XClose

UCL News

Home
Menu

Spotlight on Lesley Hayman

7 February 2017

This week the spotlight is on Lesley Hayman, Head of Global Partnerships in the UCL Global Engagement Office (GEO).

Lesley Hayman

What is your role and what does it involve?

I am Head of Global Partnerships in the UCL Global Engagement Office. We work with faculties across the university to support the development of global partnerships in targeted countries. 

Our main focus is on growing what we call internally 'anchor partnerships' - a small number of strategic relationships between UCL and other universities in different regions of the world. We also coordinate seven regional networks, open to all academics and professional services staff. Our membership has grown over the past year to nearly 2,000.

How long have you been at UCL and what was your previous role?

I have only worked at UCL for just over a year. Before that I worked for five years in other UK universities. However, most of my career has been spent on overseas postings with the British Council to the Philippines, Poland, Romania, Japan and Kenya.

What working achievement or initiative are you most proud of?

There is so much but currently I'm very proud to be part of the Global Engagement Office. When I joined just over a year ago, GEO had just been set up. There were eight of us and now there are over twenty. It has been a privilege to set up the new partnerships team and to see how much they, and the whole of GEO, have accomplished already. 

The new deep strategic partnership with Peking University, the first of its kind at UCL, stands out as the single greatest achievement - only possible through the Herculean efforts of many academics and professional services staff right across UCL.

Tell us about a project you are working on now that is top of your to-do list.

At the moment, I am very busy preparing to go to the Difficult Dialogues Forum in Goa this week. This is a high-profile, annual event sponsored by a UCL alumna. UCL is the Forum's Knowledge Partner for the first time. This year's Forum explores the challenges India faces in creating conditions for good health and access to healthcare for all citizens as a step towards moving from policy to effective practice. 

We are expecting hundreds of health professionals, academics and government officials to attend, and there is high-profile media coverage. Part of my role at the Forum is to help create a legacy of new and stronger partnerships in the health sector that will lead to positive change. It's part of UCL's long-term strategy for working with India.

What is your favourite album, film and novel?

Album - too many to choose from.

Film - The Tango Lesson, directed by Sally Potter. It's much more than a film about the Argentinian tango - though the dancing is unforgettable - for it treats dance and learning to dance as a powerful intersection of gender, the personal and the professional.

Novel - Americannah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Again, it's hard to choose a favourite novel, but this one made a very strong impression on me, not least because it helped me to understand Nigerian culture better at a time I was working with the country. I'm looking forward to hearing the author speak at the Royal Festival Hall next month.

What is your favourite joke (pre-watershed)?

Q. How many psychoanalysts does it take to change a light bulb? 

A. One, but the light bulb must really want to change.

Who would be your dream dinner guests?

Virginia Woolf, Lytton Strachey, Gertrude Bell, John Maynard Keynes and others in the Bloomsbury Set, who may have dined in the very room I work in every day at 48 Gordon Square.

What advice would you give your younger self?

Believe in yourself.

What would it surprise people to know about you?

Those who don't know me well may not know I lived in Japan for nine years. I went there as a backpacker soon after I graduated and fell in love with the country, the people, the culture and the language. I was lucky enough later on to be posted to Japan by the British Council to head up their education work. I still miss living in Tokyo enormously.

What is your favourite place?

Despite my passion for Tokyo, my favourite place is fortunately where I live - London. I love its diversity, creativity and pace of change. While I've lived abroad for long periods, I'm a Londoner through and through, born, brought up and now living here for over half my life.