News & Views item - August 2005 |
An International Alliance of Eight Possibly Ten Universities. (August 21, 2005)
From July 24-26 at the Yale Club in New York Australian National University's Vice-Chancellor, Ian Chubb, hunkered down with nine other university representatives from ETH, Zurich, the National University of Singapore, Peking University, the University of California (Berkeley), the University of Copenhagen, the University of Tokyo, Yale University, and Cambridge and Oxford -- who indicated that, subject to internal processes, they will soon join the alliance to make it an Alliance of ten (AoX perhaps?) universities -- to determine initial areas on which to concentrate.
It sounds very grand, but from a parochial viewpoint just what will it do for
Australian tertiary education?
According to Professor Chubb, the chair pro tem, "It is our aim to make this the premier alliance of universities in the world, and, essentially, it should allow each of us to achieve more than we would be able to achieve on our own."
More specifically the following initial points have been agreed:
No new members will be added before a review is undertaken in 2008;
During the northern hemisphere create internships with groups of perhaps 20 students, (two from each university). Each university will seek opportunities for internships;
Each university will highlight one or two key conferences in the next six to nine months where participation/contribution from alliance academics will be encouraged;
Student exchange at both undergraduate and postgraduate level (however, Yale, Berkeley, Oxford and Cambridge have indicated they cannot participate in undergraduate exchange at this time);
Development of joint/dual degree arrangements (from undergraduate through to higher degree research) – such as those already in place between ANU and the National University of Singapore and are currently being negotiated between ANU and Peking and Copenhagen;
Arrangements to be made at each university to support (at a more substantial level than for non-alliance universities) faculty exchange;
A summary of activities at the universities in each of five identified research areas (stem cell, environment, communicable diseases, ageing, and global security) will be prepared – this should identify the people at member universities with whom faculty work or whom they know to be complementary.
Professor Chubb went on to say, "In the longer term, we plan to seek corporate/foundation/government support for research projects; perhaps convene a forum to share knowledge about the commercialisation of research and the legal and academic framework in each country; work jointly on benchmarking; develop shared positions on key public policy issues."
So far no comment has been
forthcoming from the Minister for Education, Science and Training, Dr Nelson.