Interdisciplinary dialogue at Harris Manchester leads to cross-sector roundtable

^{Image: Policymakers, researchers, and practitioners from education and health at the roundtable held at Harris Manchester College}

Interdisciplinary dialogue has always flourished at Harris Manchester, and a recent event led by two of the College’s Fellows demonstrated the real-world impact of such dialogue.

Official Fellow Professor Bee Wee CBE is the College’s Tutor in Clinical Medicine and a Consultant in Palliative Medicine. Her conversations with Rob Klassen, Professorial Fellow in Education, on work, learning and the common challenges faced by doctors and teachers led to a cross-sector roundtable, which was held at the College on 21 April.

The event brought together senior leaders from health and education to explore the difficulties of retaining a healthy, motivated workforce, with a particular focus on the issues that are common to both sectors, including staff shortages, rising workloads and concerns about burnout.

It is hoped that the event may lead to longer-term outcomes, such as policy briefings, pilot initiatives, and collaborative research proposals – and continued engagement between health and education policymakers and researchers.

Professor Bee Wee and Professor Rob Klassen pictured in the College's Tate quad during the event

The roundtable was hosted by the University's Department of Education, in partnership with the Nuffield Department of Medicine (NDM) and the Oxford Policy Engagement Network (OPEN). It was led by Professor Klassen, Rebecca Snell and Dr Nici Sims from the Department of Education, alongside Professor Wee and Professor Sophie Park from NDM, and Dr Samantha Harper from the Social Sciences Division.

Professor Klassen commented: “Workforce retention is one of the defining challenges in both education and healthcare. This roundtable, which grew out of conversations between fellows at Harris Manchester College, demonstrated the value of bringing two often-siloed sectors together to move towards identifying what works, why it works, and where there is real potential for shared solutions.”

Professor Wee said: “This event emerged from discussions at College on work and learning. It really demonstrates the value of an environment, such as Harris Manchester, where interdisciplinary and cross-sector conversations – and opportunities for collaboration – occur naturally between fellows and students, and where collaborative endeavours can flourish.”