Welcome to the December 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)
| New U21 Food Security collaboration |
| Researcher engagement activities in December |
| Teaching & Learning Workshop in Mexico |
| U21 represented at major international conferences |
| Developing U21 Museums links |
| Global Sunrise – a venture born at the U21 Summer School |
| University of Birmingham awarded Queen’s Anniversary Prize |
New U21 Food Security collaboration
Researchers at the University of Glasgow are keen to initiate a collaboration on the theme ‘Food Security’. They are planning to hold a one-day scoping workshop in May 2012 at which academics and industry specialists from the UK and U21 institutions can present research and share ideas about current world issues relating to the topic. It is hoped that discussions at this event will be used to highlight key themes which the collaboration could focus on, and how to encourage participation from both Graduate Researchers and Early Career Researchers.
Interested parties should contact Lauren Roberts at the University of Glasgow at lauren.roberts@glasgow.ac.uk
Researcher engagement activities in December
This month the University of Birmingham will host the second Early Career Researcher workshop on the theme ‘Healthy Living’ from 13 to 15 December. Sixteen U21 universities have nominated 41 delegates to attend and sessions will include a number of career developmental activities, as well as the chance for delegates to present their research as part of an international networking forum. Further information on these events can be found at www.universitas21.com/link/ecrworkshops.
December will also witness the Deans and Directors of Graduate Studies (DDoGS) annual meeting hosted by the University of Virginia. This event will include a session on ‘Innovation and Collaboration’ by Chic Thompson, author of What a Great Idea, as well as a discussion on various current initiatives including the Joint PhD Programme, research supervisor support & development and the Graduate Research Conference. Please see the DDoGS page to learn more about this group – www.universitas21.com/link/ddogs
Teaching & Learning Workshop in Mexico
Expressions of interest are invited for the next U21 T&L Workshop, entitled Ethics and Citizenship in the Curriculum. The workshop will take place from 12 to 14 March 2012 at Tecnológico de Monterrey’s Mexico City campus. The workshop is aimed at practitioners and those interested in developing (or learning more about other practices) and integrating an Ethics and Citizenship programme into their own curriculum and Tecnológico de Monterrey is at the forefront of developments in this area. The workshop will be limited to around 25 participants.
An outline of the workshop can be found at http://www.universitas21.com/link/TLNworkshop and Expressions of interest should be sent to Lavinia Johns (law6x@virginia.edu) by Friday 13 January 2012.
U21 represented at major international conferences
U21’s Student Mobility activity will be well represented at some major international conferences in 2012, with at least two session presentations at the Forum on Education Abroad’s annual conference in March, and at least one session presentation at NAFSA in May.
At the Forum on Education Abroad in Denver in March colleagues from Auckland, Melbourne, Birmingham and Nottingham will be presenting a session entitled Universitas 21: A Consortium Approach to Inspiring Global Perspectives Through Study Abroad focusing on the U21 Global Issues Programme and the University of Nottingham’s Intercultural Learning Module, developed in partnership by U21 practitioners and academics. Colleagues from Virginia and UBC will also be talking about Preparing Students to be Intentional and Reflective Learners and how learning abroad experiences can be powerful vehicles to change perspective and foster deep gains in student’s development.
At the NAFSA Conference in Texas in June colleagues from Melbourne, Birmingham and Nottingham will once more be speaking about U21 partnerships in a session about Developing Global Citizens Through Innovative Partnerships: Universitas 21 Case Studies.
Further information about these conferences can be found at http://www.forumea.org/events.cfm and http://www.nafsa.org/annualconference/default.aspx
Developing U21 Museums links
After last year’s successful pilot scheme, the universities of Birmingham and Melbourne are once more collaborating on a Museum-based project, which it is hoped will be extended to other U21 members in the coming year. Emma Neale is the successful candidate from the University of Melbourne and she will be at the University of Birmingham in early 2012, working across a broad range of cultural collections including a variety of museum-related projects such as exhibition display, education, interpretation, digitisation, documentation, research and conservation.
More information about the project can be found on the University of Birmingham’s website at http://www.rcc.bham.ac.uk/intcollproject/index.shtml
Global Sunrise – a venture born at the U21 Summer School
After the 2009 Summer School, Michael Furey and some of his new-found friends were so inspired by what they had heard, they set up Global Sunrise, a non-profit project which provides electricity to some of the world's most deprived communities in a clean and sustainable manner.
Global Sunrise is now looking for proactive students and societies who are committed to creating a renewable energy future for the planet to join its international network. By joining the network students become part of a community which is working to kick-start sustainable businesses in some of the worlds poorest countries, and make renewable energy affordable for all.
More details can be found at www.globalsunrise.ne
University of Birmingham awarded Queen’s Anniversary Prize
We would like to congratulate the University of Birmingham’s Centre for Formulation Engineering which has been awarded the Queen's Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education, one of the most prestigious honours that can be awarded to UK universities or colleges. The award recognises Birmingham’s pioneering research in micro-structured materials and outstanding track record in collaborative research and training with UK and multinational companies involved in process engineering. The team in the Centre for Formulation Engineering is led by Professor Peter Fryer, Head of the School of Chemical Engineering.
More information about the Centre for Formulation Engineering can be found at http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/research/activity/chemical-engineering/index.aspx