This document discusses the need to go beyond just implementing the Charter and instead transform universities and society as a whole to be truly health-promoting. It argues we must ask profound questions about purpose, profit, and our passions to guide this transformation. Universities should enable full human development, not just health. Transformation requires addressing multiple "P's", playing different roles, and maintaining passion like the hummingbird story depicts. The journey will be long but incremental progress can be made through questions and small actions each day.

1. Beyond the Charter:
The beginning of
the middle
Dr Trevor Hancock
Professor and Senior Scholar
School of Public Health and Social Policy
University of Victoria

2. The end of the
beginning?
“Now this is not the end. It is
not even the beginning of the
end. But it is, perhaps, the
end of the beginning.”
Winston Churchill
10 November 1942

3. We have a new Charter
 But so what?
 What are we to do with it?
 What next?
 What lies beyond the Charter?

4. The beginning of the
middle
 We are now starting the ‘middle’ –
putting the charter into policy and
practice
 We are a long way from the ‘end’
healthy universities and colleges . .
. and healthy people in healthy
communities and societies in a
healthy world

5. The middle
 This is not about health
promotion IN universities and
colleges
 This is about making
universities and colleges fully
health-promoting institutions
 But we know they are a long
way from that!

6. Unhealthy universities and
colleges
We have heard many examples of ways
in which universities and colleges are
unhealthy
◦ Unhealthy buildings
◦ Environmentally unsustainable
◦ Socially isolating, unsupportive, stressful
◦ Inequitable
◦ Unhealthy organisational culture –
hypercompetitive, lacking compassion etc
 “we are not promoted for being healthy” –
Lancelot Mui
 This is not acceptable, it has to
change

7. This requires
institutional
transformationThis is no small task
 We either have to transform the
system or replace it with another
 BUT its bigger than that!
 Universities and colleges are part
of a larger academic system . . .
 . . . that is part of a much larger
social, cultural and economic
system
 We have to transform it all!

8. More ‘P’s
 We have heard many wonderful
examples of policy and practice
 More ‘P’s for Mark to add to his list!
 The Charter also has its 3 ‘P’s
◦ “the well‐being of people, places and
the planet are interdependent”
 But I have even more ‘P’s to add,
starting with . . .

9. Profound questions
 Purpose
◦ What business are we in?
 Profit
◦ What should we gain from universities,
from education and from research?
 Passion
◦ What do we really care about? What
are we prepared to pour energy into?
What is worth fighting for?

10. Purpose
 “Our purpose is to be the best
human being possible” – Evan
Adams
 So the purpose of the university
(and the wider society) should be to
enable people to be the best human
being possible
 Its all about human development
◦ Humane
◦ Equitable
◦ Sustainable

11. Human development –
it’s more than health
How would we define full human
development?
 Happy
 Healthy
 Using their intelligence
 Innovative, creative and productive
 Caring, supportive, compassionate
 Tolerant, respectful, peaceful
 Loving
and more . . .

12.  “We should be preparing students
for the work of the world, not the
world of work” – Jonathan Porritt,
2012

13. Profit
For what shall it profit a
university, if it shall gain the
whole world, and lose its own
soul?
(with apologies to Mark 8:36)

14. What is our bottom line?
 The economy?
◦ Is GDP our measure of success?
◦ Is that our purpose in life?
 Or is it people?
“the human person is the central
subject of development”
Declaration on the
Right to Development
UN General Assembly, 1986

15. Community capital
Social
Capital
Financial
Capital
Built
Capital
Human
Capital
Natural
Capital

16. 21st century capitalism
 REAL capitalists increase all five
forms of capital simultaneously
 Universities need to become REAL
capitalists
 This means they need to
◦ Divest from the old economy
 Start with fossil fuel divestment
◦ Invest in the new sustainable,
equitable human development-centred
economy
◦ Take funds only from the new economy

17. Charter – Shared Vision
“Health promoting universities and
colleges
 strengthen the ecological, social and
economic sustainability of our
communities and wider society.”
If we believe this, we have to transform
not just universities and colleges, but
society as a whole
 Universities and colleges have a
duty to transform the world

18. Passion and transformation
"Never doubt that a small group of
thoughtful, committed citizens can
change the world; indeed, it's the
only thing that ever has.” – Margaret
Mead
 Transformation takes more than
head work, it has to be heart work
and gut work
 We have to be passionate about
this

19. How do we get there?
 Address Mark Dooris’ 8 ‘P’s
 Multiple transformational roles
 The Hummingbird story
 It’s a sailing trip!

20. Reject
1. Project-ism
2. Politeness
3. Playing it safe
4. Power relations
5. Playing the
game
6. Positioning
7. Pathologisation
8. Parochialism
Enact
1. Change
organizational culture
2. Be honest, even blunt
3. Challenge the status
quo
4. Challenge power
5. Disrupt the game!
6. Situate the university
in its community and
the world
7. Keep it
salutogenic/restorativ
e
8. See the big picture

21. Transformational roles –
James Robertson, The Sane
Alternative, 1978
 Demolition role: Speed the breakdown
of the old system, by helping to make
it inoperable and destroying its
credibility
 Opposition role: Oppose proposals
for change which would lead society
in a hyper-expansionist or
authoritarian direction
 Reforming role: Trying to improve the
old system, by . . . making it better
and stronger . . . to avert the
breakdown of the old

22.  Construction role: Creating and
developing the growth points for a
new society
 Liberating role: Liberate themselves
and others from their present
dependence on the existing system of
society
 Decolonising role: Working to ensure
that the old system breaks down as
painlessly as possible . . . managing
its collapse
 Enabling role: Helping other people to
take more control over their own lives

23.  Lifestyle role: changing their personal
way of life, and helping other people to
change theirs
 Metaphysical reconstruction role: The
paradigm shifters, the ideological
revolutionaries . . . exploring and
communicating new concepts of power,
wealth, work, growth, learning, healing
etc.
 Strategic role: Recognise that all these
different sorts of people will contribute
positively to the transformation of society
. . . make sure the transformation . . . is a
widely understood, widely shared process
of conscious evolutionary change

24. Those whose contribution to the
transformation will be negative or
neutral
 Reactionary role: Refuse to
countenance the breakdown of the
old system . . . will try to suppress the
activities of the people listed above
 Pessimistic and cynical role: Having
themselves failed in their own
attempts to change society in one
way or another are confident that no
one else will succeed

25.  Academic role: Humble (or
superior) observers of what is
happening; they enjoy talking about
it, writing about it and scoring
points off one another about it, but
they don't want to take part
 Routine practitioners' role: People
who just want to get on with their
own lives in whatever
circumstances happen to exist

26. The hummingbird story
Wangari Maathai
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGMW6YWjMxw

27.  Hold on to a big vision and take
incremental steps
Mark Dooris
 It’s a bit like sailing . . .