Leeds Trinity, St Mary’s, Liverpool Hope and Birmingham Newman universities joined forces on 8 October to deliver continuing professional development (CPD) in the form of an international conference delivered to their Catholic counterparts in Iraq. This came about due to a meeting hosted by Professor Philip Booth, of St Mary’s, with senior leaders at Catholic universities and the President of the Catholic University of Erbil (CUE) in Iraq last year, at which Leeds Trinity suggested hosting a CPD conference on values-driven teaching enhancement.
The conference, titled Teaching For The Global Common Good, featured workshops by a representative from each of England’s four Catholic universities. Also in attendance were CUE colleagues, who gathered together in a central hall of their campus to participate remotely (pictured above).
Dr Ann Marie Mealey, Director of Catholic Mission at Leeds Trinity University, devised and led the conference, and in a session explored how to develop an institutional mission strategy for a Catholic university. This included a stress on a ‘pedagogy of peace’ inspired by Pope Francis’s encyclical Fratelli Tutti, and a drive to influence wider education policy for the global common good, based on her work with the Values 20 Group – a group which seeks to influence the policies of the G20.
She said: “It was a historic moment for all of our universities in the UK to join together and act in unity around our common mission and values. We often forget that other universities are on a similar journey to us but in a very different context. Part of becoming truly mission-driven is the need to understand the global context in which all of our universities operate. We can all be humbled by what we can both contribute to and learn for the betterment of our students, ourselves, and the world. I’m grateful to everyone who supported us, especially the contributors who committed to doing this at the start of term. Your commitment is inspirational. Thank you.”
Dr Louise Hickman and Dr Sarah Parkes, of Birmingham Newman University, considered how Catholic Social Teaching informed efforts to repair global communities, in addition to diverse communities within the university itself.
Professor Cate Carroll-Meehan, of Liverpool Hope University, focused on the concept of Being, Belonging and Becoming, a person-centred approach to learning and development in the social-cultural context of a learning environment.
Professor Philip Booth, of St Mary’s University, outlined how embedding service to the local community into degree programme learning objectives is becoming increasingly important to Catholic universities internationally.
The conference was warmly welcomed by Professor Nazar P Shabila, President of the CUE. He said: “We are deeply grateful to our colleagues from the Catholic universities in the UK for organising such an inspiring and enriching conference. The discussions on Teaching for the Global Common Good were both insightful and highly relevant to our work at Catholic University in Erbil.
“The presentations and exchanges will greatly support us in strengthening and preserving our Catholic identity, as well as in applying the enduring principles of Catholic education and tradition in our teaching and community engagement. Similarly, these reflections will help us broaden our outreach by attracting and providing study opportunities to students from diverse backgrounds, faiths, and cultures.
“This conference marks an important start to a collaboration grounded in shared values of education, service, and global responsibility. We look forward to building on this partnership through continued dialogue and joint initiatives that will further enrich the academic and spiritual life of our university community.”
Find out more about Catholic Mission at Leeds Trinity University; St Mary’s; Liverpool Hope; and Birmingham Newman
