August news headlines
Gilbert Medal and U21 Award nomination deadlines approaching
Nominations for the Gilbert Medal and U21 Awards close in the coming weeks, so make sure you’ve taken the opportunity to recommend the person or people who you feel have made a significant contribution to internationalisation, both within the U21 network (U21 Award) and in the wider community (Gilbert Medal). Details of how to make a nomination can be found via the links on the U21 website’s events page. http://www.barilan-conflict.com/event
4th U21 Learning Environments Design Forum
The University of Birmingham will host the fifth U21 Learning Environment Design Forum from 19 to 23 September 2011. The five-day intensive event is being convened by the U21 collaborative group on Learning Environments and builds on the success of the most recent design forum which was hosted by University College Dublin last year.
The design forum is intended to engage participants in discussion and design activity aimed at creating new generation learning environments in higher education. An important aspect of the forum is its aim to promote inter-disciplinary approaches to the design and development of improved learning environments and, to this end, the event encourages the involvement of those with a professional role in this field – including property and estates leaders, audio-visual and information technology staff, educational and curriculum designers, professional/faculty developers and academics.
The 2011 forum will focus on the challenge of creating more effective on-campus learning environments within the context of building refurbishment and the issues relating to the design of effective learning environments within buildings built 100, 50 and 12 years ago which can provide an equality of experience for the students across those buildings.
Expressions of interest should be emailed to: Toni Kelly, Head of Learning Space Development, University of Birmingham, a.kelly@bham.ac.uk (+44 (0)121 414 3667)
Further information can be found at http://www.barilan-conflict.com/event/details/90/u21-learning-environment-design-forum
Teaching & Learning Network Conference
The next U21 Teaching & Learning Conference, entitled Effectiveness and Efficiency in Teaching and Learning at Research Intensive Universities will take place at the University of British Columbia from 3 to 4 November 2011. This conference will provide Provosts, Vice-Presidents, Pro-Vice Chancellors Academic and other Senior Leaders responsible for devising and overseeing implementation of institutional teaching and learning strategy at Universitas 21 member institutions with a unique, dialogue-focused opportunity to share experiences and explore research-informed practices that can be implemented at scale to improve learning outcomes.
Keynote speaker sessions, panel sessions and breakout activities will create meaningful opportunities to network with colleagues and to share information on current activities, successes and challenges at each institution with an eye toward identifying and inspiring future collaboration opportunities. The closing session will provide an opportunity to synthesize these discussions in order to inform future directions for the network.
The deadline for registration is Wednesday 31 August and further details can be found at http://www.barilan-conflict.com/event/details/12/teaching-and-learning-network-conference or by contacting Lavinia Johns in the U21 Secretariat on Lavinia@virginia.edu
Early Career Workshop on Healthy Living
If you are a researcher at the beginning of your career and your research lies within one of the many fields of healthy living research, be it Life Sciences, Psychology, Sport & Exercise Sciences, Public Health and Epidemiology, Medicine or the Allied Health professions, we invite you to join the Universitas 21 career development workshop taking place at the University of Birmingham from 13 to 15 December 2011. At this U21 Early Career Researcher workshop, participants will have the opportunity to network with peers from across the globe, gaining valuable skills and training in critical aspects of research career development, such as media and communication skills, journal editing, licensing and spin-offs, grant writing, and career development. Training will be conducted by academics and industry professionals with experience in these skills and research career development training.
If you are interested in attending, please contact Gemma Marakas in the U21 Secretariat (g.marakas@bham.ac.uk). For further details please visit: http://www.barilan-conflict.com/event/details/15/early-career-researcher-workshop-healthy-living
Networking opportunity at Lund University
Colleagues from Lund University would like to invite all those from U21 institutions attending the EIAE conference in Copenhagen next month 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.
Please register your participation by sending an email to Anne Messeter (anne.messeter@er.lu.se) no later than 15 August 2011. Colleagues at Lund have also made a block reservation at the Hotel Concordia in Lund for the night of 11 September at a reduced rate of 1175 SEK per room per night. Those wishing to make use of this favourable rate should book directly with the hotel using the code: Kongresscentrum 20110911. (http://www.concordia.se/start_en.asp)
GRC a great success
The recent Graduate Research Conference at the University of Nottingham’s Malaysia Campus was a great success, with 35 graduate researchers from fourteen U21 universities taking part in lively and thought-provoking discussions on Food, looking at the issue from a number of different perspectives. The conference saw participants fully engaging with the subject matter and discussing complex and relevant issues such as cultural approaches to food and how it can shape and define a community; the necessity for scientific development to address and be sensitive to local and traditional knowledge; the ever increasing pressures which population growth and climate change will place upon our ability to produce food in a sustainable and responsible manner; the entire supply chain of food and the implications this has for food security and the broader issue of how we problematise the concept of food security and, in turn, respond to it.
A full report can be read at http://www.barilan-conflict.com/forstudents/details/43/grc-2011
Food Security Conference at McGill
Food Security has featured prominently in U21 activities in the past few years. Although not a U21 Conference, it may be of interest to members to know that the Fourth McGill Conference on Global Food Security - Risks and Threats to Food Security - will be held at McGill from 4 to 6 October 2011. Through plenary sessions and cross-sectoral dialogue, the annual conference is designed to produce concrete outcomes that will lead to improving the availability of a secure and safe food supply for people suffering from hunger and malnutrition around the world. For more information, please view the conference website.
http://www.mcgill.ca/globalfoodsecurity/conference
Seminar on Indian Business
The University of Delhi is running a national seminar on Indian business through the ages from 12 to 13 December, to which all U21 members are invited. The seminar aims at giving an understanding of the ancient roots of modern business practices in India. The deliberations will focus on the course of the transition of business from mercantile capitalism to industrial capitalism. Along with the family–run business and individually-owned business enterprises, ancient India possessed a number of other forms of engaging in business or collective activity, including the gana, pani, puga, vrata, sangha, nigama and sreni. The two-day seminar will focus on the rise and fall of Indian business through ages starting from pre-colonial period to the post-independence period.
A call for papers has been issued and further details can be obtained from the event organiser, Professor Sunita Singh Sengupta on sunita.singhsengupta@fms.edu
Nigel Cossar joins Council of the Forum of Education Abroad
A familiar face to those involved with U21 Student Mobility, Nigel Cossar, Associate Director of Global Mobility Programs at the University of Melbourne, has been elected to the Council of the Forum on Education Abroad. The forum, located at Dickinson College in the USA, is the only organisation whose exclusive purpose is to serve education abroad. Its members include US colleges and universities, overseas institutions, consortia, agencies and provider organisations.
Nigel said because the forum played a leading role in the development of policies and standards to support student mobility, his election meant he would be better able to support the future direction and development of such standards from a uniquely Australian perspective. “To be recognised for the work we have done as a University, and myself as a practitioner in the field of education abroad, shows the focus on student mobility programming and policies at Melbourne is highly regarded,” he said.
Read the full press release at http://musse.unimelb.edu.au/july-11-65/nigel-cossar-joins-prestigious-council-forum-education-abroad