style is very different here.
I was used to teaching classes of 2530 students at the time in reading.
So a 1 to 1 tutorial system is one of those stand out differences between what's on offer here, and it's just a lot of other institutions.
But the subject level content, the expectations that we have and the opportunities that are presented are tremendous.
And the fact that students take advantage of that is is very much to their credit.
One of the things that people often say to me is that the terms are too short,
and it does make for very intense short periods of real pressure for people.
Is that what you see when you talk to students, that there is an unstoppable pace to the to the teaching time,
even if we accept the the business of teaching and learning starts before first week and goes on beyond a week.
I don't think that level of focus, that level of time and commitment,
that that level of activity could be sustained for a 12 or 13 week period without a break.
But so it is a big demand on everyone's time in the eight weeks.
But that sense of the collective endeavour and the support that's available and the vibrancy of the academic community is is untouchable.
This is a potentially political question.
Do senior tutors in Oxford ever talk about extending the length of term and maybe having a reading week in the middle?
I've not heard it mentioned, but I may have my way years to the wrong pavements when I it when I'm listening.
It's a model that is certainly more prevalent elsewhere,
particularly the universities that are semester sized and run 12 or 13 week semesters with a break.
I think here there's probably something about once you are on the treadmill, it's very hard to stop.
And I'm going to be at that pace for four,
four weeks and then taking a break and then trying to recapture that energy might turn out to be rather harder than we think.
But for people who aren't used to that system, it does take a bit of time to get used to it.
You know, there is support, isn't there? Tell us, you know, how this fall was.
So I think Worcester does a fantastic job of supporting its students on.
The academic side and on the pastoral non-academic side, while recognising that the two are inextricably linked.
So I will meet students either at their request or at their teachers request.
And my focus is generally on the academic side. But that doesn't mean that the personal circumstances of the student are not important.
We have a designated welfare lead. We have a very effective team that provides additional support.
And colleagues in the academic office are used to dealing with questions and queries from students on a on a regular basis.
So alongside that very close academic relationship that comes through the tutorial system,
there is plenty of opportunity for students to seek advice and guidance elsewhere and many colleagues who are well placed to provide it.
I'm hugely grateful for the hard landing support officer readouts for he does because
she can talk through precisely those kinds of academic related issues for students,
whether it is time management, research skills dealing with writer's block.
But having that resource available on site and from people who know the college environment so well is is tremendous.
And Trinity term is a pretty intense term for the academic team.
Exams are fully underway. You make lots of arrangements for people who need special provision or assistance.
Tell us, you know, how the team is getting on and what kind of things you're currently dealing with when it comes to exams.
So some of it is a basic issue of putting the appropriate timetabled arrangements in place.
We do have a lot of students who for good reasons,
need to sit examinations in college rather than in schools so that a lot of the just school work goes on there in allocating students to rooms.
It has an impact on the wider operation of the college because during the exam season we try to keep noise
levels A at a minimum and avoid substantial building works and other things that might disturb students,
study or distract from from examinations. And along with with that, we have queries coming in on a daily basis from students,
either with questions about examination arrangements or should need to submit mitigating circumstances requests after examinations.
So I think you are right. The core business of the colleges is quite seasonal in that sense, but examinations is very much the focus of this time.
One of the questions I get asked by our members, it's a frequent question Do students who do exams in their rooms have to work so fast?
If students are sitting examinations in college rooms,
they are expected to arrive and insofar as students are sitting examinations online in their own bedrooms.
That's not a formal requirement unless they really want to dress for the occasion.
Yeah. Good. I have been answering correctly and you're part of a very strong synergetic community across all the colleges and you tell us,
you know, how that works.
And so there are another 38 senior tutors who are doing jobs that are in many respects comparable to what I'm doing at Worcester.
We meet formally and a couple of times a term primarily with a focus on university business and its intersection with with college life.
The Admissions University Admissions Committee, which contains a lot of senior tutors, does the same.
There's also a committee for Tutors for Graduates, which meets a couple of times a year.
The cascade of information from university side is is much appreciated,
as is the opportunity for that senior tutors group to get their teeth into the key issues and discuss them in a forum like that.
But in some ways, the connections are almost as valuable, whether they're personal and individual.
So it's a nice environment to be in.
I'm the only senior tutor at Worcester, but knowing that there are plenty of other people who are who are thinking through the same processes,
it's it's good to know that they're really helpful. We haven't touched on how you interface with the tutor for graduates.
There'll be lots of graduates listening in. I know. So how does that work and how do you work with the tutor for graduates?
So Natalia and I work quite closely, but on slightly different things.
So the strategy and planning side of graduate admissions tends to sit more with me, whereas the the pastoral side will sit more with with Natalia.
So she probably has more day to day encounters with our graduate community than I do.
But that's that's actually something I'd quite like to work with a little bit more.
I see far more undergraduate students than, than postgraduates, which is part and parcel of the job.
But our postgraduate community is substantial in size and has such a lot to offer to
college that joining up with these roles would be it would be a positive way forward.
We also have a lot of administrative support, again, from the academic.
Office who'd help us to handle admissions and selection processes and graduate scholarships and and other things form part of that,
that group activity rather than just sitting with one person.
I know you're working or you're keen to work more closely with new joint heads of research, and then you all have I and John Harrington.
Is it part of your desire to work more closely with the graduate community, but also to promote research at Worcester?
Yeah, I'm not sure it's a formal part of the senior tutor job as as is defined,
but arriving in a college which has decided to make that level of investment and in cultivating a lively research environment.
So it's a nice place to lend my, my offices and at the back door of the research fellows room.
So there's usually plenty of activity and conversation.
And Emmanuella and John are doing a tremendous amount of work already to try and build
bridges across the community and encourage conversations that might not normally take
place within colleges is breaking the assumption that it's faculties in divisions that
handle research and encouraging us to think about the environment that we're offering,
particularly actually to our early career researchers and post-docs,
graduate students who are perhaps looking for a bit of informal mentoring or an
opportunity to share their work to deliver a paper to work with other organisations.
And I'm putting that at the heart of what Worcester does is a really positive investment of time and resource.
And if I can ask you a personal question, you're a mum and as a senior female academic, how do you balance work and home life and manage to stay sane?
I'm quite pleased by the suggestion that I've managed to stay.
So I think slightly perversely the and the flexible working environment during COVID lockdowns, which most of us probably don't want to go back to,
did at least waking me up to to the possibility that there are different ways of managing time within a day.
That means you can focus on the people who who need you most at that time.
My family are probably slightly long suffering and none of them are historians or have the slightest interest in the study of the past.
So I've lost the battle on that one. But I think both of and to some of both of my children, to some extent,
just appreciate knowing what their parents do and knowing what opportunities are available to to them, whatever their career path might might take.
Do you spend time enjoying the gardens at Worcester, you know, walking around and meeting people like the rest of us in college?
Yes. I think for the first couple of weeks, I've barely ventured outside, but that was primarily because the January weather was atrocious.
In spring, the college is just stunning and I've had a couple of walking meetings and I'm flying around the grounds with colleagues
because that seems to me that we'll get into some some fresh air and the grounds and the gardens change on a daily basis.
So when the sun is shining or after rainfall, you get a very different sense of the sights and sounds and the smells.
And London Purchase. Just before the March 2020 lockdown, I bought myself a second hand camera which got put to phenomenal use during lockdown,
just wandering around having the time to to pause and look at things.
And one day I'll bring that into into college.
When you say you've anticipated your next question, which is, yes, have you taken any photographs of Worcester and when can we exhibit them?
I think the exhibition might depend on the focus and the quality of them.
But but it's nice to see people's pictures and actually comments on on the Worcester environment online and on social media.
You get a sense of the vibrancy and the appreciation and the value that is attached
to the circumstances and the situation in which we in which we find ourselves.
You and I are about it coming up with grand plans and then shelving them,
but thinking about a photography series on perspectives of Worcester and just inviting anyone
who is on site to to capture those moments of college life that would otherwise go unnoticed.
In my old workplace, I used to run a photography competition, and it was a global law firm.
So we used to get photographs from all over the world in all our different offices, and some of them were amazing.
So yeah, maybe we should do something like that. Helen Any ambitions that you feel able to share for the rest of your first year?
What are you going to be doing over the summer and what will you be hoping to achieve for the next part of your first year?
I think there are probably still some some bridges to be built.
I've got to know some colleagues very well, both on the administrative and professional side, but also within college.
There are some folk that I haven't yet had a chance to sit down and have the
kind of conversation that probably needs a bit of space outside term time.
And December seems a long way away at the moment, but planning for the next admissions?
We'll start very shortly. We have an open day of open days in college towards the end of June and another one in September,
and that will be following my first admissions cycle as a senior tutor.
So I'm quite keen to get my feet under the table on that one and just learn from the
experience of others before we have before we get too far through the calendar year.
Alan, thank you. I'm glad that you've joined us here at Worcester, that things seem to be going so well,
but also taking the time to tell people what the senior tutor does and some of your ambitions for the role.
It's great to have you on board. For those who would like to make contact with you, it's very easy to do that, isn't it?
I have two email addresses. One of them is for the easier to remember.
Senior Dot tutor at work. 6.8 don't uk or I have a personal one which is Helen Parish.
Same address. I'm usually in an office first floor or staircase five and very open to passing traffic and drop ins.
If there's anyone who wants to come and visit, if the doors closed or logs or I'm busy, I might ask you to come back at a different time.
But otherwise I'm very pleased to talk. Right. Great.
Thank you so much. Please do feel free to make an appointment to come and see me and one of my drop ins.
Please let us have feedback about who to interview on the cast.
But for now, thanks for listening and I look forward to talking to you all very soon.