President of Ireland opens U21 Symposium

12 May 2008

Vice-Chancellors, senior university staff and leading academics from Universitas 21 gathered in University College Dublin, Ireland, on Thursday 8 May 2008 to investigate ways in which its 22 member universities could work together to contribute towards the achievement of the UN Millennium Development Goals.

The President of Ireland, Mary McAleese addressed the Symposium entitled Strategic Partnerships with the Developing World: A New Direction for Universitas 21 in Research and Education before meeting with Vice-Chancellors and leading academics from the Universitas 21 network.  A transcript of her speech can be found on her website.

Professor Charles van der Horst, Professor of Medicine and Infections Disease at the University of North Carolina and Dr Glenn Denning, Director of the MDG (Millennium Development Goals) Centre in Nairobi, Kenya, led the opening session entitled Major Development Issues: Can universities and their networks make a difference?

Dr Michael Edwards, Director, Governance and Civil Society Program, Ford Foundation and Professor Jimmy Whitworth, Head of International Activities, Wellcome Trust, then led the following session entitled Collaboration with Developing Countries in Research and Education: The world through the eyes of the major international funding bodies.

The closing session focused on educating the next generation and encouraging a new level of “global citizenship” among future graduates. Professor Partha Sen, University of Delhi led this session entitled The New Global Citizen: Producing graduates for the next stage of global development with some thought-provoking statements.

A full report of the symposium will appear on this site shortly.