Leoarna Mathias speaks at TEDx

17/09/2019 by Charlotte Knowles

Leoarna Mathias, Senior Lecturer in Student Engagement and HEADs Programme Co-ordinator at Newman University, recently spoke at a TEDx event in Birmingham.

TED was formed in 1984, and is a non-profit organisation that looks to spread ideas, usually in the form of short, powerful talks. The TEDx events are independently run events, which aim to help share ideas in communities around the world.

A recent TEDx event at Aston University in Birmingham saw Newman’s Leoarna Mathias attend to explore the opinion that a good degree means a better future.

As well as being a Lecturer, Leoarna has a key role at the University to help students stay motivated and engaged in their degree courses. This has allowed Leoarna to explore the potential solutions to make higher education more inclusive.

In the talk Leoarna speaks about the graduate job market, inequality, 21st century employment, commodification of study and the nature of learning, before ending her talk referring to American Academic and activist, Angela Davis, who stated we have to remain hopeful of the possibility of radical transformation and believe in it as a daily act. Leoarna brings this back to universities by stating “if we can do this, and our universities, our undergraduates and our graduates can do this, and if we can help them in that regard, then maybe we might just try to find some of those solutions we’ve been seeking.”