Open lectures
Every semester a number of open lectures on a wide variety of topics are held at the University.
Get involved
Organising, or being involved in, open lectures may help to profile the research taking place in your department, or be a platform for a distinguished visitor to the department.
If you would like to discuss the possibility of running an open lecture, or open lectures series, get in touch at open-lectures
If you expect a large audience for your lecture because of the speaker or the topic, we strongly recommend that the event is ticketed. Help may be available for this if required.
Funding
The Public Lectures Fund is administered by the Public Lectures Committee. Grants are allocated, as and when the funds within its control allow, to help meet the expenses incurred by colleges, departments and student societies in inviting distinguished visitors and scholars to come to the University.
There are two elements to the Fund:
- Public Lectures Fund: a maximum of £300 per event to departments (£500 for an international speaker), colleges and student societies.
- Jim Matthew Fund: a maximum of £1,000 to University departments only. Applications to the Jim Matthew Fund are invited once a year.
Criteria
- All events must be free of charge.
- The talk should take place at a time which allows members of the public to attend (eg after 6.15pm on a weekday or at a weekend). Exceptions may be made to help support family-friendly daytime events, but these will be at the Committee's discretion.
- The talk should take place in an appropriate venue.
- The audience should have the opportunity of meeting, or otherwise interacting with, the visitor/speaker informally.
- The talk should be suitable for, and attractive to, a general audience.
- If a talk abstract is agreed for funding then this must be the talk delivered.
- The Committee will accept a maximum of two applications per semester, per department/college/student society, including joint events
- The talk should be advertised via the University Events Office as well as by the organising department/college/student society.
- The visit must be properly advertised across the University (including King's Manor), and at York Explore Library in Museum Street.
- The grants are a contribution towards travel, accommodation and entertainment expenses but not speaker's fees.
- York Festival of Ideas talks are not eligible for this fund.
A member of the Public Lectures Committee may attend any event funded by the Committee.
Value
£300 per event for UK-based speakers and £500 per event for visitors based in and travelling from overseas.
How to apply
Applications are invited all year round and should be made on the application form below and sent to sue.bennett
Please complete one application form per event. Single applications for multiple events will not be accepted.
, 42kb)About the fund
Do you want to bring a famous person to York to inspire students, staff and the public, but think you cannot afford it?
The Jim Matthew Fund could give you up to £1,000 to invite an inspiring speaker to York.
The Fund is named after Professor Jim Matthew, Emeritus Professor in the School of Physics, Engineering and Technology, in recognition of his contributions to the Public Lectures Committee and to open lectures throughout his years at the University.
You can use the money to add to money your department already has, or use the Fund as your sole source of income. We cover travel, fees, overnight stays - everything is eligible.
You can split the sum between several speakers, or splash out on one speaker. There are no limits, except the speaker must be inspiring and interesting, and have something to say to an audience that includes the public.
Criteria
- Applications can only be made by, or on behalf of, University departments.
- Applications will normally be considered for lectures taking place in the calendar year following the application deadline.
- Applications can be made for either a one-off lecture or a series of lectures.
- The maximum amount of support the Fund will provide is £1,000.
- Applications must be made via the application form.
- The Committee reserves the right to support lectures proposed by more than one department in each academic year, nevertheless, the total support for the Jim Matthew Lecture(s) will not exceed £1,000 in any one academic year.
- The grant may be applied to any legitimate expenses incurred for the lecture(s), including fees for the speaker(s).
- Lectures must be open to the public.
- The lecture should be suitable for a general audience.
- Lectures must take place in an adequately sized venue.
- Lectures must take place at a time which allows maximum audience figures.
- Publicity for any lecture supported by the Fund must be headed ‘Jim Matthew Lecture’.
- Lectures must be widely advertised across the University (including the King’s Manor), in York Explore Library, and in the Open Lectures leaflet.
- The Committee will ask for invoices/accounts in support of expenditure.
- Events taking place during York Festival of Ideas are eligible to apply.
- The Committee’s decision is final.
How to apply
Applications are considered once a year by the Public Lectures Committee; applications are currently invited for events taking place from September 2025 to June 2026. The deadline is Friday 23 May 2025.
Previous Jim Matthew Lectures
- 2006 Paul Muldoon, Irish émigré poet, poetry reading
- 2006 Jonathon Porritt, Programme Director of Forum for the Future and Chairman of the UK Sustainable Development Commission, Coming clean: A sustainable future for the chemical industry
- 2007 Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Making things, practising emptiness
- 2007 Professor Sir John Meurig Thomas FRS, The genius of Michael Faraday
- 2009 Professor Colin Blakemore, Neuroscientist, Vision Impossible!
- 2010 Sigrid Rausing, Human Rights champion, American Torture: CIA theories of interrogation
- 2013 Dr Jordi José, When worlds collide: Physics in the movies
- 2014 Nick Hardwick, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, No one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails
- 2016 Professor Wendy Graham, University of Aberdeen, Health, history, hygiene and hands
- 2018 Professor Carolyn Bertozzi, Stanford University, USA, The long game of STEM diversification
- 2019 Professor Jim Al-Khalili, University of Surrey, Spreading the word: Why science communication is so vital
Promotion
There are various ways of promoting your open lecture to both the internal University community and the general public.
Central support
The Events team use a range of different channels to regularly promote open lectures taking place at the University. If we are informed about your event at least 10 days in advance, we'll also automatically promote your lecture in the following ways:
- University Events web pages: the Events team maintains a web page of open lectures on the University's website. Add details of your lecture to the central events feed, or if your event details are already online (ie department web pages or a ticketing page) then just send the link to open-lectures
@york.ac.uk . - Weekly newsletter: Every Friday we send out an email to our mailing list (with over 11,000 subscribers) listing the following week's lectures. If we have included your event on our web pages then it will automatically be included in the weekly newsletter.
- Social media: The Events team has two social media channels (X and Facebook) for open lectures. If your lecture is on our web pages then we will automatically promote your event on these for a minimum of 7 days prior to your event taking place.
- Digital screens: We will create a digital advert for your open lecture which will be promoted on the digital screens across campus.
- Staff Digest: If your event is on our web pages it will be included in the Staff Digest the week before it takes place.
- Student App: All events on our pages are included on the Student App (MyUoY) and on the student events page.
- Online events listings: We list high-profile open lectures on various local events listings online.
What you can do
- Departmental newsletter: If your Department has a departmental newsletter, contact its editor to advertise your lecture.
- Posters: Posters advertising your lecture can be posted on noticeboards in colleges and departments and the JB Morrell library. To attract an external audience, send a copy of your poster to the York Explore Library on Museum Street for display.
- Social Media: If your Department has any social media accounts, promote your open lectures to your followers.
- Direct mailings: If there is a specific target audience for your lecture, consider mailing flyers or emailing to a selected group of people eg societies, funding bodies, business organisations etc.
Public Lectures Committee
The Public Lectures Committee oversees the organisation of some open lecture series and distributes funding from the Public Lectures Fund to support departments, colleges and student societies in the organisation of their own open lectures. It is run by the Events team, and does not report to other University committees.
Committee membership
- Iain Barr, Centre for Lifelong Learning
- Karen Bloor, Health Sciences
- Sarah Burton, Research, Innovation and Knowledge Exchange
- Matthew Campbell, English and Related Literature
- Annie Hodgson, Chemistry
- Steven Johnson, School of Physics, Engineering and Technology
- Katherine Leech, School of Physics, Engineering and Technology
- Matt Matravers, York Law School (Chair)
- Sarah Mitchell, Events Office (Secretary)
- Andy Needham, Archaeology
- Ruth Penfold-Mounce, Sociology