Warwick – a global perspective

The University of Warwick – A global perspective

A global perspective

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The University of Warwick

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Warwick – a globally connected University The University of Warwick has links with over 200 institutions around the globe.

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The University of Warwick – A global perspective

Introduction 4 The University of Warwick – A global perspective

Over the past decade, Warwick has been steadily developing its international profile.

Consistently in the top ten in the UK league tables, we have also been advancing through the international ranks, moving towards our goal of becoming one of the world’s top fifty universities.

International students now number some 6,400 – about a quarter of our total student population; this produces a mix of cultures from around the globe that immeasurably enriches our campus life and produces a truly cosmopolitan community.

At Warwick we regard every student as an international student, whatever their country of origin. So we encourage everyone to take part in student exchange schemes or to take advantage of our network of links with other institutions around the world. Our aim is to equip all our students to become global citizens with the skills to help them succeed in our interconnected world. This aim is reflected

in our curriculum, which is becoming increasingly international, in our promotion of language learning among all our students, and in the preparation for the international job market offered by our Centre for Student Careers and Skills.

However, Warwick’s roots are in Europe, where we have established research and teaching links and partnerships across the continent. The University is an increasingly attractive study destination for students from the rest of the EU who make up 8.5% of our total student population on full degree programmes. Each year, we also welcome students on the ERASMUS exchange scheme and Warwick students, in their turn, are welcomed by institutions in continental Europe. Warwick is moving ahead to full alignment with the Bologna process, with the issuing from 2012 of a Higher Education Achievement Record (HEAR) for all students. We have a significant number of research projects funded by the EU Framework programmes, covering all four faculties, and over the years, our academic departments have hosted a number of Marie Curie Fellows.

We also have our own permanent base in Europe – the Palazzo Pesaro Papafava in Venice, where Warwick history and history of art students spend a term

and which is also used for academic conferences, workshops and colloquia.

In recent years, from this strong European base, Warwick has been increasing its network of partnerships and connections across the world – becoming globally connected. However, our recent agreement with Monash University (Australia) has moved the model of institutional partnership to a new level and, in so doing, has redefined the role of a ‘globally connected’ university. The Warwick-Monash Alliance pioneers a new model of engagement between institutions across the world, encompassing students, staff, governments and industry and offering new methods of research and teaching. It is a model enabling Warwick to work with global partners to compete effectively in a changing environment and to offer exciting new international opportunities to students, staff and industry. We look forward to the practical implementation of this partnership in the near future.

The European perspective

As a leading European university, Warwick is actively engaged with institutions across the continent in teaching and research partnerships, and in student and staff exchanges – altogether some 180 institutions. This relationship with Europe is the cornerstone of our global strategy.

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Research

Regional engagement

The University of Warwick – A global perspective

Like its other European counterparts, Warwick is firmly committed to its local region and to contributing to its economic, cultural and social well-being. We are the third largest employer in the city of Coventry and have actively sought to identify and create new jobs in a region suffering from high unemployment and the decline of traditional industries. For example, our Science Park on the edge of the University campus has around 145 companies employing 1800 staff, delivering business support to new companies, SMEs and international businesses. For local (and national) businesses we offer research and development, consultancy, training and conference facilities. Since 2007, WMG (formerly Warwick Manufacturing group) has addressed the particular needs of over 1200 small and mediumsized business in the West Midlands region; knowledge transfer services are linked directly to WMG’s research base and emerging technologies, providing small businesses with a conduit to the

Group’s wealth of expertise to help them succeed.

The University has extensive links with local schools and colleges and we provide a variety of courses, including professional development, for mature students through our Centre for Lifelong Learning. At the heart of our campus, Warwick Arts Centre is the largest arts centre in the Midlands, attracting around 250,000 visitors a year to a programme of international music, theatre, dance and art and providing 28,000 local children with an exciting range of activities. And our graduates, as well as our students, continue to make a valuable contribution to the local economy: 10,000 Warwick graduates live and work in Coventry and Warwickshire; 65% of teachers trained at the University obtain jobs in West Midlands schools; 50% of our Medical School graduates stay on to work in the local health services.

From this secure local base, the University moves out to embrace the wider European scene.

Below Story time for local school children at Warwick Arts Centre Right An Arts Centre workshop introducing dance to local 16 year-old boys

Warwick has a significant record of achievement in EU Framework Programmes and is increasingly successful in securing large-scale European research funding. In 2010, for example, the University won two out of five Social Science FP7 Large Collaborative awards made by the Commission worth 17 million; Warwick Medical School won a Large Collaborative award worth ¤2.6 million to improve maternal and perinatal care in Africa (partners include GE Healthcare, the Karolinska Institute, Ifakara Health Institute, Tanzania and the Ministry of Health, Malawi).

In addition, 11 Warwick researchers have won European Research Council awards: Professor Maxine Berg’s ¤1.55 million award (‘Europe’s Asian Centuries: Trading Eurasia 1600–1800’) investigates the long distance trade between Asia and Europe in material goods and culture that transformed the early modern world, while in Chemistry Professor Pat Unwin has won an award of ¤2 million to develop fluoroimaging.

Warwick is a partner in the EU’s flagship Climate Knowledge & Innovation Community programme.

Joint Courses

Student engagement

‘My fellow MAIPR students come from all over the world.

They speak different languages and have different life experiences which means we have to make adjustments at every step, thereby creating a wonderful reflexive experience. The MAIPR involves studying at two universities. For me, these are Warwick and Tampere in Finland. This gives me invaluable exposure to the working practices of two distinct European institutions.’

Nese Ceren Tosun, postgraduate student on the Erasmus Mundus MA in International Performance Research (MAIPR)

Warwick is a highly attractive study destination for students from the rest of the EU, who currently account for 8.5% of students on full degree programmes. Across all levels of study, from undergraduate to postgraduate research, we have recently seen an 83% increase in enrolments from this area. Warwick is also one of the largest users of the Erasmus programme and, unusually in the UK, we have as many students going out to other European institutions (over 340) as we have coming in to Warwick (300).

The University of Warwick – A global perspective

Warwick is one of the leading participators in the Erasmus Mundus programme to develop joint postgraduate programmes. Since 2007, we have run a Joint Master's in International Performance Research, initially with Amsterdam and Tampere Universities, now also including the University of the Arts in Belgrade. We also have a Joint Master's in Complex Systems Science, with partners Ecole Polytechnique, Gothenberg University and Chalmers. In 2009, we launched a Joint Doctorate in Globalisation, EU and Multilaterialism, with the Free University of Brussels (ULB), Libera Universita Internazionale degli Studi Sociali (LUISS, Rome) and the Universities of Geneva, Waseda and Fudan with associate partners Boston, ITAM (Mexico) and UNU-CRIS; Warwick's was the only UK Social Sciences Department with full partner status in a joint doctorate.

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Warwick in Venice

8 The University of Warwick – A global perspective

Above Warwick students on a site visit during their Venice Term

Above Working in Warwick’s base in Venice – the Palazzo Pesaro Papafava

Since 1967, when a group of Warwick history students went out to spend a term in Venice, in order to learn about the Renaissance at first hand, the University has had an intimate connection with that unique city.

The Venice Term, for both history and history of art students, has become a permanent feature of the Warwick programme; students live in the city, are taught by Warwick staff and are able to engage with the subjects they are studying in their original surroundings. The University now has its own, permanent base in Venice, the Palazzo Pesaro Papafava.

Amongst UK universities, Warwick’s Venice Programme is unique. For many students, it is a life-changing experience.

The University now has an international reputation for excellence in Renaissance Studies and has welcomed scholars from across the world to conferences and symposia in the Palazzo. In 2010, Warwick was awarded the Venice Prize for Cultural Communication for its important research in Italian art history and for opening its base in Venice.

The African perspective

Warwick in Africa – a unique international development programme using Warwick expertise to address the learning needs of pupils and teachers in Africa Photo: Nick Dunne

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An indication of the extent and breadth of Warwick’s engagement with Africa can be seen in the programme – even in the very existence – of the University’s Sub-Saharan African Research Network which meets regularly under the auspices of the Institute for Advanced Study. Here scholars, students and administrators from right across the University meet to discuss their African interests and ideas – from medicine to law, business studies to languages, engineering to history, education to sociology.

In 2011, the first student exchange of trainee doctors from Warwick and Malawi Medical Schools took place, while for many years engineering students have spent summers in Uganda working on projects such

as termite-proof power poles, water tanks and wind measurements, and also learning hydro-electric technology. In the past six years, however, Warwick students’ greatest African input has taken place under the Warwick in Africa project.

Below Dr Phil Mizen (Sociology) studied the working lives of street children in Accra, Ghana; he asked them to make images (such as that printed here) of their daily lives, so that they became active participators in the research.

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Louise Ackroyd (Warwick in Africa team, 2011)

Photo: Nick Dunne

Warwick in Africa This is a unique international development programme, conceived and managed by the University of Warwick and philanthropically funded, which uses Warwick expertise to support learners, gifted learners and their teachers in Africa. Its fundamental aim is to enhance the education of young people in Africa – in particular, in English and Maths for we believe that skills in these subjects are great liberators from poverty.

Warwick in Africa has already touched the lives of over 90,000 learners. The Programme sends Warwick students and experienced teachers (a total of 68 in 2011) to teach Maths and English in schools in South Africa, Ghana and Tanzania.

Beginning in the township schools of Johannesburg in 2006, the Programme has developed rapidly. It has made a remarkable impact on African pupils,

with participating schools seeing improved test results and attendance.

Additionally, Warwick students have also run sports clubs, chess clubs, choirs and inter-school competitions to add to the school-life experience.

Warwick in Africa also supports local teachers by coaching in subject content and in teaching methods.

This has helped to plug an enormous gap in teacher training – in Ghana, for instance, less than 50% of teacher have any formal training. Here, a programme of master classes was launched in 2010, with material specially written at Warwick, and delivered in 2011 to 400 teachers in Ghana. This year it will be piloted in South Africa. Warwick has also hosted a programme for visiting African teachers at the University itself.

To date, more than 600 teachers have benefited from the scheme.

The University of Warwick – A global perspective

‘That first trip to Alexandra township in South Africa changed me forever. Realising that there was something that you could do that would make a substantial difference… was brilliant.’

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Capacity Building

The University of Warwick – A global perspective

Warwick Medical School and the School of Health and Social Studies are involved in an important initiative designed to develop research capacity in African universities. CARTA (Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa) is an African-led initiative, involving 13 African universities and research institutes and eight Northern partners, of whom Warwick is the sole UK representative. The aim is to build a strong, multi-disciplinary African academy able to lead world-class research in population and public health.

This involves strengthening doctoral training through the creation of a doctoral training programme in these areas, and building up the research infrastructure of African universities.

Warwick is helping to steer strategy and management decisions of CARTA – Professor Frances Griffiths of Warwick Medical School is a member of the CARTA Management Board – and has provided curriculum development and staff to act as facilitators for the training sessions for CARTA Fellows – junior

faculty in African universities, fully funded as PhD students there, who receive research skills training provided

by CARTA through a series of residential workshops. This PhD route devised

by CARTA was heavily influenced by the Doctoral Training Centre concept from Warwick.

Warwick Medical School is also working with the ETATMBA Project – an EU 7th Framework Programme which runs from 2011–2014, designed to provide and retain skilled health workers for obstetric and neonatal care in Sub-Saharan Africa. Warwick and GE Healthcare Limited UK are the two UK partners in a collaboration that includes the Karolinska Institute, Sweden, the Ministry of Health, Malawi, the University of Malawi College of Medicine and Ifakara Health Institute, Tanzania.

The project focuses on training nonphysician clinicians (NPCs), as the best solution to the problems of doctorless parts of Africa, both rural and urban.

In May 2011, a team from Warwick Medical School, led by Dr Paul O’Hare,

went to Malawi to deliver a pilot training course, teaching eight NPCs over four days. Warwick Medical School has already recruited 100 local midwives and clinicians to receive obstetric training during its first year, and aims to train 50 clinical officers as advanced leaders by 2014, who will then be able to cascade their knowledge to other staff.

The School of Law is engaged in a five year project with the Ethiopian government that aims to equip Ethiopean universities with the knowledge and skills needed to run their own LLM and PhD programmes.

The project has been developed and run in conjunction with the Ethiopian stakeholders and enables eighteen PhD and forty LLM students from Ethiopia to obtain Warwick degrees. Students undertake a residency at Warwick while lecturers from the School of Law go to Mekelle University in Ethiopia to teach students alongside Ethiopian lecturers. This co-teaching is a vital part of the project, for it is intended that the second of the two LLM course to be delivered in Ethiopia will be a joint Warwick/Mekelle LLM degree, reflecting the greater involvement of local staff in the planning, teaching and administration of the degree.

The project reflects the Law School’s commitment to Law in Development and to the vital importance of Law in Context.

Left Law graduation in Ethiopia

The American perspective

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Warwick Arts Centre, one of the largest and most innovative in the UK, was modelled on the Hopkins Centre at Dartmouth College.

Lord Butterworth, Warwick’s first Vice-Chancellor, visited the Hopkins Centre in 1964 and brought the idea back to Warwick.

The United States Some of the University’s very first international links were with institutions in the USA. Due to the generosity of Warwick’s ‘Anonymous Benefactor’ (Miss Helen Martin, a local resident with family and business connections in the United States), the University was able to launch in 1967 a student exchange scheme with a group of prestigious US universities – Benefactors 1967

including the University of CaliforniaBerkeley, Chicago, South Carolina, Swarthmore, Tulane and Wisconsin Madison. Thanks to Miss Martin, US exchange students were welcomed to Warwick with accommodation in a purpose-built residence – Benefactors – designed to offer the standard of student accommodation that prevailed in the USA.

This initial relationship with prestigious US institutions has grown and developed over the years – in 2012 more than 120 Warwick students will go on exchange to universities including Columbia, Michigan, Georgetown and Vanderbilt – and now encompasses research collaborations as well as exchanges. We have an ongoing relationship with Boston University.

At departmental level, the English and History Departments have established strong research links with Vanderbilt University, while the Centre for the Study of the Renaissance has an innovative partnership of research collaboration and postgraduate training with the Centre for Renaissance Studies at the Newberry Library of Chicago. And there is a continuous flow of US scholars coming to Warwick on short-term fellowships organised by our Institute for Advanced Study, designed to offer our postgraduates students, in particular, exposure to international scholarship.

The CUSP Initiative CUSP will be led by a world-class director, to be in post in autumn 2012, at full strength approximately 50 principal investigators (30 tenured and tenure-track faculty from NYU/NYUPoly and the other academic partners, and 20 research scientists from the

industrial partners), over 400 Master’s students, 100 PhD students, and 30 post-docs. This academic core will spark new technologies, discoveries, and innovations; lead to new businesses and job creation and educate the workforce for the high-tech urban science sector.

The University of Warwick – A global perspective

Recently Warwick has been involved in an exciting new initiative that relates particularly to New York City.

In autumn 2011 Warwick was part of a consortium, led by New York University (NYU) that submitted a tender to New York City to develop a new applied sciences campus in New York to be called “The Center for Urban Science and Progress” (CUSP). This was in response to an invitation by Mayor Bloomberg for proposals to develop the innovation economy of the City to rival Silicon Valley. The consortium comprises NYU; Warwick; Carnegie Mellon University; University of Toronto; City University of New York (CUNY) and the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Mumbai.

Although the project eventually went to a collaboration between Cornell University and Technion University (Israel), CUSP made such a compelling case to establish a campus in Brooklyn that the Mayor and his officials have continued to discuss bringing the proposal to fruition with NYU and partners. Particularly compelling for New York City is the partnership between the universities and business partners which include household names such as IBM; Cisco; Siemens; Con Edison; National Grid; Xerox and Arup alongside support from innovative Brooklyn based start-ups like Makerbot and Etsy.

NYU and the CUSP partners are continuing discussions with the Mayor’s Office and the New York City Economic Development Corporation over the final location for the campus. Whilst these discussions continue, the academic research and teaching programmes are under development with a focus on technologies that will enable cities to deliver services effectively, efficiently, and sustainably while keeping their citizens safe, healthy, prosperous, and well-informed.

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Left Mr Yesu Persaud, Vice‑Chancellor Professor Nigel Thrift and Professor David Dabydeen (founding professor of the Centre for Caribbean Studies and now Guyanese ambassador in Beijing) at the renaming of the Yesu Persaud Centre for Caribbean Studies

Latin America and the Caribbean Warwick has a long tradition of scholarship in American and Caribbean Studies. Our School of Comparative American Studies was ranked first in the UK in the 2011 media league tables.

Its pioneering Comparative American Studies undergraduate degree (‘History, Literature and Culture of the Americas’) was the first to take a holistic approach to the subject, encompassing the USA, Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean in a multi-disciplinary study.

For many years, the University has had particular links with the Caribbean. Guyanese-born Sir Shridath Ramphal was Warwick’s Chancellor from 1989–2002; Nobel laureate Derek Walcott and Caribbean businessman Yesu Persaud are honorary graduates of the University, and we hold an annual Walter Rodney Memorial lecture on a Caribbean theme. This is organised by the University’s Centre for Caribbean Studies – now the Yesu Persaud Centre – set up in 1984. This was the first such centre in the UK

to recognise the significance of the Caribbean region and its historically inter-dependent links with the UK. It is responsible for an important series of studies of the Caribbean, published by MacMillan, and covering many aspects of the region’s history and culture.

The most recent development in the University’s relationship with Latin America is the creation of the Brazil Partnership Development Fund 2011/2012.The Fund supports the development of research and other partnerships with key Brazilian higher education institutions. It was supported by a generous donation from Santander UK plc through its Scholarship Donation and Co-operation Agreement with Warwick and has also offered to provide in-country support for visiting Warwick researchers through the Santander Universities Office in Brazil.

Successful bids for the first year of the Fund included projects in Chemistry, Mathematics, Life Sciences and Law, and involved nine Brazilian institutions.

The Asian perspective

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Asian students – some 4,150 – form the majority of Warwick’s international student population, with students from China and India accounting for almost two thirds of the total. They are some of our most active students in the many societies run by Warwick Students’ Union and add immensely to the cosmopolitan culture of our campus.

University links with Asia encompass collaborations in both teaching and research as well as student and staff exchanges. For instance, WMG has for many years offered MSc degrees in cooperation with local partners in China, (specifically SAR Hong Kong), Thailand, India, Malaysia, and Singapore. Warwick Institute of Education runs an honours degree in Early Childhood Care and Education which is studied completely in Singapore. Our Double Master's degree with Nanyang Technical University, Singapore, in Politics and International Studies allows students to spend a year at each institution, enabling them to compare European and East Asian perspectives on global issues. On the research front, Peking University (Beida) has recently become an institutional partner with our Centre for the Study of Globalisation and Regionalisation in a 10 million project, GR:EEN; funded through the EU 7th Framework programme, this studies the role of the EU in an emerging multi-polar world.

Warwick has had a set of long-standing collaborations with universities in Japan and in January 2012, made a formal agreement with RIKEN Institute to offer support for researchers affected by the earthquake in East Japan in 2011.

The University, therefore, has global connections in many parts of the Asian continent, but has recently been concentrating on developing and strengthening links with China and India.

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China Around 2,350 East Asian students are currently studying at Warwick, of whom the vast majority – some 2100 – come from China. Warwick is investing in scholarships to support the best Chinese students during their study at the University: since 2010, jointly with the Chinese Scholarship Council, we have fully funded scholarships for six PhD students per year; other awards include two Master’s level International Office scholarships in Law and in English Literature, and eight of our prestigious Chancellor’s International Scholarships.

A new student exchange with Renmin University was introduced in 2010, with Warwick students attending Renmin’s Summer Programme in Beijing, and Renmin students coming to Warwick for the autumn term.

We are also developing a postgraduate English exchange scheme with Tsinghua University.

Research collaborations with universities in China are developing rapidly, and in 2011 we launched the China Fellowship Fund to support Warwick academics in building relationships in mainland China. In 2009, the Fudan-Warwick Mathematical Sciences Partnership was set up by Professor Miles Reid (Warwick Mathematics Institute) to build relationships across all areas of mathematics, computer science, computational biology and statistics.

University funding has supported a series of academic exchanges and a joint workshop in Guiyang. Our Centre for the Study of Globalisation and Regionalisation has forged links with the School of International Studies at Peking University (Beida), resulting in workshops and research visits between the two institutions.

Warwick’s Polymer Chemistry groups

are developing links with institutions in Shanghai, in recognition of the increasing concentration of chemical and pharmaceutical industries there, and the excellent academic institutions in the East China region. Areas being developed here include research collaborations, student exchanges and links with industry including the Unilever Research Centre in Shanghai, and research symposia, already held at Fudan, Tongji and Soochow Universities.

In April 2011, Warwick Business School signed agreements on student exchange and research collaboration with Fudan School of Management, Shanghai, and Guanghua School of Management in Beijing.

Warwick has around 10,000 Warwick alumni living and working in China, with very active alumni groups in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong.

The University of Warwick – A global perspective

Above Chinese State Councillor, Madame Liu Yandong, pictured with the Vice-Chancellor on a visit to Warwick in November 2008 Right Chinese student societies are amongst the most active and influential at the University.

They organise career seminars, topical forums and cultural events including a spectacular New Year gala.

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Arvind Aradhya, NDTV scholar, celebrates his Warwick engineering degree in July 2011.

Abdul Kalam (former President of India) visiting WMG

India Around 570 Indian students are studying at Warwick – the second largest international group at the University.

Most come to study at Master’s level, in departments such as WMG, Engineering, Law and Economics.

However, one Indian undergraduate has recently attracted worldwide media interest: in 2007, Arvind Aradhya, an 18 year-old from Bangalore, took part in ‘The Airtel Scholar Hunt: Destination UK’ – an ‘Apprentice’ style reality television show run by Indian TV news channel NDTV in which Warwick participated.

Beating 14,000 contestants, Arvind won a four-year scholarship to study engineering at Warwick and graduated with an MEng in 2011.

Of the Warwick departments that have links with India, WMG’s are some of the most established. WMG delivers a modular version of its MSc in Engineering Business Management with the Confederation of Indian Industry in Mumbai. Research links with Indian companies include Bharat Forge and Tata (Steel and Motors): the latter’s UK

based subsidiary, Tata Motor Europe Technology Centre, is based on the Warwick campus in WMG’s International Automotive Research Centre, and Tata Steel has just joined with the Royal Academy of Engineering to fund a new research chair at WMG in Low Carbon Materials Technology. WMG also has an on-going partnership with the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT-KGP), in which both institutions

Professor Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya, Director of WMG, signing a Memorandum of Understanding with the Director of IIT Kharagpur

are committed to work together on topics that include technologies for low carbon economies, and advanced healthcare. Provision has been made for undergraduates and PhD students from IIT-KGP to come to Warwick and WMG has also been involved in helping IIT-KGP to set up a new IIT at Bhubaneshwar.

Warwick also has a long history of research collaboration with Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in Delhi and the School of Theatre, Performance and Cultural Policy Studies, the School of Law and the Departments of Film Studies and of History have all held academic events there. Warwick has successfully bid for funding for three projects through UKIERI (the UK-India Education and Research Initiative, launched in 2011), involving Theatre Studies and JNU, and WMG and IIT-Bhubaneshwar, IIT Karagphur and IIT Guwahatia. Warwick Business School has also been forging a fruitful relationship with the prestigious Indian institute of Management Ahmedabad, involving exchanges of MBA students.

The Australian perspective

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Australia

The University of Warwick – A global perspective

The Warwick-Monash Alliance – redefining global connectedness At the end of 2011, Warwick signed a formal agreement with Monash University (Melbourne) to create an alliance that will clearly establish both institutions as ‘globally connected universities’.

The agreement provides for jointly delivered degrees (including Master’s and PhDs), new research collaborations and cost sharing arrangements, and the development of ‘virtual mobility’ between both universities through interdisciplinary modules and online learning. The agreement commits funding to create ten new joint senior academic posts and the intention is also

to create a joint Pro-Vice-Chancellor position to oversee the new partnership.

The aim of this agreement is to address directly particular issues of the 21st century – increasing demands from students, industry and governments for universities to produce graduates with a global education, and to carry out research to address strategically important problems that have proved too big for any single institution to handle by itself. A core priority is to deliver a seamless international experience for students, one that will prepare them for a globally integrated job market. On the research side, several areas of collaboration have already been identified, including sustainable chemistry, advanced

materials, innovative manufacturing – all areas where the two universities have complementary skills and capabilities and where there is a known global demand for innovative ideas and knowledge.

This new approach to partnership and connectedness offers a model for research-led universities to meet future global challenges. In the words of Professor Nigel Thrift, we are preparing for a world which ‘will only sustain perhaps 50 such globally networked, research-heavy universities which exist in many locations, do research in many locations, and which will produce students who will live, learn and research in many locations.’

Professor Ed Byrne (Vice-Chancellor, Monash) and Vice-Chancellor Professor Nigel Thrift sign the Warwick-Monash agreement, December 2011.

A global response

Food security – one of Warwick’s Global Priorities

A global response 24

GLOBAL PRIORITIES PROGRAMME

The University of Warwick Responding through research to global challenges To find out more, visit www.warwick.ac.uk/research or email ResearchGPP@warwick.ac.uk

connecting cultures

energy

digital change

food security

individual behaviour

global governance

Currently we have identified nine Global Priorities: in addition to the three already mentioned, there are programmes on digital change, individual behaviour, innovative manufacturing, international development, science and technology for health, and connecting cultures.

As the Programme develops we expect to add more areas from our specialised research teams. This multi-disciplinary approach plays to Warwick’s particular research strengths and provides a new way of looking at these global issues.

international development

At Warwick we have repositioned our major areas of research strength around the grand challenges currently confronting the world – issues such as food security, global governance, energy, for example. These are issues that transcend individual academic disciplines, so we are assembling teams of researchers from across the University to ensure a truly interdisciplinary approach. Food security, for instance, involves consideration of food supply, sustainability, nutrition and public health, all against a background of global recession, climate change and loss of biodiversity. So we have put together a team from Life Sciences, Engineering, Law, Politics and International Studies and our Medical and Business Schools, whose combined expertise will enable us to look at the problem from every angle – from crop science to water and energy technology, mathematical modelling to the medical effects of salt intake, public health to trade law.

innovative manufacturing

The Global Priorities Programme

science & technology for health

The University of Warwick – A global perspective

As a leading UK research university with an expanding network of global connections and partnerships, Warwick feels an obligation to use these resources to address some of the world’s most pressing issues. For this reason, we have recently reconfigured our research programmes, and set up an international organisation to meet the needs of gifted young people around the world. And every year, through One World Week – one of the largest student festivals in the world – Warwick students transform campus into a seven day celebration of cultural diversity.

IGGY – the International Gateway for Gifted Youth such as international summer schools; students have contacts with leading academics and can take part in a variety of specially crafted programmes and challenges. With the support of technology partners IBM and CISCO, IGGY is developing a vibrant online learning platform – the pilot was launched at the beginning of 2012, covering computer programming, questions to academic experts, mathematical investigations and creative writing.

IGGY also gives us a fresh perspective on global issues. The IGGY Junior Commission brings together a group of young people from around the world, chosen through a competition, to consider a problem and present their

findings. The 2011 Junior Commission considered ‘Energy 2025: Challenging Tomorrow’s Leaders’. The debates and conclusions of the Junior Commissions enable us to look at problems from the viewpoint of those who are going to have to deal with them in the future.

The University of Warwick – A global perspective

IGGY is Warwick’s response to the needs of the brightest and most creative young people from around the world – the top 5% of 11 to 19 year-olds.

It is a unique organisation, building on our strengths in gifted and talented education, supporting the widening participation agenda on an international scale and providing an opportunity to train and influence the world’s potential leaders.

IGGY currently has members from 40 different countries, forming an international learning and social community: IGGY welcomes all talented young people regardless of their economic or social background.

Online courses and discussions are mixed with face-to-face programmes

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One World Week

The University of Warwick – A global perspective

One World Week is Warwick’s annual student festival that celebrates international culture and diversity, while also providing the opportunity to discuss and debate important issues affecting our world. The festival is entirely student-run and includes sports events, performances, the One World Week Forum and highlights such as the Fashion Show and the World Music Concert. The Forum offers a platform of ideas and discussions with high profile speakers from the worlds of industry, politics and development; in 2012, the series of panel debates included topics such as the future of energy, and the globalisation of culture.

Written in the Communications Office, The University of Warwick Design: Ball Design Consultancy Print: Lemon Press

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