Our Story, Your Story: Take part in the Brunel University Oral History Project
To mark the 60th anniversary of Brunel University receiving its University Charter, the Archives and Special Collections team have embarked on an oral history project. We are inviting alumni to share their memories of university life and beyond through oral history interviews conducted by the project team and our student volunteers.
Our goal is to tell the story of Brunel through the unique, honest accounts of the people who shaped the university over the decades.
We will preserve these voices in the archive as part of our institutional memory to celebrate the contributions made to Brunel by generations of past students and to educate our current students and the general public about Brunel’s heritage.
Who is eligible to take part?
We welcome all former students of Brunel University as well as alumni from its predecessor and affiliated institutions (including Acton Technical College, Brunel College of Technology, Borough Road College, West London Institute of Higher Education, and Shoreditch Training College) to take part in this project.
Alumni of all ages and from all parts of the world are welcome to take part!
Can former and long-running staff also take part?
Absolutely. Former and current staff at Brunel are invited to contact the Archives and Special Collections team directly via Arc-SC@brunel.ac.uk.
How will the interviews we carried out?
Interviews will be held either in-person on Brunel’s Uxbridge campus or remotely via Microsoft Teams. Interviews will be recorded either on video or audio only depending on the comfort-level of participant.
While we have student volunteers assisting with the project, all interviews will be supervised by a member of Brunel staff from the project team.
What will happen to the oral history recordings?
After the interview, participants are asked to complete a Recording Agreement form where they stipulate what they want to happen to their oral history interviews.
The ultimate aim is for all recordings to be permanently archived and made available online for public access. However, participants may request that their interviews are partially or completely closed from public access for an agreed period of time.
To learn more about the project and how we will manage participants’ personal data and interviews, please read our Participant Information Sheet.
You can also download copies of our Participation Agreement Form and Recording Agreement Form here.
How to take part
If you are an alumnus interested in being interviewed for this project, please complete this form with your name and contact details. The project team will get back to you within ten working days.
You can also contact the project team directly at Arc-SC@brunel.ac.uk.
This project has been approved by Brunel’s College of Arts, Law and Social Sciences Research Ethics Committee.
Withdrawing from the project
If you ultimately decide not to participate in the project, your personal details will be deleted from our project records. You will still reserve the right to take part in for the project again at a later date.
Any personal information you share with us will be managed in compliance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK-GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018, and in line with Brunel University’s Privacy and Copyright Statement.