'Doing Catholic Mission' in the contemporary HE sector: a time to dig deep to promote 'Education in the Round?'

This chapter will show how John Sullivan’s scholarly work can help to inform current attempts to maintain the unique mission of the Catholic university. It will provide an overview of both the challenges and the opportunities presented by trying to ‘brand’ universities as Catholic in the current HE climate. Drawing on a range of Sullivan’s publications, the chapter will show how honesty, sensitivity regarding the absence of theological formation in Catholic HEIs at present as well as the need to allow colleagues the safety to be heard and valued provide good starting points from which to begin making the mission and values inherent in Catholic education credible in a challenging and complex HE environment. The chapter will conclude by making some links between Sullivan’s scholarly work on Catholic HEIs and the lived-experience of leading the development of the first Catholic mission strategy for the UK at Leeds Trinity University.