A high-level Asia Advisory Board is being created to influence and leverage engagement with Asia. Meeting on a twice yearly basis, the board will develop corporate, philanthropic, student employment and mobility links throughout the region.
In parallel, a new Nottingham Asia Network for academic staff will link the University’s campuses in the UK, China and Malaysia, building business, education and research collaboration.
The Nottingham Asia Network can help bring forward projects to support the Nottingham’s Impact Campaign, which aims to raise £150m over the next five years. Impact will support a series of high-impact projects on the local, national and global stage.
“The new Asia Business Centre forms part of a three-pronged way of coordinating the University’s engagement with Asia,” said Professor Chris Rudd, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Business Engagement and Knowledge Transfer at The University of Nottingham.
“With our mature and highly regarded campus bases in Asia, combined with the extensive range of influential contacts we have created through educational and research partnerships, Nottingham has enviable potential to grow business engagement — but this window of opportunity is limited.
“It’s important we continue to develop, to innovate and to exploit our first-mover advantage in the region. This will build volume, continue to differentiate the institution as other western players enter the Asian market with campus offers, and demonstrate value to UK stakeholders through benefits to local and national economies, student experience and local communities.”
The Advisory Board will aim to provide high-level influence and leverage on behalf of the University and its partners, whilst the Business Centre provides an internal and external focus for business engagement, inward investment and technology transfer opportunities.
The Asia Business Centre will:
- support innovation partnerships and knowledge-transfer programmes between campuses in Asia through an events programme
- identify and develop industrial R&D projects in Asia, contracting research for Research and Graduate Services and the International Office
- develop training and internships within the University and for The University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC) and The University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus (UNMC)
- support Asia activities in Communications, the Campaign Office and the International Office
- link with Nottingham Technologies Asia (NTA), in China, and MyRIAD, in Malaysia.
It will also support the Campaign Office with:
- existing key Asia networks
- collaboration with UNIEI for Asia facing student business and mobility
- working with existing Asia based donors
- research into new philanthropic opportunities.
The Asia Business Centre is a key project within the University’s new appeal, Impact: The Nottingham Campaign, which is delivering the University’s vision to change lives, tackle global issues and shape the future. More information is available at http://tiny.cc/UoNImpact
The team will carry out engagement and public affairs work with:
- political contacts
- government departments in host countries
- leading UK based business engagement organisations eg. UKTI
- providing solutions for business, eg. signposting to professional service providers, language support and innovation support.
The University of Nottingham’s links with Malaysia go back 60 years. In 1950, the first group of Malaysian students arrived in Nottingham.
In 2000, The University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus (UNMC) first opened its doors to just 90 students in Kuala Lumpur. Since then, our student body in Malaysia has grown to around 4,000 — including more than 70 nationalities — based at our 101-acre dedicated campus site in Semenyih. It is celebrating its eleventh anniversary this month.
The University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC) was the first Western university to open in China, in 2004, and now has more than 5,000 students. All degree programmes are taught in English and students receive a British-style education and UK degrees from The University of Nottingham.
Follow the Asia Business Centre on Twitter at www.twitter.com/AsiaBusinessCtr
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Notes to editors: The University of Nottingham, described by The Sunday Times University Guide 2011 as “the embodiment of the modern international university”, has award-winning campuses in the United Kingdom, China and Malaysia. It is ranked in the UK’s top 10 and the world’s top 75 universities by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) and the QS World University Rankings. It was named ‘Europe’s greenest university’ in the UI GreenMetric World University Ranking, a league table of the world’s most environmentally-friendly higher education institutions, which ranked Nottingham second in the world overall.
The University is committed to providing a truly international education for its 40,000 students, producing world-leading research and benefiting the communities around its campuses in the UK and Asia. Impact: The Nottingham Campaign, its biggest ever fund-raising campaign, will deliver the University’s vision to change lives, tackle global issues and shape the future. For more details, visit: www.nottingham.ac.uk/impactcampaign
More than 90 per cent of research at The University of Nottingham is of international quality, according to the most recent Research Assessment Exercise, with almost 60 per cent of all research defined as ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’. Research Fortnight analysis of RAE 2008 ranked the University 7th in the UK by research power.
The University’s vision is to be recognised around the world for its signature contributions, especially in global food security, energy & sustainability, and health.
More news from the University at: www.nottingham.ac.uk/news