The University will host its annual Foundation Day Lecture on 17 November 2016. The lecture, titled ‘Don’t Dumb Down; Smarten Up’ will be delivered by Gwyneth Williams, Controller of BBC Radio 4 and Radio 4 Extra.

The lecture will focus on how can we better understand the ideas that mould us in order to make choices and take decisions about how we want to live and how we want our societies to function? This is more important now more than ever as we try to make sense of the unfolding global turmoil around us.

Contrary to the view that dumbing down is the only way to go, Gwyneth Williams, Controller of BBC Radio 4, argues that smart, intelligent, more challenging content us the way to reach and capture bigger audiences.

Gwyneth Williams has been Controller of Radio 4 and 4 Extra since 2010. Before that, she was Director of the World Service in English, Editor of the BBC Reith Lectures for many years and Head of BBC Radio Current Affairs. She started her career at the BBC writing current affairs talks for the World Service and then worked at the Overseas Development Institute before returning to the BBC. She has published two books, one, co-authored, on Southern Africa and another on Third World political organisations.

The lecture will take place in the Woolf Lecture Theatre on Canterbury campus from 18.30.
Admission is free and open to all.