IAS Annual Review 2025-26

As we started drafting this report, we realised what a busy and wonderful year we’ve had! International House continues to be Loughborough University’s hub for International Fellows, but we have also been organising more events on our London campus. Our Advisory Board has welcomed new members – including two colleagues from Loughborough London; we have been working very closely with the Policy Unit and Loughborough’s UNESCO Chairs; we introduced our Cabinet of Curiosities; and we hosted a Simon Marshall Lecture that explored athlete advocacy and climate action, thanks to a generous philanthropic support from the Biddle family.

Our activities have begun to extend beyond the University: We launched a joint Fellowship with Leicester University, and have organised events for international visiting academics and externally funded Fellows hosted at Loughborough. The IAS has also been actively involved in the development of the strategic direction of the UK’s  Consortium of Institutes of Advanced Studies (led by UCL’s School of Advanced Studies).

July 27 marks our IAS 10th Anniversary and we hope that you will join us throughout the 2026-2027 academic year, as we celebrate over 500 Fellows who have visited since, collaborating across all Schools and generating significant impact and legacy from their time here.

International Fellows

The Institute brought 58 international scholars to Loughborough’s campuses as IAS Visiting and Residential Fellows during academic year 2025-2026, through our programmes:

  • 12 Fellows through 2 Research Spotlights
  • 16 Fellows through the IAS Open Programme
  • 14 Fellows through the IAS Residential Fellowship Programme
  • 3 UNESCO Chairs’ International Fellows
  • 6 Externally funded international Fellows
  • 1 Fulbright Scholar
  • 3 CARA Fellows
  • 3 Guest Speakers

IAS Visiting Fellows hailed from 22 countries:

  • Europe: Denmark (1), Italy (3), Netherlands (1), Norway (1), Spain (3), Ukraine (1), United Kingdom (2)
  • The Americas: Brazil (2), Canada (4), United States (10)
  • Africa: Egypt (1), Nigeria (1), South Africa (1)
  • Asia: China (3), India (2), Japan (3), Nepal (1), Pakistan (1), Singapore (2), Thailand (1)
  • The Pacific: Australia (5), New Zealand (1)

Research Programmes and Events

The IAS convened 90 Research Programmes and Events during 2025-26, including:

  • 42 Research Seminars presented by IAS Visiting and Residential Fellows;
  • 2 Research Spotlights – Women in Sport & Climate Change, Body Image, Eating Behaviours and Wellbeing

All the presentations are available in the IAS Video Library; we have launched the Loughborough Institute of Advanced Studies Podcast – an audio recording of the Fellows’ talks, available on all podcast platforms. We have also introduced a Blog where our Fellows share insights into their research and experiences as a Fellow at Loughborough.

As always, we host open house Friends and Fellows Coffee Mornings to enable international Fellows to enjoy informal and collegial conversations with colleagues from across the University – and we welcome you all to join us at the International House!

All our activities have been supported by our amazing Doctoral Leaders Will Norris and Yajie Hu (who supported us from 2024 to 2026), Jenny Amann (who joined us in 2025) and Patrick Scaife and Oyedoin Oyerinde (who joined us in 2026) – and we would like to thank them for their support!

Prof Ksenia Chmutina, August 2026