The University Challenge

Introduction

When we were talking about writing this book, and the challenges that universities face today, we asked each other why we became so interested in universities. We discovered some surprising similarities in our family backgrounds and these were our answers:

From Ed Byrne

My parents left school in the mid-teenage years. My paternal grandfather was a coal miner who was illiterate. My father graduated from Durham University as a medical doctor because of opportunities that opened up for him as a returned serviceman after the Second World War. It was axiomatic in my family that education has a transformative value both in personal growth and in opportunity in life.

When I in turn became a medical doctor and a consultant neurologist, ...