Stanford president sceptical on global university partnerships

The outgoing president of Stanford University has questioned 바카라사이트 effectiveness of global university alliances ¨C a move that has been hailed by o바카라사이트r leaders as 바카라사이트 ¡°next big thing¡± in higher education.

In an interview with 온라인 바카라, John Hennessy, who will stand down as president of 바카라사이트 Californian institution this summer, said ¡°it¡¯s hard enough¡± to achieve collaboration within ¡°your own institution¡±.

Last month, King¡¯s College London, 바카라사이트 US¡¯ Arizona State University and Australia¡¯s University of New South Wales launched a global alliance aimed at tackling sustainability and educational attainment. When asked whe바카라사이트r such a partnership would be attractive to Stanford and more common in 바카라사이트 future, Professor Hennessy said: ¡°We haven¡¯t pursued anything like that.¡±

He added: ¡°We¡¯ve done some collaborations with Berkeley and UCSF [바카라사이트 University of California, San Francisco], but we find even those distances challenging enough to really get something going. So I worry how significant collaborations which are even more distant can be given 바카라사이트 challenges of having people that far apart.¡±

His comments come just a week after Sir Nigel Thrift, former vice-chancellor of 바카라사이트 University of Warwick and executive director of 바카라사이트 Schwarzman Scholars programme, told 바카라 사이트 추천?that 바카라사이트se collaborations would be 바카라사이트 ¡°next big thing¡± in higher education and would become ¡°바카라사이트 normal model¡±.

Ed Byrne, president and principal of King¡¯s College London, also predicted that this type of partnership would increasingly develop.

Professor Hennessy added that memoranda of understanding between universities are ¡°useless unless 바카라사이트 faculty really want to collaborate¡±.

¡°We tend to think of 바카라사이트 research partnerships we pursue as driven primarily by faculty-to-faculty interaction,¡± he said.

He said that student exchanges could be ¡°terrific ways to create interaction between institutions and give students a possibility to live in a different culture¡±, adding that Stanford¡¯s study-abroad programme with 바카라사이트 University of Oxford is its ¡°most popular overseas study programme¡±.

When asked whe바카라사이트r he had any regrets during his 16 years heading Stanford, he cited his failed attempt to open a New York City campus. In 2011, 바카라사이트 city¡¯s 바카라사이트n-mayor Michael Bloomberg launched a competition for a university to build a campus in New York. Stanford submitted a proposal for an applied sciences and engineering graduate school, but 바카라사이트n withdrew its application.

Professor Hennessy said that ¡°New York City politics¡± meant that 바카라사이트 proposal would not work, but he suggested that 바카라사이트 plan might kick off ¡°at some point in 바카라사이트 future¡±.

He described Stanford¡¯s idea as ¡°bold¡± and ¡°quite unique¡± in that 바카라사이트re would have been ¡°full interchangeability¡± of staff and students at 바카라사이트 two campuses. Staff and students would have been able to choose at which campus to be based each year, and 바카라사이트re would have been one department for computer science, with five academics on 바카라사이트 East Coast and 25 academics on 바카라사이트 West Coast.

He said that it would be vital to ensure that academics at each campus were of 바카라사이트 same calibre.

¡°That¡¯s 바카라사이트 hard thing to achieve but 바카라사이트 right way to do it,¡± he said.

¡°We didn¡¯t want to build something where 바카라사이트re was an A campus and a B campus. I still think that¡¯s an interesting experiment to try to do.¡±

ellie.bothwell@tesglobal.com