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U21 AGM & Symposium
Vice-Chancellors, Presidents and senior staff and faculty from around
the network have recently returned from Korea University, where U21’s
Annual Network Meeting, AGM and Symposium took place at the end of May.
The meetings were highly successful and led to a number of key
decisions being made, which will shape the future of the network (see
below!). Twenty U21 universities were represented and with over 50
delegates present, it enabled some in-depth discussions to be held and
important relationships to be formed and nurtured. The fourth U21
Symposium took place on Thursday 21 May and focused on the role
universities play in shaping and influencing public policy and the key
note speeches and ensuring discussions were highly stimulating and
thought-provoking.
The hospitality shown by Korea University was outstanding and
colleagues around the network now look forward to building on the
relationships built at this intensive three-day series of meetings.
An in-depth report will appear in the forthcoming U21 Newsletter.
Joint PhD Memorandum of Understanding
At the U21 Annual Network Meeting in Korea last month, Vice-Chancellors
and Presidents from fourteen U21 signed a Memorandum of Understanding to
establish a joint PhD programme which enables doctoral students to
embark on joint degrees and considerably enhances their research and
employment opportunities on an international scale.
Unlike a number of other joint programmes, this MoU gives an
over-arching framework for universities to create tailor-made programmes
of study for each student, taking individual research needs into account
and enabling collaboration with another of the network’s universities.
Speaking on the launch of the programme, Professor John Casteen,
President of the University of Virginia and Chair of the Universitas 21
network, said “The signing of this MoU today marks a key development in
the way in which U21 universities are approaching study and research.
Not only does this distinguish us from the other programmes already in
existence, by being focused clearly on the needs of the individual
students, but it sets a new benchmark for international collaboration at
PhD level and a trend which I believe is one which should be followed by
other major networks and consortia.”
The programme grew out of discussions among Deans and Directors of
Graduate Studies (DDoGS) within the Universitas 21 network, and was led
by Professor Mary Bownes at the University of Edinburgh.
Further information about the DDoGS group, including joint PhDs can
be found at
http://www.universitas21.com/DDOGS.html
U21 Sustainability Declaration & Summer Institute on Sustainability
U21 Presidents and Vice-Chancellors also signed a second important
document at the Annual Network Meeting – the U21 Declaration on
Sustainability. This emphasises the important role that universities
can and do play in addressing the decline of biodiversity, of energy,
food and water security, of climate change, of economic sustainability
and of human health.
Through the Statement, which is one strand of the network’s
activities in support of its Year of Sustainability, the Universitas 21
member universities commit themselves to ensuring a sustainable future:
- through research, teaching, community partnerships and
demonstrable actions to advance timely solutions to ecological,
societal and economic problems,
- through engagement with civil society, industry and government,
to accelerate these solutions beyond the campus,
- and by working together collaboratively and cooperatively, to
achieve more than is possible by working alone.
Each university will:
- develop, publish and monitor targets;
- share the results with each other; engage in research towards a
sustainable future;
- establish the university campus as a living laboratory for a
sustainable future;
- emphasise citizenship & engagement to promote faculty, staff,
and student volunteerism,
- and build capacity through cross-network collaboration and work.
The network as a whole recognises the importance of this commitment
and sees it as a necessary step in addressing the increasingly relevant
issue of sustainability and ways in which universities can progress it
both internally and externally.
Linked to this, The University of British Columbia is hosting a
Summer Institute on Sustainability from 20 to 24 July. The Summer
Institute is an intensive professional development programme targeted at
administrators in corporations, local and provincial governments, and
universities and colleges who are working to integrate sustainability as
a core value in their organization and offers a excellent opportunity to
partake in an intensive and intimate educational experience that will
leave participants better prepared to take sustainability to a whole new
level in their organisations.
Members of U21 institutions receive a 10% discount on registration
fees!
Details can be found at
http://www.universitas21.com/events.html
Graduate Research Conference details online
Plans for the second U21 Graduate Research Conference are well under
way. This year’s topic is “Sustainable Cities for the Future”
which will cover many disciplines, looking at the Built Environment;
Energy; Water; Health; Society and Governance and the Environment. In
addition to a small number of keynote lectures by experts across these
fields, all graduate participants will present a short talk and a
poster. There will be a variety of additional activities and visits to
increase students’ understanding of the issues, to stimulate creativity
and develop general skills. The two venues (Melbourne and Brisbane)
will provide excellent examples of some of the key issues for cities of
the future.
Details of the 2009 GRC and the papers from the 2008 GRC can all be
found at
http://www.universitas21.com/GradResearch.htm
FINE growing strongly
The third FINE (Forum for International Networking in Education) event
took place in late April and has reported a growth in strength and
purpose over the past year. There is now a management team which is
co-ordinating the work of the group, enabling students across the
network to work together to exchange ideas, experiences and research
opportunities. Originally an initiative of the Deans of Education
group, FINE is run by graduate students for graduate students and
provides some excellent networking opportunities for researchers
starting out in their careers.
The first FINE newsletter was published in May and the group’s
webpage has recently been updated with more information about their
activities.
http://www.universitas21.com/Education/FINE.html
U21 Teaching & Learning Conference
Registrations will soon be opening for the second U21 Teaching &
Learning Conference, taking place at the University of Nottingham
Ningbo, China from 12 to 13 November 2009. The conference,
entitled Teaching & Learning for Employability in a Global Economy,
builds on the conference held at the University of Glasgow in February
2008 and will focus on
- bringing together the institutional leaders from across the U21
network;
- discussing issues of common interest in teaching and learning;
- highlighting opportunities for collaboration in teaching and
learning;
- encouraging the development of peer networks providing
engagement opportunities relating to teaching and learning and
careers.
The conference will be a mix of keynote lectures, conference papers
and workshops.
The conference fee will be US$160, to include accommodation, and
details will soon be available on the U21 website. Watch
this space!
Innovation in Mind – Lund University seminar
Lund University, Region Skåne and partners will be hosting an
international conference entitled Innovation in Mind from 15 to 17
September and U21 members are warmly invited to attend. By taking
new approaches to innovation, the conference aims to illustrate
important innovation issues from a global perspective; to create
interchanges among different areas of knowledge, and to contribute to a
better innovation climate.
Key areas which are to be discussed include
- User Driven Innovation: How can users’ experiences be
effectively implemented in new products and services?
- Open Innovation: Is the R&D department an antiquated concept?
How do companies gain access to the right competence at the right
point in the innovation process?
- Social and Financial Innovation: How can we secure the financial
resources necessary for innovation, and how can we bring about
necessary innovations when we lack the financial resources?
Further details can be found at
http://www.innovationinmind.se
Any more news?
Issue 15 of the Universitas 21 newsletter will be published later this
month. If you have any news, stories, fellowship/scholarship
travel reports or photos from events around the network which may be of
interest to other U21 colleagues, please send them to Clare Noakes at
the U21 Secretariat (c.e.noakes@bham.ac.uk).
The deadline for any submissions is Wednesday 10 June. Previous
editions of the newsletter can be found at
http://www.universitas21.com/newsletters.html
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