Pursue Lifelong Learning

After graduation, our alumni have suggested their love of learning remains unabated, and they continue to value intellectual engagement with the university and with fellow graduates. We therefore seek to provide a range of opportunities for lifelong learning, from lectures by visiting Harvard professors, to presentations by fellow alumni on topics of expertise, to collaborations with high-quality external event providers. Our members have been enlightened by Dame Kate Bingham (MBA’91) as she gave a candid presentation on “Lessons from the Vaccine Taskforce” shortly after the nation emerged from the pandemic. We had the opportunity to meet Dame Darcey Bussell and hear her discuss her illustrious career as prima ballerina and TV personality with Royal Opera House producer Peter Jones. Special thanks to Coutts for hosting these events. UK-based SIGs and various HCUK members have brought us virtual programmes on diverse subjects ranging from “Floss or die” with Professor Thomas Dietrich (Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health) and “Building Emotional Resilience during the Covid 19 Pandemic” with Professor Luana Marques (Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School) to “Please, sir, can I go to Harvard?” with Mouhssin Ismail (first Principal of Newham Collegiate Sixth Form, a school that serves students from lower-income backgrounds). HCUK is a staunch supporter of the Allyship Series, a global collaboration on webinars that highlight and combat different forms of bias and discrimination and injustice. Allyship events have addressed topics such as neurodiversity, physical disabilities, indigenous people, anti-Asian bias and other forms of racial discrimination. HCUK has been involved in the organisation of episodes such as one on the war in Ukraine. Let us not forget about our in-person excursions and guided tours of art collections and theatre events. Our connections have sometimes given us rare access to learning events and historic spaces that are not generally available to the public. Our members have had the privilege of visiting Harvard House (not normally open to the public) and other Shakespeare landmarks in Stratford-Upon-Avon. Our Women’s Luncheons have included a private tour of the art collection at Sotheby’s. And thanks to Lord Karan Bilimoria (HBS’11), some of our volunteers had been treated to a very rare tour of certain rooms in the Houses of Parliament.