U21 Newsletter 201109

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)

U21 publishes key teaching & learning position paper

Deadline for U21 Awards approaching

Funds available for Health Sciences students to attend U21 meeting

Busy few months ahead!

Networking opportunity at Lund University

HKU awards U21 fellowship

New Provost at Virginia

U21 publishes key teaching & learning position paper

U21’s Teaching & Learning Network has published the first in a series of papers on teaching and learning. Entitled Rethinking International Higher Education Curriculum: Mapping the research landscape, the paper provides an overview of the research landscape for the benefit of practicing educators across a number of disciplines. The paper addresses a range of issues, drawing on existing research, to provide expert advice on questions such as “What is an internationalized curriculum (skills versus content and the role of pedagogy)?”, “Why does an internationalized curriculum matter?” and “What do we know about how it can be delivered?”

It can be downloaded from the U21 website at www.universitas21.com/link/TLNPositionPaper1

Deadline for U21 Awards approaching

Nominations for the U21 Awards close on 15 September, so make sure you’ve taken the opportunity to recommend the person or people who you feel have made a significant contribution to internationalisation within the U21 network! Details of how to make a nomination can be found via the links on the U21 website’s events page. www.universitas21.com/link/U21Award

Funds available for Health Sciences students to attend U21 meeting

Korea University is delighted to inform network colleagues that 10 student awards for best presentations will be given during the last day of the U21 Health Science UN MDG workshop that will take place from 25 to 27 September 2011. Winning students will be awarded US$500. Health sciences students within the U21 network are invited to participate by presenting the UN MDG initiatives that they will be undertaking in their universities. For more information on the awards or on the UNMDG workshop, please contact Caroline Voisine, U21 Health Sciences Executive Officer (caroline.voisine@itesm.mx).

Busy few months ahead!

Now that colleagues from the northern hemisphere are back from their summer breaks and Muslim colleagues have returned from their Eid celebrations, the network is back to full strength and looking ahead to a busy few months. September sees the 5^th Learning Environments Design Forum taking place in Birmingham and the Health Sciences meeting in Korea, October brings together the Water Futures for Sustainable Cities team, the International Directors and the U21 Managers in Connecticut, Singapore and Malaysia respectively and November heralds the Teaching & Learning Network Conference at UBC and a Water Reuse Workshop in Singapore.

Details of all our events can be found on the U21 website (www.universitas21.com/event) which is regularly updated with information and registration deadlines.

Networking opportunity at Lund University

Colleagues from Lund University would like to invite all those from U21 institutions, particularly those attending the EIAE conference in Copenhagen, to take part in a U21 meeting and evening event at Lund University on Sunday 11 September. The meeting, which will start at 3 pm, will provide U21 guests and Lund University faculty with the opportunity to discuss topics of mutual interest with development possibilities and also will provide an excellent opportunity to get to know colleagues from around the network. The meeting will finish with an informal evening get together for networking and a bite to eat. Contact Anne Messeter for further details (anne.messeter@er.lu.se).

HKU awards U21 fellowship

The University of Hong Kong has announced its 2011/12 U21 Fellowships. Among them is Dr Reynold Cheng, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science, who will be visiting the National University of Singapore to enhance research collaboration in continuous monitoring for large evolving databases, and to teach and interact with postgraduate students on an advanced topic in databases and uncertain database management.

Many U21 universities offer fellowships to enable staff and faculty to undertake research or study visits to other U21 universities, so check with your university’s international office to see what might be available to you!

New Executive Vice President and Provost and Virginia

The University of Virginia has appointed John D Simon as Executive Vice President and Provost. Mr Simon succeeds Dr Arthur (Tim) Garson, known to many around the network, who stepped down in May, and becomes the university's chief academic officer, charged with directing the academic administration of the university's eleven schools, the Library, the Art Museum, three residential colleges, public service activities, numerous university centres, foreign study programmes and the advancement of teaching and research. This appointment comes after Michael Strine was named Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer in May, replacing Leonard Sandridge who retired from UVa after 44 years.

Mr Simon will also have oversight of UVa’s involvement in Universitas 21 affairs and we look forward working with him and his colleagues at Virginia in the coming years.

A full press release can be found at http://www.virginia.edu/uvatoday/newsRelease.php?id=15871