Supporting staff wellbeing on the agenda at final Keele Debate of the season

An expert panel from across business, academia, and politics shared their expertise in helping staff to flourish and find purpose during the final session of this year’s Keele Debates. 

The final debate in the 2026 series focused on the challenges and changes facing staff in higher education, and how managers, partners, and staff themselves can all contribute to a fulfilled and satisfied workforce. 

Chaired by Keele’s Vice-Chancellor Professor Kevin Shakesheff, the panel for the final session included Lord James Timpson, Minister of State, former CEO of Timpson Group, and author of The Happy Index: Lessons in Upside-Down Management; Professor Stacy Johnson MBE, Professor of Critical Inclusive Leadership at the University of Nottingham; wellbeing expert Dr Andy Cope; and Dr Debbie McVitty, Editor of WonkHE. 

In front of a packed audience in Keele’s Chapel, the panellists all shared their insights, concerns, and recommendations about how staff in universities can flourish as the sector navigates unprecedented levels of change and uncertainty. 

Lord Timpson spoke about the importance of a “culture of kindness” in helping organisations to thrive, adding: “You have got to get your values right. High performing organisations are ones where everybody genuinely is equal. If a culture is strong, you can survive virtually anything, and the culture I’ve always tried to develop is a culture of kindness. If you can have a genuine culture of kindness that drips through the whole organisation, you will be far more robust than any of your competitors.” 

Dr McVitty spoke about the importance of staff taking ownership of culture within their organisation, and how that can contribute to wellbeing, adding: “For me this can be about a lack of ownership of culture; we have a lot of people who are very good at thinking about performance metrics and management and that sort of thing, but in terms of whose job it is to own and manage the culture, this is something that is underdeveloped in our sector.” 

Professor Stacy Johnson said that for HE to thrive, there needs to be more room for discomfort, failure, and difficult questions, saying that historical attitudes towards research and education which emphasised connectedness, humanity, and interdisciplinarity could teach us a lot. She added: “How do we raise the tolerance of organisations for discomfort, because happiness is not the absence of discomfort, it’s not the absence of failure.  

“For me, the future thriving student, thriving academic, thriving practitioner of 2030, I wonder whether it requires us to look back and perhaps rediscover what seems to be old fashioned; this notion of connectedness, humanity, working across boundaries.” 

Dr Andy Cope emphasised that the problems facing staff in HE are not exclusive to the sector, but that creating conditions for staff to thrive helps people to take pride in their work, saying: “There are so many priorities and if everything is a priority, there isn’t a priority. Flourishing is when we have the energy, the autonomy, the time and the resources to do great work that we are proud of, that’s what everybody wants to do.  

“Yes, organisations have got to work hard to create a place people feel safe and valued, but also the individual has to take some responsibility for showing up as their best self in that culture.” 

Thursday’s debate was the final one in the inaugural series of Keele Debates, which were attended by over 1,000 people across all five sessions. 

Vice-Chancellor Professor Kevin Shakesheff said: “We’ve had some fantastic and really thought-provoking discussions with our panellists during this first series of debates. The insights we gained from the panels, our staff, and everyone else who attended and asked such incisive questions will be crucial for us as we launch our new strategy later this year. 

“I’m enormously grateful to everyone who helped make these events such a success and am already looking forward to next series of debates to keep these discussions going in the future.” 

You can watch all of this year’s debates back on demand on YouTube.