The Isle of Man’s college is trying to stimulate academic debate with a series of podcasts.

The 2022 schedule of UCMTalks, University College Isle of Man’s podcast series, addressed the success of the Isle of Man’s branding and marketing initiatives.

The podcasts are a programme of educational and engaging talks by what the college says are ’well-respected’ academics. It says it was created to establish ’a platform for meaningful discussions on a wide variety of current topics and encourage the sharing of new ideas and thinking’.

The talks are held virtually, on Zoom, and each last about 30 to 40 minutes with time for questions at the end.

Gail Corrin, UCM’s higher education development manager and organiser of #UCMtalksm, said: ’We are extremely pleased to have such a variety of diverse and interesting speakers for our 2022 series.

’Each speaker brings their own unique views and academic experiences surrounding their chosen topic, which really does offer an interesting and in-depth view point. Keep an eye on our social media channels as we’ll be announcing more soon.’

Christopher Weeks, Manx National Heritage collections care and conservation manager, is UCM’s next speaker on February 16, who will be looking at ’Computer-Aided Design and Historic Structures: Reconstructing the Schooner Peggy’.

Also coming up on May 18, Dr Mari Hughes-Edwards, English literature academic at Edgehill University, will be discussing Poetry, Possession and being possessed by the Isle of Man.

To sign up for upcoming talks, visit UCM’s Eventbrite page.