Bartholomew fair

Playbook has a cup of tea with the vice-chancellor of Ulster University

We are sure you can read about Kathleen Stock at the Oxford Union elsewhere. You might even learn later today about who the Office for Students’ free speech tsar is going to be—not that the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act applies to an extracurricular debating society like the Oxford Union, which should not be confused with the University of Oxford’s student union, where the law does apply and whose next upcoming event is a session with a bike doctor for the bicycle curious.

Anyway, we thought we would spare you the self-fulfilling prophecy of the culture wars this morning and bring you something different with one of Fiona McIntyre’s legendary sector interviews. Here she speaks with the boss of Ulster University, an institution not unfamiliar with actual war and the importance of listening and appreciating cultural difference.