A DAY IN THE LIFE...
DR PAUL REDMOND >>
If ever there was a golden rule for on- air news reviewers, it’s this: avoid any story that involves party politics, sex, religion, and on-going criminal prosecutions. Unfortunately, this usually means that with fi ve minutes to go, all you’ll have in front of you are stories about skateboarding ducks and last night’s Big Brother evictions.
Dr Paul Redmond, AGCAS President and Director of Employability and Educational Opportunities, University of Liverpool
“Good morning, Liverpool! Is there a doctor in the house? There is now! To review the papers with us this morning is Dr Paul Redmond from the University of Liverpool!” I read the news today. Oh boy, what an experience. Local radio presenters are preternaturally upbeat, even at 7am in the morning, which is when my monthly ‘review of the papers’ programme goes out across a snoozing Liverpool. Seven o’clock in the morning is an excellent time to broadcast to students; it’s just before their bedtime.
If ever there was a golden rule for on-air news reviewers,
it’s this: avoid any story that involves party politics, sex, religion, and on-going criminal prosecutions. Unfortunately, this usually means that with fi ve minutes to go, all you’ll have in front of you are stories about skateboarding ducks and last night’s Big Brother evictions. The second rule is: Know Your Audience. For Liverpool radio stations, certain subjects are taboo. I once commented on an article which had had the temerity to criticise the Beatles. There followed a long and embarrassed silence, before the horrifi ed-looking presenter whispered, “I think we had better move on to the weather.” After the ‘show,’ while still bathed in the afterglow of having appeared on Merseyside’s third most listened-to morning radio station, City Talk 105 FM, I stride like Lord Flashheart on to the fl oor of my department. They all claim they haven’t heard my show. Ah, the famous Scouse sense of humour: whenever I’m on the wireless I’m sure that all my staff and students set their alarm clocks extra early so as not to miss it. After broadcasting to the nation, or at least Liverpool, my day is spent managing the department and working at University-level on various projects and initiatives. In addition to leading on the University’s employability strategy, I’m also responsible for ensuring the institution meets its Widening Participation targets. For all universities, Widening Participation is extremely important and each institution now has its own Access agreement, agreed annually with the Offi ce of Fair Access. Forging links with employers is another key part of my
role – both as Director of Employability and as AGCAS president. Academically, my area of research is
Generational Theory, particularly in the context of graduate recruitment. During the past fi ve years, my research has included a global dimension which in turn has enabled me to work with graduate employers and government agencies around the world. Although these days I don’t work as much as I once did with students, I’m still called upon by the University to address various mass-audience events, such as open days, staff conferences and student induction lectures. For a week every September, I get to speak to all 4,500 freshers – a great honour and one that I fi nd very rewarding. But it’s not all love and peace, you know. Working with bright, ambitious, independent-minded and sparky university students is, I don’t deny, a fantastic job, but at times, it can become a strangely dislocating experience. Most of this year’s freshers will have been born in 1995. For me, that’s about twenty-fi ve minutes ago. I’m still wearing pullovers from 1995. And yet here they are, strolling around, larger than life, looking like they own the place (which technically, of course, they do). One thing you come to realise when working in higher education is that it’s only the staff that grow older. Students remain perpetually aged between 18 and 21. Their hairstyles change, but they’re always at the same life stage. For them, the future holds limitless options and possibilities. Everything is yet to play for. This makes the job both challenging and rewarding – like making it to the AGR Summer Survey presentation the morning after the annual awards dinner. Helping students plan their careers is an awesome responsibility. Whenever I talk to groups of students, I’m reminded of a line from a WB Yeats poem: ‘I have spread my dreams under your feet. Tread softly, because you tread on my dreams.’ We might use offi cial-sounding words like ‘careers’ and ‘employability,’ and ‘job markets,’ but essentially, careers services are in the business of helping students realise their dreams. We’re travel agencies for students’ dreams. That’s why we’re constantly looking for new ways to reach out to them, to inspire them, to wake them up to the possibilities of the future. Which is why you may have heard me on the radio at seven o’clock this morning...
GRADUATE RECRUITER 23
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