2007 Annual report (PDF 8.1 Mb) - University of Melbourne

UNIVERSITAS 21
Melbourne is a founding member and
played a leading role in the establishment
of Universitas 21, an international network
of research-intensive universities from
the People’s Republic of China, Canada,
the United Kingdom, Europe, Singapore,
New Zealand, the USA and Australia.
Two new members were admitted this
year, Delhi University, India and Waseda
University, Japan, bring the total number of
members to 21. Now in its tenth year, the
network provides a framework for member
universities to pursue collaborative and
entrepreneurial activities.
As a collegial network, U21 continues
to promote international collaboration
in a number of areas. Melbourne has
taken a leading role in increasing student
mobility across the network with 2200
undergraduate semester-equivalent
exchanges occurring throughout the
network in 2007 – an increase of 250 over
2006. At Melbourne 159 students undertook
an exchange a nine per cent increase over
2006 and 22 per cent over 2005.
The U21 Summer School Program and
Undergraduate Research Conference are
now established and successful components
of the U21 student mobility agenda. In
2007 Melbourne students participated in
the Summer School held at Virginia and the
Undergraduate Research Conference held at
McGill University in Montreal.
During the year an Anniversary Fellowships
program was launched to provide
fellowships to support mobility of junior
faculty and research higher degree students.
The U21 Program in Global Issues entered
its third year in 2007. This multi-disciplinary,
undergraduate award, is offered jointly by
five U21 institutions – the universities of
Auckland, British Columbia, Hong Kong,
Melbourne and Nottingham with a number
of other members. It encourages students
to develop globally relevant knowledge and
skills through certificate or diploma level
study, or as a minor within an undergraduate
degree. In 2007, 26 Melbourne students
participated with 16 undertaking at least
one subject ‘virtually’.
The U21 Design Forum ‘Improving the
Campus by Design: Creating Improved
Learning Environments to Enhance the
Student Experience’ was hosted at
Melbourne in September. The University
Museums group continued to work on
developing virtual collections within the U21
network, using ‘virtual print room’ technology
already in use at Melbourne, which might be
made available more generally for teaching
and research purposes.
A range of other special interest groups
also met this year. Significant progress
was made on the U21 Water Network
collaborative research project led by
Melbourne’s Professor John Langford and
involving Melbourne, Hong Kong University,
Nottingham, Birmingham, Glasgow and the
University of Virginia. The aim of the group
is to provide an independent international
forum for government, industry and the
community to address the complex issues
of water sustainability.
The eighth annual meeting of the U21
Health Sciences group was attended by
160 participants. This group is collaborating
with Swinfen Charitable Trust to provide
support for hospitals in developing
countries and at the same time providing
opportunities for international engagement
by students.
The Vice-Presidents/Deputy Vice-Chancellors
Research Group identified as potential areas
of collaboration an exchange program for
RHD students and a digital visualisation
conference (particularly in the humanities).
An inaugural forum for U21 doctoral
students in education provided an
opportunity to establish connections among
U21 doctoral students in education across
the network.
U21
Strategic Priority
> Broaden the research and research training
engagement with Universitas 21 partner
universities and increase the number of
research students spending at least one
semester at an overseas institution
Latin America Research Training
Collaborative agreements have been
reached for research training in Mexico,
Chile and Peru and will provide the
foundation for increasing graduate and
research training activities with South
American institutions. Agreements have
been signed with the National Council for
Science and Technology (CONACYT) of the
United Mexican States and the Comision
Nacional de Investigacion Cientifica y
Technologica Chile (CONICYT). A further
agreement with the Instituto de Becas
y Credito Educativo Peru (INABEC) is
expected to be signed early in 2008.
Association of Pacific
Rim Universities
Strategic Priority
> Establish Melbourne as an active
participant in the Association of Pacific
Rim Universities (APRU) network
through participation in at least three
specialist workshops
Achievements
The University has been a keen participant
in the activities of the Association of Pacific
Rim Universities (APRU) in its first year of
membership. The Deputy Vice-Chancellor
(International) attended the APRU Senior
Staff Meeting in Taipei, the Vice-Chancellor
attended the Annual APRU Presidents
Meeting at Zhejiang University, while
Melbourne academic staff participated
in two APRU World Institute workshops
on Public Health and Climate Change.
Melbourne’s Professor Jim Falk was
appointed co-director of the AWI research
project ‘Pacific Rim Cities: Climate Change
Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies.’
Melbourne academic staff are participating
in a research project jointly funded by APRU
and the Pacific Economic Cooperation
Council (PECC) to form part of a PECC-
APRU report on the Asia Pacific Education
Market, analysing the links between
economic development, international
student flows and skilled migration.
Melbourne is also a member of a number
of international business and cultural
organisations including the Business
Councils for China, India and Malaysia, and
is a patron of the Asia Society Austral Asia
Centre. These bodies have assisted the
University in building relationships with key
industry and government leaders to achieve
our international objectives.
AsIAlink
Asialink, a non-academic department of the
University, continued to play a leading role
in the promotion of public understanding
of Asia and of Australia’s role in the Asian
region. Its annual program of events within
Australia and Asia significantly increases the
University’s reputation as an Asia-focused