Uppsala University, Sweden

Month: May 2013

The University as a driving force for economic development

On Wednesday and Thursday Deputy Vice-Chancellor Anders Malmberg participated in the Global University Summit 2013 in London. This was the sixth time a “University Summit” was organized for the leaders of the so-called G8 meeting (which this year takes place in mid-June in Northern Ireland). More than 200 people were gathered to discuss the captioned theme, and to adopt a declaration submitted to the G8 summit.

Despite the global ambition, the British home ground advantage was clearly reflected both among the participants and in the rostrum. Memorable appearances were conducted by, for instance, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills Dr Vince Cable (“the link between academia and Mammon’s world was an impossible thought in the 1960s, but has now been institutionalized”) as well as the charismatic and eccentric London Mayor Boris Johnson (“London is a nuclear reactor loaded with talent”). The Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge, Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, delivered a tribute to the wide research university inherent of dynamism and creativity, and stressed the need for both institutional autonomy and academic freedom. This was a healthy counterbalance to the (even for an innovation and collaboration enthusiast) slightly too one-sided utilitarian thinking that otherwise characterized the meeting.

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Friday night in Beijing: alumni in long lines

Yesterday was the alumni event at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Beijing. Six of the seven Matariki universities together invited former students. It worked very well to organize this together, and the attendance was better than anyone had dared hope. Chris Higgins, Vice-Chancellor of Durham University, welcomed everyone, and then it was mingling all the way. Uppsala, pleasingly, had the most participants, about fifty alumni. As always it was fun and energizing to meet all the ambitious and enterprising young people united by the fact that they had all studied – and survived – in Uppsala. There were students from all parts of the University, with some emphasis on computer science, life sciences, media and communication and peace and conflict studies.

A special thanks to Eric (Hao Liu), chairman of the Uppsala University alumni chapter in Beijing, and to Thomas Fredengren for his work to make it all happen.

Below are three photos from the event, from the left: all the Uppsala alumni gathered, Eric and Anders, the partners of the Matariki network (photo by Leif Kirsebom). More photos will be posted on the Alumni Network website later.

 

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