Landmark Issue 19 2021 SINGLE PAGES

LANDMARK As President of the Royal Agricultural University, I am delighted to introduce the 2020 edition of Landmark Magazine as it celebrates its 175 th anniversary. The dreadful disruption produced by this pandemic has meant that students’ experience of life and learning at university has been very different fromwhat they might have anticipated, and I can only too well imagine just how particularly hard it must have been for those new to university life, with many leaving home for the first time. So it is tempting, and understandable, to focus on the disruption, the failures and the challenges of this difficult period. However, if the life of the land teaches anything, it is the need to look at the long term; at the deep and enduring strengths and qualities that continue through the slow rhythm of the seasons, through Nature’s ever-rejuvenating generation of new life. I am pleased to see, therefore, that the shared values, strength of imagination and tight-knit community that defines the RAU have enabled the University to ride the waves of this challenging year and reimagine student life through fresh and innovative thinking. I have been enormously impressed to hear that, with typical self- sufficiency and imagination, academic staff have worked quickly to transform their teaching methods to allow online learning. While this has clearly involved a steep learning curve and many gruelling hours of effort, it is encouraging to know that the benefits have been enormous for learners and that, in the longer term, the digital transformation has opened up many new opportunities for the University. This ghastly pandemic has shown us howmuch more interconnected we are as a global community. With this technological leap, I am pleased to hear that the University will now be able to educate an ever wider and more diverse community of students at home and overseas. Throughout its 175 year history, and despite its small size, the Royal Agricultural University has always worked for the benefit of the wider public, as well as the land-based industries it serves. I was therefore full of admiration to hear that during lockdown not only did the University catering staff provide meals for members of the local community in need, thus supporting the Bishop of Gloucester’s Long Table Project, but students also worked as volunteers and academic staff contributed