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International Exeter<br />

annual report<br />

2013/14<br />

partnership engagement<br />

Vice-Chancellor’s international engagement<br />

As the University’s international engagement grows, so the<br />

role of Vice-Chancellor Professor Sir Steve Smith takes on<br />

greater international significance.<br />

2013/14 witnessed the Vice-Chancellor travelling to<br />

twelve cities in seven countries. In September 2013 the<br />

Vice-Chancellor joined a ministerial delegation to South<br />

Africa, led by the Foreign Secretary, the Rt. Hon William<br />

Hague, which included the universities minister Rt. Hon<br />

David Willetts. The delegation was there for the tenth<br />

UK-South Africa bilateral forum, and focussed particularly<br />

on youth empowerment and employment.<br />

Sir Steve also met the Vice-Chancellors of leading South<br />

African universities and the Deputy Minister for Higher<br />

Education and Training Mr Mduduzi Manana, in addition<br />

to visiting the Cape Academy Secondary School.<br />

At the end of September, Chancellor Baroness Benjamin and<br />

the Vice-Chancellor led a senior delegation of Exeter staff to<br />

the United Arab Emirates. The primary objective of the trip<br />

was to award an honorary degree to one of Exeter’s most<br />

distinguished academic staff, Professor Tim Niblock, Emeritus<br />

Professor of Middle Eastern Politics. The ceremony was<br />

hosted by alumnus His Highness Dr Sheikh Sultan bin<br />

Mohamed Al Qasimi, in Sharjah, and was attended by senior<br />

officials from across the Gulf region and received media<br />

attention in Gulf News.<br />

In October the Vice-Chancellor visited Japan to hold<br />

meetings with the University of Tokyo, the highest ranked<br />

university in Asia, and to deliver a number of high-profile<br />

speeches on the importance of international collaboration<br />

and university governance. At the University of Tokyo, in a<br />

meeting with Professor Junichi Hamada, President of the<br />

University of Tokyo, the Vice-Chancellor discussed extending<br />

opportunities for joint research and exchanges for staff and<br />

students, prior to opening proceedings at the inaugural<br />

University of Tokyo/University of Exeter research<br />

symposium.<br />

The symposium, attended by over 350 delegates, focussed<br />

on the work of Professor Ed Watkins of the Mood Disorders<br />

Centre at Exeter who has been working with faculty at the<br />

University of Tokyo, and Japanese IT software company<br />

OceanBridge, to adapt and distribute a Japanese version of<br />

his internet-based MindReSolve treatment for depression.<br />

During the trip the Vice-Chancellor addressed the Science<br />

and Technology in Society Forum held in Kyoto.<br />

The Vice-Chancellor also delivered a keynote speech at<br />

the UK-Japan Higher Education Symposium in Tokyo,<br />

organised by the British Council Japan, on the theme of<br />

Public Engagement and Research Impact. In addition, he<br />

gave an address to the Japanese Association of University<br />

Management on the strategies employed by Exeter that has<br />

seen it become both a UK Top-10 and a World Top-200<br />

institution. The success of these events has led to an<br />

invitation to return to Tokyo in December 2014 to continue<br />

discussions with some of the elite Japanese universities on<br />

these topics.<br />

In November 2013 the Vice-Chancellor led a delegation to<br />

China to consolidate the University’s links with three of that<br />

country’s leading universities. Sir Steve and Professor Chen<br />

Jining, President of Tsinghua University, met to discuss<br />

extending opportunities for joint research and exchanges for<br />

staff and students, and Sir Steve delivered the 146th ‘Global<br />

Vision’ lecture on “The 21st Century University: your future<br />

in the knowledge economy”.<br />

Professor Junichi Hamada, President of the University of Tokyo, hosts Professor Sir Steve Smith, Provost Professor Janice Kay and Mr Jeff<br />

Streeter, Director of the British Council Japan, ahead of the joint research symposium, October 2013<br />

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