Tycho Brahe, Great Britain, internationalism

Last week we marked the end of this year's Access programme in the normal way, with a "presentation evening". We invite everybody who's completed Access to come along, with pals, parents, partners, children if they wish. There is a little ceremony in which they are each presented with a certificate testifying to their completion of Access and the grades they achieved - one of this year's students has shared a photo of his certificate on Instagram. At the end I made just a few concluding comments, leading to the most important points: "well done, and good luck for whatever comes next!"

To fill out the concluding comments I drew on some tales of Tycho Brahe, the 16th century Danish astronomer. These tales are not in short supply. Tycho must be the prototype of the gothic horror movie philosopher wizard in his castle, surrounded by an array of lurid courtiers. The real castle was called Uraniborg, designed according to thoroughly thought-out philosophical principles and constructed on the island of Hven, in the Øresund between Denmark and Sweden. It no longer exists but woodcuts and prints from the time show a most amazing building. He maintained a substantial household there, assistants and visiting students, as well as cooks, servants, estate workers, a lutenist and indeed a dwarf jester called Jeppe. Some more of the more lurid Tycho tales are recounted here.

The Brahes were one of the ruling families of Denmark and Tycho was born to power and influence. Most Brahes became soldiers or statesmen; the Church would have been a more normal route for an intellectually inclined child. Clearly Tycho was a strong character who forged his own path, but his high birth meant that no path was closed off to him. Now many, many more people are able to work at studying, understanding and advancing knowledge.

In 1590 the histories of Scotland and of Astronomy collided briefly when King James VI sailed across the North Sea to collect his new bride, Anne of Denmark. During his stay in Denmark he visited Uraniborg, "the spot to which the eyes of all the learned men of Europe were directed", and took great delight in the intellectual discussion he enjoyed there. Tycho corresponded regularly with other learned men across the continent, exchanging and developing ideas, and his name was widely known (and yes, they were "men" - sorry, that's the way it was). Scots visitors to Uraniborg were not so terribly unusual and Tycho knew people in Scotland. Before he left Denmark King James granted Tycho a 30 year copyright on his works in Scotland, and presented him with two large guard dogs.

I wanted to use this story to illustrate the international character of academic research, and in particular to emphasise that this has been the case for hundreds of years. I wanted also to make a further point about the value of meeting people from other countries and cultures, as one will in higher education, and the importance of making them welcome, irrespective of one's voting preference in the EU referendum. I was happy that everybody in the room, as far as I could see, wanted to applaud at this point.

King James VI, of course, also became James I of England shortly, although it took a further century for the Parliaments to follow where simple heredity had first led. With the integrity of the United Kingdom once again up for discussion, this incident from four centuries ago seems to resonate in several respects with the worrying modern world.