 Well, thank you, Paul, for that kind introduction. Thank you all for coming on in relatively early evening's slots. It's great pleasure to be invited to deliver tonight's lecture in Burlington House. And as a fellow of the Society Round to Crust it's called It's Home. It's only right that I'm going to be talking about value, whilst humanity is both at universities in contemporary society. Actually the last time I spoke to you in this building was in 2013 Maen nhw'n wneud i'r newid y tîm ac ryi'n credu i ddweud, rydyn ni'n meddwl ydych chi'n gwybod i ddim yn credu'r cyd-yfu cymdeithasio cyfnifol'r ffordd gyda y cyhoedd gŷig sydd mae'r pryd. Rydyn ni wedi'n meddwl, rydyn ni'n mwyaf i'r cyllid mwynhau. Rydyn ni'n ei ddweud y dyma y gallu bod ei wneud y byddiol iawn. I continue to do so, not for any financial award or material gain, but because slightly of you being the team thing, and I'm drawn by that overwhelming desire to understand, to comprehend how different, how similar previous generations are to our own, and to understand them simply on their own terms for their own sake. And it's not something I believe that can be equally measured, or it's value codified by some unonwised data collection processor. Indeed, my own graduate outcome data was only salvaged at the last moment when the final week before I turned 29 at that sort of late college, which was measured in a longitudinal education outcomes data. To my surprise, I was suddenly elected as a Member of Parliament in the Marshall Seats of Kings with my home. Now that brought a sudden end to any hope that some might have had. My first career which was a dream of academic academia. But hold my hand up, I must admit to feeling rather guilty being in the presence of the HRC this evening. When I first wanted to take this opportunity to getting something off my chest, maybe to say thank you for the support the council gave me as a masters and doctoral student in the early 2000s. I only apologise sincerely and that I never finished the deep role that I have come into form. Now I hope I can be forgiven, but I wanted to say however what I learned then, and the skills that I acquired, the knowledge and research that I began, I hope they help me to waste. Indeed, what I can't account for being a quality of my work that I've took, I do recognise absolutely the value that it brought to myself. And it's that theme of value and the value of humanities to which I want to reflect on this evening. Tonight also not exactly to the day, but it's started my seventh month in office as Minister of Universities, Science and Search and Innovation, a milestone which I have to admit I didn't think I'd get to when I took the role I've been in December. I've been especially keen since then to highlight the role of the arts and humanities when it comes to not just understanding but tackling the major challenges we face in society today. Indeed, this has been a guiding bridge to my approach to both sides of my Ministerial portfolio today, which thanks to largely binary lives in white, sees me cover the entire education side of my working Department of Education, other science and research and innovation element as Minister in the Department of Finance. But I've always been keen to build bridges between these two portfolios and indeed to do everything I can to being both sides of my group together. And that's why in my first major speech that I made back in January, I set out my own vision for a unity of purpose where I didn't just try to link up the teaching research side to my portfolio, but also to bring together the technical and vocational education with that which is traditionally considered so-called academic. And in this vision I emphasise the need for people to be free to embark on the type of education that suits them at any time when it's right for them. And this means embedding flexibility at the heart of the system, enhancing the portability of applications to allow for this step-on, step-off approach that many people in their modern world might as need. And I was convinced then that we should build bridges. And I am pleased now to see that my ambition to create a more fluid, more joined up post-18 education landscape works for the learners of every age has been reflected in what's now the so-called Orga review. And this is actually my first speech since the panel support was published last week. And I totally write, as I think, about the Orga and the independent panel that I've worked with the past year and a half. It is easy, I know, to be in the spotlight while working on recommendations that transform the post-18 education landscape as we know it. And I know the sector has been watching particularly closely to see what recommendations emerge about the future funding provision. And I understand their anxieties. Indeed, even before the report was released, I made clear my concerns over initial weeks, such as the speculation over any 3D upgrade that will professional enter the university. And I'm pleased to see that Ozil didn't make the cut in the final report. And maybe it had done. That would have been completely aggressive. I would have shut the door of opportunity for certain people whose lives are transformed by our world-leading universities and colleges. But the recommendations on the report are indeed now out there. And I'm keen to work with the higher education sector over the coming months to consult on the proposals and to hear different views. Now, one of the questions I will be addressing as part of this reflection period is what the report means for the future of the arts and humanities. And what it says about how we value these disciplines in society today. For my part, I've always been clear that high quality education in a range of subjects is absolutely critical for our public services and its culture enriching for our society. But I believe that we must be careful not to confuse high quality with high value, for there are two different concepts with two very different outcomes. High quality is something which we should all aspire to, whether in our work, our research, our teaching. Many universities and many courses already are in the UK where we are leading. You don't need me to repeat the fact that four out of the top ten global leading universities are in the UK, 18 in the top 100, but I will. And I want to see that figure rise even higher over time. I hope that our reforms to higher education with the establishment of the old business students, which will be fully operational for the first of all those this year, will help embed and achieve that focus on quality that must be continued. A part of the RFS's mission will be to embed greater transparency within our AGE system. Institutions will be held to account for both their performance on access and participation, but also through the transparency duty that will provide more information than before. Now, at the same time, additional transparency comes in the form of that longitudinal education app on stage of the language, which after a decade is given to bring forth these tranches of data for students who graduated back in 2008. Now, I fully understand the importance of data on the returns of higher education. It's through this, I believe, will continue to improve and maintain high quality standards which will become known for across the globe. And I'm pleased to announce that I'll be meeting formally with the data of others who are increasing when I set out for the first time next month. However, I also understand that data, in its current existing role, can't measure everything. And until we've found a way to capture that vital contribution that degrees of social value make to our society, degrees like nursing and social care, then we risk overlooking the true value of these subjects. And the same goes for the arts and humanities. Although some people around us may argue that the contributions of these disciplines to society may somehow be less tangible, I believe their influence is all around us. Am I challenging any critic to imagine a world without art, without music, without literature, without people who can think outside the box or indeed challenge ideas? And all this comes from the critical thinking that knowing about different cultures of lots of bits and languages reminds us. It's a product of centuries-old understanding of the liberal arts and how they can shape minds of the future. Now, what might be low value to one man? Might to others represent money not spent on acquiring knowledge for its own sake, expanding one's cultural horizons, learning to empathize and to reflect upon the human condition and applying it to the challenges of the future. There is a place for learning which subjects have the potential to generate entire salaries for the future, not least for those students who want to make sure they make the right choice of subjects and institution for them. For those who wish to know this information, it's also, I believe, important to highlight the economic benefits of studying creative subjects too. And actually, the subject isn't all negative for those studying creative subjects. The latest data shows that women studying creative arts in particular can expect to earn around 9% more on average than women who don't go into higher education at all. And the highest return in creative arts will also significantly increase female learnings by around 79%. So a creative education can certainly be the right choice for a number of people. Now, that shouldn't come as a surprise. After all, the government's industrial strategy recognises the importance of the creative sector to the UK economy as being an absolutely vital one. My government has sought to invest in that sector, providing a fit of tax credits, for example, to encourage films such as Star Wars or the series Game of Thrones to be filmed here. Now, these aren't fantastic bill of dollar industries that have chosen the UK as their destination choice, because we have chosen to make new commitment to the arts in the present. Now, since becoming a minister six months ago to the day, I have sought to demonstrate a continued commitment to the arts and humanities through our industrial strategy, not just by presence, but by the future also. As I said back in January in my first speech, these subjects are the very disciplines that make our lives worth living. They enable us to be critical and to communicate. They give us a more compass by which to live. They boost our appreciation of beauty. And they help us to make sense of where we've come from, and indeed where we're heading to. And that's why I set out early on that the last thing that I want to see is about new judgments emerging, which closely rely on science and engineering from the arts, humanities and social sciences. And in fact, some of you may have noticed that I even used my first speech to push the parameters of my job description somewhat. In it, I declared that although I am officially a minister for science, I take great pride in wanting to be a minister for the arts and humanities as well. Disciplines which enrich our culture and society, and which have an immeasurable impact on my health and well-being. Now, I've tried to stand home by that conviction. It wasn't without a coincidence that I gave my first speech in Rada, one of the oldest prestigious centres of dramatic art trading in the UK. And it certainly hasn't been unintentional that I visited several specialist creative arts institutions as part of my ongoing tour of around, I think, just over 33 UK higher education institutions. In the institutions I've visited today, I've seen at first hand the value that arts and humanities can bring, not just to the students studying these disciplines, but also to wider UK society. In my first month on the job, I spoke to technical theatre students in St Mary's University in Twickenham, who've chosen to take two-year accelerations degrees specifically to allow for faster access to specialist jobs in a world-leading dramatic arts centre. I've sat down with students at Ravensmore University to talk about their passion for the creative arts and fashion. I may have told me how their studies have opened up opportunities for them, which otherwise they simply would not have dreamed of. When I went over to Ulster University of Northern Ireland, I saw for myself how graduates in the arts are in need of supporting Northern Ireland's growing creative industries cluster, famous for its film and TV productions like I mentioned again, Frones, Dairy Girls and the Fall. And closer to home in London, I met students of photography courses at London's Southwag University, which led to near 100% of graduates' appointments. I spoke to students from across the globe at the Royal Academy of Music who've come here to London to study them, to learn thanks to the Royal College's reputation and what we're concerned towards. And most recently I've seen one of the UK's most successful institutional-led business incubators, which is not a scientific or large research-intensive university, as you might expect. It's actually been found at the Royal College of Arts, where it's nurturing high-bound businesses and attracting a worldwide investment nearly around about 280 million pounds. What I've learned from my visits so far as a university's minister is that the arts and humanities are absolutely vital to our nation's success and prosperity, not just in terms of transforming the long range of those who are studying them, enhancing their future prospects, but in bolstering our economy and putting the UK firmly on the map as world leaders in creative education. I can certainly see how arts and culture new mantas can contribute more than the 10.8 billion gross value added to the economy, a figure published by the Creative Institutions Federation just last month. And I can certainly understand why Spectre students around the world are looking to come to the UK for a truly world-leading education. What may embrace this creativity is our own critical thinking as part and parcel of their course. Recently we launched the International Education Strategy, setting out for the first time, and I'm guessing to ensure that we have 600,000 international students studying in the UK by 2030. I've held many bilateral meetings with education ministers from across the world over the past six months, most recently holding several round tables in the Royal British Council's global conference where I met with ministers and countries ranging from Egypt to Thailand, and it's been striking to me to observe that what they most admire about the UK higher education system is not only its quality but its ability to produce graduates with deeply engraved critical thinking skills, skills which we know are the essence of a humanities education. The arts and mantas are not just powerful disciplines in their own right, they have the potential to help develop other disciplines, sectors and industries to do so much more as well. I'm actually harnessing this power now for the good of our society as well as for the future of our health and prosperity. It was exactly this sentiment that I put forward in a speech I gave a couple of months ago at a joint British Academy Royal Society to mark the 60th anniversary of CPSO's Two Cultures action. In that insight I reflected how far we've come, how far we've come in my own personal appreciation of the different disciplines. Having started out in the arts and mantas, I said it's a two day story, but having had the enormous privilege of my job to learn so much more about natural sciences as well and specifically what can be achieved from the arts and sciences is so called Two Cultures and CPSO's words combined. And since I've seen the power of bits myself in my own work, you probably know that my recent book tells the story of Richard the Third and his three-fold role as our brother, Tecto-Kick, and I can see the biggest picture of Richard's of that very gallery now. It's only through studying the original manuscripts in a way that the story knows how, or which is like, through to the bits where everybody was killed by Henry VII's forces at Osworth. Now I realise that's not the only way of approaching Richard's story. Just last month from a visit to Aston University, I was lucky enough to meet with Professor Sarah Haynesworth, the Pro Vice-Chancellor and Executive Dean of the School of Engineering and Science, who was very keen to meet me and I was wondering why she was so keen. Now you're probably wondering what a Tudor historian and a French engineer had in common. I certainly was when Sarah asked for a meeting. But what do I tell you that among Sarah's many accomplishments is her experience in helping to establish the exact manner of Richard the Third's death? So after Richard the Third's skeleton was discovered last year in about 2012, Sarah used her own forensic experience to analyse the wound months found in Richard's bones and on his skull. And she was able to be referred through her own discipline. He was indeed killed by a sword and thrust right the way through his skull. He had his spine and the sword probably touched the inside of his skull. I don't know if my case is here tonight. I don't know if it's going to be a good job writing where we are. I might nasal this already. But also obviously a harbour that came crashing down, slicing off the plaque of her own. And in total Sarah's team referred the Richard the Third's death but 11 wounds around the time his death might be stolen. Two to the rest of his body now. I think that's perhaps too much to get into detail after a lecture about the arts and humanities tonight. But the point is that while my approach on historical scholarship can provide colour to Richard the Third's life, even documentation, it's Sarah's approach to the science engineering that can confirm the facts and harsh realities of his death. But it's both approaches ultimately complement each other and obviously without a wider meaningful narrative that's been able to be provided through traditional scholarship in Antwerth, Sarah's findings would just be a static fact. A clinical diagnosis ultimately detached from the wider history of that period. Yet without Sarah's scientific validation or Richard the Third's death, the historical narrative accounts given by Paul de Wyrdur the role of what will remain here today or a version of the truth as they have proven. So what we're seeing here is living on two disciplines, very distinct, coming together, working in unison to enhance our understanding of the arts. And it's this merger of two cultures that has absolutely enormous benefits that hold wide range applications for society. Today we live in a world where around 50% of the UK population try to degree by the time they're around 30. Now we still want enough, in my opinion, and certainly not enough if we're to compete with a knowledge economy for the future internationally. And as a university minister I'm keen that the new one is determined from pursuing a particular discipline just because it appears that studying that subject isn't what people like then. It's a principle which I believe applies equally to the arts and humanities as it does science and engineering. And thankfully what mitigating factor to this is the fact that our disciplinary landscape is continually evolving. And there can be no doubt that over time the traditional disciplinary values have become more blurred and subject definitions are elastic. As technologies developed and times moved on new subjects have emerged, have evolved once into disciplinary studies have become far more commonplace, for example in multi-disciplinary approaches have become more desired not just within academia itself but by businesses, industry and the government. Part of this is found to our recognition of the fact that we have to tackle the world's ground challenges now, challenges such as climate change before it's too late. And these challenges themselves simply aren't constrained within individual disciplinary boundaries. Indeed the ground challenges we face today are formed at the intersection of those traditional disciplines where the arts, humanities, natural sciences and social sciences meet. How can we ensure that as we did longer we can do so well and healthily in our ambition to tackle global warming and reduce our use of carbon how can we adapt life around our home to a region that is zero on our target. And as our cities have become more populated how can we sustain a transforming ecosystem that is both clean and improves the ability of the population to increase economic growth. The solutions to these challenges can only be met when we bring together our cultural, political, economic and technological know-how. And that's why we have added to imperatives now in 2019 not just to recognise the value of individual disciplines in their own right but to see their potentials achieve even greater things when they're behind. I always point to the success of the video games industry as a case in Queens where we often talk about Mickey Mouse to Green somehow or a day in May or at least I think when you look at Mickey Mouse and the success of Disney and there are certainly people who should be involved in this about the UK games industry is a relatively new sector a one which is already at the heart of the UK creative industries powerhouse generating 1.5 million pounds for the UK economy each year and all of this is powered by coming together of different disciplines by fusing together of different types of knowledge by bringing together the best of sciences and the best of the arts to create a successful video game it doesn't just take great coders and computer programmers it takes the input of psychologists and anthropologists to understand the needs and drives of all to be the user, the customer, the human and it takes musicians and artists and storytellers to draw that user in to create powerful narratives and to make the game attractive and commercial and that's why recently we announced our 34 million hour born into the future industry in 12 ground-breaking immersive entertainment projects seek to combine the latest technology augmented and virtual reality with new methods of crafting narratives to reach out to new audiences and this is included in investment in art and animation to teaming up with the game to help the tiny rebel to produce an immersive storytelling experience that should be told around key locations in my home town of Bristol now innovation doesn't just need to happen in technology and science the same must be the case for the arts of humanities too but it is the joint application with emerging technologies that will also further innovation the big technology brands of our time have long known this for catching up take Apple for instance Apple's success doesn't just rest on the state of the art technology that uses this it's a penalized economy in its design and artistry the physical feel of its products and as Apple's founder Jobs once said technology alone is not enough it is technology married with the liberal arts married with humanities that yields the results that make our art to see but the interweaving of the sciences and the arts is not just something that exists for our own entertainment and aesthetics or for our own gratification and pleasure and this isn't something about simply turning the stem into steam for the sake of it the arts and humanities I believe can't image the added in squeezed in some kind of adjunct to the sciences I passionately believe they must run in parallel a horizontal threat across all scientific disciplines that helps to inform exclaim and evaluate after all the technological advance has the same subject at its core the arts and humanities are also what make science usable and it's no good developing a cure for a pandemic like Ebola for instance if you don't use anthropologists linguists or lawyers to make the science work to bring a product to markets or to the trust of the people and at a time when trust in knowledge and expertise is constantly threatened by the lacking times of populism we need the humanities more than ever to be able to reach out and communicate the value of science and research for the network of thought and that also means thinking very differently about how we invest in research for the future now the government is committed to investing 2.4% of that GDP both public and private in research development by 2027 that investments would simply allow us to stand still at the OECD average and making a series of speeches on how we can tune this target and what needs to be done to make real the scale of investment for the future this includes investing in the research of tomorrow the people who actually need to do the research on the ground estimated at some 260,000 researchers now not all of these will be in universities indeed some of the examples I've used reflect much cutting edge research has taken place in the industries of the future the animation studios the games companies, the tech spin-outs who we need to foster but we need to adapt our own approach to research grant and investment to reflect how the modern world of research is now operating and that's why I'm delighted that the AHRC is forming the National Trust the status of independent research organisation this recognises either the excellence of trust current research and there's a major step towards the charity's ambition to embed research on the heart of all these activities new ways of doing research particularly by reflecting on the merger of these events is vital to take any chance of meeting those huge environmental, societal and technological challenges for future objects mentioned the governance industrial strategy has set out these grand challenges and tackling them is seen as key to improving our productivity and to indeed improving people's lives not just this in this country but indeed around the world the first of these four grand challenges are focused on the global trends that will form our future and include artificial intelligence and data, ageing society clean growth and future mobility and all of these issues are central to my own role just under my side to search innovation but also in my new role as Paul says, the interim Minister of State for Energy but I'm proud to meet the challenge to reduce emissions, to decalmite our economy and invest in renewable technologies to do for these things and more we need the arts, the humanities and the science to work together to help to seize the benefits that the technologies will bring the risks along the way take artificial intelligence for example if we're going to continue to push forward the frontiers of knowledge in this area then we're going to have to work across all the disciplines not only to enable us to unlock its full potential but to ensure that we're developing and deploying this new technology ethically with consideration to others and the world around us we've already missed in the last century the horrors that occur when science becomes detached from the ethics and the moral compass that the arts and humanities provide from the human experiments in Nazi concentration camps to the dropping of the atomic bomb post war sciences have a lot to learn the hard way from these abuses of humanity and that's why the modern day pursuit of knowledge must have collaboration at its core not simply to allow us to easily exchange ideas with one another across borders and across disciplines to ensure that principle of humanity is firmly embedded at the heart of our research to prevent us from eating those mistakes in the past and to make sure we learn what's lessons and that's why I well functioned a focus on the humanities as part of the EU's new rise of Europe science programme until 2027 and it seems to affect the humanities and the role they play in the scientific discovery for the future and it's my ambition that we associate as fully as possible to be able to play our role indeed in shaping the future of western civilization for this century in the world of science diplomacy we need to re-evaluate and rethink our role on the global stage that's what I published last month the UK's first international research and innovation strategy setting out our own global ambitions and new research partnerships and new research collaborations now these collaborations aren't simply about marrying scientific excellence they're based around recognising our responsibility in the world to future sustainability of our planet and the development of some of the poorest countries working to ensure innovation and invention are purpose to the benefit of all humanity and that's a mission which I believe must be an ethical one that doesn't place a profit at the top of its agenda or seems to advance the power of one state above another indeed instead we seem to shape a new international science a research agenda shaped around sustainable development goals for a shared future prosperity improving the condition of all human beings and that's an agenda that has the humanities at its heart and it's the inclusion of the humanities running like a golden thread for all the scientific collaborations and projects that will protect the future of western science maintaining its focus on excellence but excellence for a human purpose the arts, humanities and social sciences have always been central to the way we do science in our post-war world ensuring all the time that we understand the repercussions of the technology that we're developing and making sure that we don't forget what happened when we abused it in our dark past a world without the arts and humanities was not just really sad and boring world it would be able to leave this social world a world without progress and a world where ideas could never get on the page a world without the arts and humanities would also be a very bored world the creative sector is not just only a booming part of the UK economy in its own right it's also the backbone to many other sectors and industries providing the creative talent that brings products and services to life and for as long as we remain global leaders in creative education the arts and humanities are what are going to strengthen our country's place on the world stage to ensure that we remain a place for students, entrepreneurs and business leaders who are all over and that's why as not only the Minister for Science but also the Minister for the Humanities I'm deterring to promote the strength of the disciplines as we move forward for the future and we're doing all I can to endorse that place in our world plus our education sector as well as our society at large Thank you very much