Welcome to the November ebulletin with the latest news and items of interest to staff and students across the Universitas 21 network!
Headlines
(scroll down to read the full story)
Undergraduate students shine at URC
Water Futures Project secures funding
Joint PhD initiative – taking the next steps
Farewell to Global Issues Project co-ordinator
Student Mobility beyond the Shanghai Declaration
Tecnológico de Monterrey named UQ’s Exchange Partner of the Year
University of Birmingham promoting U21
Three U21 events this month
U21 newsletter now on-line
Undergraduate students shine at URC
The fifth U21 Undergraduate Research Conference (URC) took place at the University of Glasgow from 15 to 20 October. Forty-five undergraduate students from around the network came together for the week, sharing and presenting their research on topics ranging from music to physics. The programme followed a slightly different format to previous URCs with the delegates meeting on the Friday for a plenary session, then having the weekend to build friendships whilst participating in educational trips and social events, so that by the Monday they felt comfortable with each other and presenting to a room full of previously unknown peers was not quite as daunting as it could have been. After the two days of what have been described as “highly professional, fascinating presentations”, the students voted for the best presentation and best poster and, more importantly, had built some strong friendships and associations. A full report will appear on the U21 website in the coming weeks.
http://www.universitas21.com/URC.html
Water Futures project secures external funding
Dr Naresh Singal from the University of Auckland has recently secured NZ$150k for a regional EDC project as part of the Water Futures for Sustainable Cities project. This particular project aims to establish a multidisciplinary team that will study the effects of EDCs/PPCPs on the environment. This study will monitor EDC/PPCP sources, determine chemical degradation in both the environment and treatment systems, and develop methods for analyzing EDC/PPCP concentration and toxicity. Lab studies will be conducted to assess the significance of different transport and fate processes and to develop effective performing treatment systems for degrading these compounds. The project will establish a new cross-department/cross-faculty collaboration with expertise in fate and transport processes (NS), microbiology and toxicity assessment (SS), reaction kinetics (EEP) and wastewater treatment (TE). The outcomes will enable linkages with other institutions and securing of external funding from national and international sources. This initiative will allow all team members to develop a new aspect to their expertise and career enhancement.
More information about the whole Water Futures for Sustainable Cities project can be found at http://www.universitas21.com/water.html
Joint PhD initiative – taking the next steps
Following the signing of the Joint PhD Memorandum of Understanding by U21 Presidents at the AGM in Korea earlier this year, U21 universities are now starting to roll out the scheme to their postgraduate students and encouraging applications for joint study at two U21 institutions. The University of Edinburgh now has details online about how to apply for these (http://www.ed.ac.uk/about/edinburgh-global/partnerships/global-networks) as does the University of Glasgow (http://www.gla.ac.uk/services/postgraduateresearch/collaboratingwithotherinstitutions/) We are now keen to receive information from the other U21 universities signed up to this project, so that the initiative can really get off the ground in the coming months.
Details about the signing of the MoU can be found http://www.universitas21.com/DDOGS/DDOGSjointPhD.html and further details will appear online as they become available from member universities.
Farewell to Global Issues Project co-ordinator
We are sorry to say goodbye to Jessie Mitchell, U21’s co-ordinator for the Global Issues Programme (GIP) who will be leaving the University of Melbourne and U21 in November. Jessie has been involved in overseeing the GIP for the last two years, taking it from strength to strength and giving it a cohesive operational framework and setting up an online presence to support students taking part in the programme. The programme currently has six partners offering a wide range of courses and further U21 members are set to join in the coming year. We wish Jessie well in her future role, working for the Victorian Government's Department of Education and Early Childhood Development and thank her for all her hard work on the GIP to date.
http://www.universitas21.com/globalissues.html
Student Mobility beyond the Shanghai Declaration
In 2005, U21 Presidents signed the Shanghai Declaration on Student Mobility and, nearly five years on, time has come to revisit and refresh those commitments, looking beyond this to extend the potential that five years of dedicated work on student mobility has shown. Following initial discussion by student mobility officers around the network, Louise Kinnaird, U21’s Student Mobility Co-ordinator recently led a session at the U21 Managers’ Meeting in Glasgow looking at ways in which student mobility within Universitas 21 can be promoted, enhanced and strengthened through a new declaration, due to be signed by Presidents at the 2010 AGM in Delhi. Over the coming months, all U21 Presidents will be consulted on the new document, which will be giving renewed focus to our student mobility activities, positioning mobility at all levels as a key component of all U21’s activities around the network.
http://www.universitas21.com/SMN.html
Tecnológico de Monterrey named UQ’s Exchange Partner of the Year
In 2009 the University of Queensland presented the inaugural Vice Chancellor's Awards for Internationalisation. These awards recognise outstanding initiatives in student and staff mobility and the internationalisation of teaching and learning at UQ. One category within these awards is Exchange Partner of the Year. While the University of Queensland values its relationships will all its exchange partners, this award recognises a special commitment to students of the University of Queensland undertaking an exchange. This year, Tecnológico de Monterrey has been named the Exchange Partner of the Year, 2009. This recognises Tecnológico de Monterrey's extraordinary commitment to the welfare and support of University of Queensland students on exchange in Mexico during the H1N1 influenza outbreak, including assistance with flexible assessment and personalised student support services.
Tecnológico de Monterrey's programmes are very popular with the University of Queensland's students and students speak very highly of their experiences on exchange at Tecnológico de Monterrey's campuses throughout Mexico. The Exchange Partner of the Year award includes two scholarships of AU$2,500 each. The first scholarship will be presented to a University of Queensland student undertaking an exchange at Tecnológico de Monterrey during 2010. The second will be presented to a Tecnológico de Monterrey student undertaking an exchange at the University of Queensland in 2010.
University of Birmingham promoting U21
The University of Birmingham has recently been having a drive to promote U21 in the university, raising awareness of the network and highlighting the opportunities for staff, faculty and students that being a member of U21 provides. Director of International Relations at Birmingham, Edward Harcourt, and his team have produced a booklet about Birmingham’s activity in the network to date and have been holding lunchtime road shows at each of the university’s five colleges to promote active participation in network activities and proving that engagement with colleagues around the world through Universitas 21 has significant benefits and long-term advantages.
We would be delighted to hear of other initiatives taking place around the network to promote U21 and encourage people to get involved!
Three U21 events this month
November is another busy month around the network. As we go to press, the University of Edinburgh, in collaboration with colleagues at University College Dublin will be hosting the first U21 Food Sustainability Workshop. Over 60 participants from U21 universities, partner universities in the Global South and international funding bodies will be meeting to discuss issues of food sustainability and what can be done to improve this, with all three sides having the opportunity to give and receive information and feedback on how they can help each other with a view to establishing some long-term collaborations. We have also just heard about the establishment of a UNESCO Chair in International Development, recognising the contribution made by the Edinburgh International Development Centre (www.eidc.ed.ac.uk). Professor Paul van Gardingen, who is a leading figure in the U21 workshop, will be the first holder of the UNESCO Chair in Edinburgh. The Chair aims to contribute to economic and social development through the application of research, skills and knowledge in partnership with developing countries.
The following week, delegates will be gathering at the University of Nottingham’s Ningbo campus in China for the U21 Teaching & Learning Conference. This year’s conference focuses on Employability and 40 participants from 12 U21 universities will be discussing this important topic and ways to ensure U21 students have the best possible experiences and opportunities to make them stand out from the crowd after graduating.
Finally, at the end of the month, the second U21 Graduate Research Conference begins in Melbourne, moving to the University of Queensland half way through the week. Graduate researchers will be addressing the topic of Sustainable Cities and will be given the chance to see first-hand how two very different cities are dealing with sustainability issues, as well as hearing each other’s research on the topic.
Reports from all these events will be on the U21 website in the coming months.
Latest edition of The Newsletter now online
Issue 16 of the Universitas 21 newsletter was published in mid-October and is now available for download from the U21 website. This edition features the usual round-up of news from around the network, as well as articles by Professor Tim O’Shea, Vice Chancellor of the University of Edinburgh on Open Access, Sarah Jeffries of the University of Birmingham on Birmingham’s Personal Skills Award and a Back Page Interview with Jane Usherwood, Universitas 21’s Secretary General.
