The HEAD Foundation presented its second public talk in its series on “Education and Societal Progress” on February 25. The Foundation’s Secretary-General, Professor Gordon Redding, delivered the lecture that explored “The Place of Higher Education in the Building of Social Capital”.

In his lecture, Professor Redding explained that social capital – or trust – is crucial to a society’s ability to generate wealth and to succeed over time. He explored case studies of societies that have failed, and how low levels of trust, cooperativeness and creativity contributed to the failures.

He then discussed the characteristics of high quality education, and how education contributes to the development of trust in society.