Before she left to take up her new post as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Kent, Professor Karen Cox reflected on her career at the University of Nottingham in a recorded interview with the Human Resources’ People & Culture team.

In the interview Karen speaks about why equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) are important to the University; the positive work-life balance that supported her career; and the role senior colleagues played in encouraging her to take advantage of opportunities.

“Believing in people and helping them to be the best they can be is such an important part of the leadership role”, she says.

Cuts of her interview will be hosted in a number of places to raise the profile of EDI as an important part of our future culture and support us both to attract talent and to develop future leaders. You can view a clip below.

In a longer cut, hosted on the Athena SWAN Workspace page, she speaks about the importance of Athena SWAN to the University. A clip showing Karen’s career journey can be viewed via the Leadership & Management Academy webspace. The webspace also includes the video above in the Learning and Resources section.

The University’s LinkedIn page and YouTube channel show clips of Karen speaking on equality & diversity, her career, and her “top 3 things” that she appreciated most about working at UoN, helping to attract our “100 brightest minds”.

This is the start of our talent attraction journey, as we are starting to think about why people want to work for the University of Nottingham and what our offer is to people. Staff can contribute by telling us their own career story, their understanding of what attracts people to come to work here or their ideas for other ways we can champion the University as an employer.

Please email hr@nottingham.ac.uk if you would like to contribute.

Additionally, Karen gave a talk to the Women’s Network, as she was looking ahead to taking up her new role as Vice Chancellor of the University of Kent. This was a very personal account of how her career developed at the University and how she balanced the personal and professional aspects of her life. You can view a lecture-capture recording on the Women’s Network Workspace page.

If you would like to attend future Women’s Staff Network Events, please get in touch by email.