Welcome to the September 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)
| Nominations open for 2013 U21 Award |
| U21 Ranking of National Higher Education Systems to be presented at OECD Conference |
| U21 featuring at EAIE Conference at University College Dublin |
| Nottingham’s VC cycling for educational change |
| Early Career Workshop & Teaching and Learning Network Conference deadlines approaching! |
| U21 Manager to become Director of Nottingham’s Malaysia campus |
| Virginia awarded prestigious SWAN award for recycling |
| New VP International at both Virginia and Connecticut |
Nominations open for 2013 U21 Award
Nominations for the 2013 U21 Awards are still open. Everyone at a U21 university has the opportunity to nominate colleagues within the network for one of two U21 Awards for Internationalisation, recognising individual efforts towards particularly innovative or extraordinary projects which further internationalisation, or sustained and prolonged contribution building relations between U21 members to support internationalisation. Nominations need to be received by 14 September 2012 and the forms can be downloaded from www.universitas21.com/link/u21award
The 2012 U21 Awards went to Dr Karen Gardner of the University of British Columbia and, posthumously, to Professor Göte Hansson of Lund University. Read about their awards at www.universitas21.com/link/u21award2012.
U21 Ranking of National Higher Education Systems to be presented at OECD Conference
Following on from the successful and highly-acclaimed launch of the U21 Ranking of National Higher Education Systems in May this year, Professor Ross Williams, the ranking’s lead author, will be presenting his work on this at the OECD’s Institutional Management in Higher Education Conference in Paris in September. The session title is The determinants of quality national higher education systems: the U21 Rankings and is part of a plenary session entitled How can higher education reconcile its different missions and roles?
More information about the rankings can be found at www.universitas21.com/link/u21rankings
Further information about the OECD Conference can be found at http://www.oecd.org/site/eduimhe12/programme.htm
U21 featuring at EAIE Conference at University College Dublin
University College Dublin is the academic partner for this year’s European Association for International Education (EAIE) Conference, which is providing a great opportunity for those attending from the U21 network to get together to discuss U21 matters, as well as the many themes presented at the conference.
U21 will also be represented in a session at the conference, with John Hope (Auckland), Benna Anderson (Birmingham), Gail Armistead (Nottingham) and Rachel Wellam (Melbourne) giving a presentation on Thursday 13 September entitled Universitas 21: a consortium approach to inspiring global perspectives through education abroad.
http://www.eaie.org/home/conference/dublin
Early Career Workshop & Teaching and Learning Network Conference deadlines approaching!
With many colleagues returning from their summer breaks, it’s worth a reminder that the deadlines for two of the network’s key activities are fast approaching!
Registration for the 2012 Teaching & Learning Conference at the National University of Singapore is still possible and the hotel deadline has been extended to Friday 14 September. The conference takes place on 8 and 9 November and with the title Towards Transformative Education in the 21st Century and some excellent speakers lined up, it looks set to be an interesting and thought-provoking couple of days. www.universtias21.com/link/TLNConference2012
The nomination deadline for the third Early Career Researcher Workshop, taking place at Shanghai Jiao Tong University from 4 to 6 December, is 30 September. Each university may nominate five early career researchers: two guaranteed nominees and three reserve nominees. The workshop’s theme is Ecological Urban Design and is open to ECRs of all disciplines, although may be of most benefit to those from a humanities or design background. www.universitas21.com/link/ECR2012
Nottingham’s VC cycling for educational change
After 1,100 miles, twelve intrepid cyclists from the University of Nottingham arrived in Dover last week, completing a fundraising journey that began in the North East of Scotland 14 days before. The Life Cycle 2 team, lead by Vice-Chancellor Professor David Greenaway, took on the challenge in order to raise £250,000 to help those from disadvantaged backgrounds access higher education.
After growing up in an area of serious social deprivation in the east end of Glasgow, Professor Greenaway knows first-hand the potential difference the money raised could make to people’s lives. He said: “Nottingham Potential is all about widening participation, raising aspirations and supporting achievement so that even more capable young people from under-represented backgrounds in Nottingham, across the East Midlands and more widely can reach their academic potential. We want to ensure that financial concerns do not limit the ambition of those with the ability to achieve academic excellence.”
Among those who joined the Nottingham team for part of the ride was Professor Adam Tickell, PVC Research & Knowledge Transfer at the University of Birmingham, another of U21’s members.
Congratulations to all involved!
Read more about Life Cycle 2 at http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/supportus/currentfundingpriorities/theuniversityofnottinghamslifecycle/theuniversityofnottinghamslifecycle.aspx
U21 Manager to become Director of Nottingham’s Malaysia campus
Professor Christine Ennew, currently Pro-Vice Chancellor for Internationalisation and U21 Manager for the University of Nottingham, is to be the new Provost and Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University of Nottingham’s Malaysia Campus – taking up the post in spring 2013. Nottingham’s Malaysia Campus has already played host to both the 2011 Graduate Research Conference and a U21 Managers’ Meeting and is very much a part of the U21 network.
Speaking on the appointment, Professor Ennew said: “Malaysia is now a regional hub for international universities in Asia and competition is growing all the time. There are challenges ahead but over the last decade Nottingham has built a strong and hugely attractive campus-based institution in Malaysia and we are continuing to invest heavily in teaching, research and the student experience. Over the next decade we need to ensure we get that balance right. Teaching and learning will remain our core purpose but we will be focusing increased attention on strengthening research and business engagement, and we have an excellent base to build on.”
The full press release can be read at http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/news/pressreleases/2012/august/new-boss-at-the-helm-of-nottinghams-malaysia-campus.aspx
Virginia awarded prestigious SWAN award for recycling
The University of Virginia has recently won another award for its recycling efforts, its second award in less than a year. The Solid Waste Association of America recognised UVA at the end of August with its Bronze Excellence Award. The state of Virginia requires agencies to recycle at least 25 percent of their waste. UVA achieved almost double that amount in 2011.
We would love to hear of other sustainability and environmental initiatives or awards from around the network and will be assessing the impact of U21’s Sustainability Declaration at the 2013 Annual Presidential Meeting at UBC.
New Vice Provosts for Global Affairs at both Virginia and Connecticut
The University of Virginia has recently appointed Jeffrey W Legro as the university's Vice Provost for Global Affairs. Dr Legro will be responsible for developing university-wide strategies for engagement and policies relating to global partnerships that further teaching, learning and research, in consultation with faculty and school deans. The Vice Provost will also serve as an advocate for existing global partnerships and oversee efforts to further internationalise the university's curriculum.
Meanwhile, Dr Daniel Weiner has been appointed as the University of Connecticut’s new Vice Provost for Global Affairs. In this role, Dr Weiner will serve as the university’s chief academic officer for international affairs and will be responsible for the development and oversight of a wide variety of university initiatives relating to international efforts. He will focus on the university’s commitment to internationalisation and facilitate co-ordination among the university’s internal and external programmes and initiatives.
We look forward to working with both new Vice Provosts and their teams over the coming years.