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Welcome to the University Scholars Programme (USP) website. I hope you find it useful and informative, and I'm confident that it will answer most factual questions about who we are, what we do and how to contact or join us.
What the website cannot show, however, is the spirit of USP. There are pictures, of course, and some of these are quite evocative, but neither singly nor as a whole do they quite capture the character of the programme. Yet those of us who work and study here know USP as a programme with a strong character and an attractive one.
So, what is that character? My answer must, of necessity, be a personal one, but it's one that I believe many would share.
First, the life of the mind flourishes here. By this I don't mean that USP people are obsessed with abstractions. But they are constantly thinking about things, and constantly generating ideas, both abstract and practical. Because of this, USP is a place of precise, probing writing, of intelligent, sometimes witty conversation, of new plans and initiatives.
Second, the life of the mind is sustained and nourished by human interaction. Every time I leave my room I meet students and colleagues, and witness other encounters between students and students, students and colleagues, colleagues and colleagues. Each of these meetings brings with it the promise of a new idea or puzzle, and contributes towards our shared intellectual life.
Third, USP is a community. It is a diverse group of people with a broad common identity and a high level of mutual support. To use the old word for academic communities, it is a kind of fellowship.
I hope that you can keep those qualities in mind as you read our information. USP is not just the collection of modules, students, academics, residential living and opportunities which the website shows. USP goes beyond all these. We have a course here on the idea of the university. At its best, USP embodies some of the key features of (at least) my idea of a university.
Prof John Richardson
Director, University Scholars Programme
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