Inaugural Lecture: Professor Karl Dayson

'Mutual Ground: Finance, Inclusion and the Future of Higher Education'

Lecture Overview:

In his Inaugural Lecture, Professor Karl Dayson- Provost and Deputy Vice Chancellor at the University of Lincoln — draws on three decades of research into building societies, credit unions, community development finance and financial inclusion to ask an urgent question about the future of higher education. Just as mutual financial institutions faced intense pressure to abandon their founding purpose in pursuit of short-term commercial survival, universities today stand at a similar crossroads. Drawing on his work on demutualisation, rural exclusion and community finance, Professor Dayson argues that the institutions which held their ground — remaining accountable to the communities they were built to serve — proved not just more principled but more resilient. The lecture makes the case that the University of Lincoln's deep roots in its region, its commitment to widening access and its civic purpose are not constraints on its ambition, but the very foundation of it.

Biography

Professor Karl Dayson is Provost and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) at the University of Lincoln.

Professor Dayson’s academic specialism is in Economic Sociology. Karl’s research has focused on alternative forms of finance and issues related to financial inclusion and microfinance

Karl is the institution’s second most senior academic officer and chief steward of academic strategy, resources, and student outcomes. His role is to provide academic leadership across the University, ensuring the continuous improvement of teaching, the student experience, research, knowledge exchange, and enterprise. He is responsible for fostering a high-performance culture and financially sustainable institution, while promoting equality and ensuring regulatory compliance and effective governance. He is overseeing the academic transformation of Lincoln to enable it to prosper in the future and deliver for its students, staff, the city, region and nation.

Externally, Karl is co-chairperson of the National TRAC Development Group, and a member of UUK’s Research and Innovation Policy Network Group.

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Host or Publisher Lincoln Institute for Advanced Studies