The 1,000th meeting of the Keele World Affairs series took place earlier this month, after almost 40 years of continuous debate and discussion with over 500 renowned speakers.

Keele World Affairs is an educational charity focused on international politics that was founded by Owen Powell with the support of Keele University in 1980 and has been running ever since.

Regarded as Europe's largest continuing educational initiative in international politics, over the last four decades a wide array of speakers including politicians, diplomats, leading academics, and national journalists have visited the Keele University campus to deliver a lecture and engage in discussion with audience members.

The 1,000th meeting saw former Foreign Secretary Lord William Hague and Lord Peter Hennessy, Attlee Professor of Contemporary British History at Queen Mary University, discuss Britain’s international future.

Commenting on the milestone, Vice-Chancellor Professor Trevor McMillan said:

“To have reached such an impressive point in the series is testament to the innovative and pioneering model that was created back in 1980, which allowed members to engage with prominent and prestigious global speakers not only once or twice each year, but on consecutive weeks over many months -  all here on the Keele University campus.

“Keele is proud to be different, both as a university and as a community, fostering knowledge and encouraging interdisciplinarity in everything that we do. The Keele World Affairs programme is a prime example of this difference, and is true to our founding ethos of the pursuit of truth in the company of friends”

Bill Boynton, Chairman of Keele World Affairs said:

“Keele World Affairs is the finest expression of the fact that there remains a strong desire amongst British citizens to find out what is going on in the world, to question what they hear in the media, and to form their own opinions.

“We’re proud to have connected thousands of members over the years with some of the world’s most enlightened experts, allowing for genuine debate and discussion about society's most pressing international topics.”

Video recordings of many of the previous lectures can be viewed on the Keele World Affairs website.