International Alliance of Ten Research Universities sign Agreement at Inaugural Singapore Meeting. (January 15, 2006)

    In August last year TFW reported on an alliance of eight, possibly ten, research universities from three continents which was initiated by the National University of Singapore and the Australian National University with the VC of ANU, Ian Chubb as chair pro tem.

As it turns out the number is ten:

Oxford and Cambridge universities of Britain,

Yale University and the University of California, Berkeley, of the United States,

University of Copenhagen,

ETH Zurich,

Australian National University,

University of Tokyo,

Peking University and

National University of Singapore.

and the heads of the universities forming the International Alliance of Research Universities (IARU) signed an agreement at their inaugural meeting in Singapore this weekend.

The university representatives agreed to organize more joint teaching programs and identified movement of people, ageing and health as areas for research collaboration.

"This is the first time that a group of this kind have come together," Bill Macmillan, pro-vice chancellor of Oxford University told the media claiming that the union was made necessary by the current world trend of globalisation.

The next meeting of the members of the alliance is scheduled to be held in Canberra in March 2007.

Whether or not being a member of the IARU will have a significant effect on the quality of research and teaching at ANU remains to be seen.