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International Exeter
annual report
2013/14
partnership engagement
Vice-Chancellor’s international engagement
As the University’s international engagement grows, so the
role of Vice-Chancellor Professor Sir Steve Smith takes on
greater international significance.
2013/14 witnessed the Vice-Chancellor travelling to
twelve cities in seven countries. In September 2013 the
Vice-Chancellor joined a ministerial delegation to South
Africa, led by the Foreign Secretary, the Rt. Hon William
Hague, which included the universities minister Rt. Hon
David Willetts. The delegation was there for the tenth
UK-South Africa bilateral forum, and focussed particularly
on youth empowerment and employment.
Sir Steve also met the Vice-Chancellors of leading South
African universities and the Deputy Minister for Higher
Education and Training Mr Mduduzi Manana, in addition
to visiting the Cape Academy Secondary School.
At the end of September, Chancellor Baroness Benjamin and
the Vice-Chancellor led a senior delegation of Exeter staff to
the United Arab Emirates. The primary objective of the trip
was to award an honorary degree to one of Exeter’s most
distinguished academic staff, Professor Tim Niblock, Emeritus
Professor of Middle Eastern Politics. The ceremony was
hosted by alumnus His Highness Dr Sheikh Sultan bin
Mohamed Al Qasimi, in Sharjah, and was attended by senior
officials from across the Gulf region and received media
attention in Gulf News.
In October the Vice-Chancellor visited Japan to hold
meetings with the University of Tokyo, the highest ranked
university in Asia, and to deliver a number of high-profile
speeches on the importance of international collaboration
and university governance. At the University of Tokyo, in a
meeting with Professor Junichi Hamada, President of the
University of Tokyo, the Vice-Chancellor discussed extending
opportunities for joint research and exchanges for staff and
students, prior to opening proceedings at the inaugural
University of Tokyo/University of Exeter research
symposium.
The symposium, attended by over 350 delegates, focussed
on the work of Professor Ed Watkins of the Mood Disorders
Centre at Exeter who has been working with faculty at the
University of Tokyo, and Japanese IT software company
OceanBridge, to adapt and distribute a Japanese version of
his internet-based MindReSolve treatment for depression.
During the trip the Vice-Chancellor addressed the Science
and Technology in Society Forum held in Kyoto.
The Vice-Chancellor also delivered a keynote speech at
the UK-Japan Higher Education Symposium in Tokyo,
organised by the British Council Japan, on the theme of
Public Engagement and Research Impact. In addition, he
gave an address to the Japanese Association of University
Management on the strategies employed by Exeter that has
seen it become both a UK Top-10 and a World Top-200
institution. The success of these events has led to an
invitation to return to Tokyo in December 2014 to continue
discussions with some of the elite Japanese universities on
these topics.
In November 2013 the Vice-Chancellor led a delegation to
China to consolidate the University’s links with three of that
country’s leading universities. Sir Steve and Professor Chen
Jining, President of Tsinghua University, met to discuss
extending opportunities for joint research and exchanges for
staff and students, and Sir Steve delivered the 146th ‘Global
Vision’ lecture on “The 21st Century University: your future
in the knowledge economy”.
Professor Junichi Hamada, President of the University of Tokyo, hosts Professor Sir Steve Smith, Provost Professor Janice Kay and Mr Jeff
Streeter, Director of the British Council Japan, ahead of the joint research symposium, October 2013
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