IARU is pleased to welcome ETH Zurich President, Prof Ralph Eichler who assumes the role of IARU Chairman on 1 January 2013. Prof Eichler, who has been closely engaged in IARU matters as an active participant at annual Presidents' meetings, takes over from NUS President, Prof Tan Chorh Chuan who completed a four-year term. Chief amongst the new chairman's interest for the alliance is to strengthen IARU's focus on Global Education Initiatives which has already benefitted many bright students.

A flagship initiative for IARU which continues to grow from strength to strength is the Global Summer Program (GSP), now in its sixth cycle. GSP2013 features 19 courses from all ten IARU universities, and students get to spend a few weeks at an IARU institution of their choice and discuss contemporary global issues approached from a multi-disciplinary perspective with their peers.

The GSP also received a funding boost by Santander for scholarships to enable student mobility, so IARU can continue to attract the very best students. Applications for the GSP are open from 7 January – 1 March.

In the new year, IARU will looks forward to its upcoming events - the Academic IP and Collaborative Technology Transfer in Beijing in March as well as the Presidents' Meeting in April which will be hosted in Singapore. In the latter, Presidents will discuss current issues affecting higher education including IT Enhanced Learning, as well as the value of Liberal Arts Education.

The 7th Annual Presidents’ Meeting at the University of Copenhagen on 26 & 27 April was attended by seven university presidents and 23 senior representatives from IARU institutions. With the current chairman’s conclusion of his second term, the IARU Presidents unanimously elected Rector Ralf Eichler from ETH Zurich as its third Chairman. Rector Eichler will take over the helm of IARU on 2 January 2013.

IARU Presidents witnessed the establishment of a three-year partnership with Santander Universities, to provide travel grants to GSP students as part of the global bank’s corporate social responsibility. The first IARU-Santander scholarships have been awarded to a number of deserving Global Summer Program participants this year. IARU is grateful for Santander’s support which will enable more of our best students to participate in the summer program.

IARU Chair Prof Tan Chorh Chuan with Santander Vice President, Mr Salvador Medina (left); IARU Presidents and Senior Representatives (right)

Former Danish education minister and Senior Policy Advisor for the Institute for the Study of Labor, Prof Jozef Ritzen, was the guest speaker on the issue of “Future Careers and the Impact on Higher Education”. Presidents also approved two new initiatives – a conference on Sustainability Science Congress in 2013 (by the University of Copenhagen) and the Academic IP Pooling & Collaborative Technology Transfer workshop (by Peking University). This meeting also saw the continuation of conversations on the Value of Research Intensive Universities.

On 11 – 12 June, IARU librarians met in Singapore for the very first time, to discuss best practices as well as to explore the possibility and value of creating a network. The few months after the Presidents’ Meeting also saw another two Global Education Initiatives being run in Singapore - the 2nd Global Cross Disciplinary Tournament (26 July – 4 August) and the inaugural Graduate Student Conference (28 – 30 June).

Meeting of the IARU Librarians

Looking ahead, the 6th annual Global Summer Program Coordinators’ Meeting on 24 - 25 September will be hosted by Peking University and the 8th annual Senior Officers’ Meeting on 29 - 30 October will be hosted by Cambridge University.

The University of Copenhagen will be hosting the heads and senior representatives of IARU universities at the seventh annual Presidents' Meeting on 26 and 27 April. In anticipation and leading up to this meeting, several events are planned on 25 April including the second Workshop on the Value of Research Intensive universities and an Alumni Networking Reception for IARU alumni currently living or based in Copenhagen. The later is a follow-up on the receptions hosted in New York (2011) and London (2010) that had a very good turnout of international alumni who took the opportunity to meet with their university's senior representatives.

In addition to strengthening networks, IARU will engage in-depth in discussions led by keynote speaker Professor Jozef Ritzen – former Dutch Minister of Education and Sciences, and former President of Maastrich University will speak about the Future of Careers for undergraduates and its implications on universities. Presidents will also take stock the overall direction of IARU initiatives, discuss ideas on keeping the vitality of the Alliance, and very critically, the election of our third IARU Chairperson for 2013.

With the close of GSP applications on 2 March, IARU is pleased to report that the Alliance's summer program continues to receive strong interest from students. In particular, GSP attracts amongst the best students who are keen to engage with other IARU students through an intensive international summer program. To keep the strong momentum of this flagship program, Santander Universities will sign an agreement with IARU to provide sponsorship to fund student mobility from 2012 – 2014. The signing ceremony will also be held at the IARU Presidents' Meeting.

Last but not least, The University of Tokyo has reconvened the workshop on Women and Men in Globalizing Universities on 16 & 17 March. Gender and diversity specialists from eight IARU institutions met to share current practices and the state of progress in their individual institutions since the last meeting in 2008. At a separate meeting on 2 – 4 April, IARU Sustainability Officers met at the Australian National University for their third meeting.

The Alliance is starting the New Year with the much-anticipated launch of 21 Global Summer Program (GSP) courses on 9 January.  The success of this initiative – which involves the collective efforts of ten partners in designing and coordinating these courses – reaffirms the Alliance's commitment to bringing innovations in teaching and learning that is truly global in scope, transcending disciplinary, cultural and geographical boundaries.  It continues to create opportunities for students from member universities to gain cross-cultural as well as cross-disciplinary exposure and experiences, and for faculty and staff to gain from deep and meaningful collaboration and exchange.

Now in its fifth year, GSP has also built up an alumni base.  GSP cohorts may be small, but every participant counts.  IARU recognises that GSP students have a valuable network which extends across ten leading global universities, so we hope to organize activities, some organized by the Directors of Alumni Associations, and will be publicized on our official GSP Facebook page.

We hope our GSP Alumni will keep in touch, and take the opportunity to share their experiences with incoming GSP students especially if their time on the GSP has challenged them to "see the world differently".

IARU Senior Officers and representatives were hosted in Canberra by the Australian National University for the 7th Meeting of IARU Senior Officers.  Highlights of the meeting included robust discussions on flagship program the Sustainable Campus Initiative by Mr Bart Meehan (ANU) and the HR & Benchmarking initiative where its lead Mr Indi Seehra (Cambridge) joined us via teleconference for the updates.  Senior Officers also heard from Ms Caroline Smith from Skills Australia on issues related to future workforce planning and necessary skills for fresh graduates in Australia.

The Global Summer Program (GSP) continues to do well.  The course line-up for 2012 will be launched on this website on 9 January, and will feature a suite of Sustainability themed courses in addition to the regular offering of specialized and multidisciplinary courses.  Other than the GSP, students can also consider IARU's internship offerings as well as participate in an Academic Tournament conducted online (the Global Cross Disciplinary Tournament, or GXT).

New proposals and plans were also approved, which included the convening of IARU Research Administrators' (hosted by KU) as well as University Librarians (hosted by NUS).  IARU's first Graduate Student Conference will be organized by NUS' Global Asian Institute on 28 – 29 June 2012 featuring six themes: Ageing, Asian Cities, Health, Life-cycle Financing, System Dynamics and Comparative Asian Studies.

Overall, IARU has 16 active initiatives categorized under Global Education Initiatives, Institutional Joint Working, Research, and a Grand Challenge.  In keeping with its strategy as a small but closely knit Alliance, IARU will continue to focus on providing unique educational programs, focusing on tackling Grand Challenges such as Campus Sustainability and encouraging benchmarking initiatives for universities that are research-intensive in nature.

IARU's Global Summer Program has just concluded another successful season, its fourth.   19 courses were conducted at various campuses including field trips to locations around Southeast Asia and Costa Rica, attended by 284 students from all ten IARU member institutions.  Once again, students shared that the Program was successful due to the rigorous nature of GSP courses, as well as the opportunity to participate in peer learning alongside students from the other IARU institutions, making the group a highly diversified mix of international students is a very novel summer program.

At the end of the GSP cycle, coordinators will meet to discuss and audit the program, taking into account feedback and the experiences of our students and faculty for next year's program.  This year, GSP coordinators will meet for the fifth time in Copenhagen on 17 - 18 October.  A key item on the agenda is to discuss the future of GSP, and the progress of the education initiative which is a flagship initiative of the Alliance.

The Alliance is also looking forward to its seventh annual Senior Officers' Meeting held on 24 - 25 October at The Australian National University in Canberra.  There, senior officers will hear and discuss the developments of various IARU initiatives, in particular, on Campus Sustainability led by Mr Bart Meehan (ANU), as well as recently conducted workshops for Leadership Best Practice and Integrated Services.  This close knit Alliance will also discuss higher education issues, and have the opportunity to collectively examine "the Future of Work/Careers" and how it might impact the delivery of undergraduate education.

We end this update on a high, congratulatory note to our IARU partners and their stellar performances on this year's Times World University Rankings and QS World University Rankings.  A number of our partners have made the top 10 billing, all are leaders in their region, and made waves in their rankings by subject.  Congratulations!