Warwick goes down under

The University of Warwick has officially signed an academic partnership with a Australian university Monash. The alliance with Monash University in Melbourne has been underway for several years, with Warwick’s Vice-Chancellor first signing a strategic alliance agreement with Monash in 2009.

President of the Students’ Union Leo Boe praised the partnership, “[Monash] has a lot in common with Warwick, it’s one of the world’s most progressive, upcoming and innovative universities.”

He added that “it’s the beginning of a very important strategic partnership, it is in the interests of Warwick students, and future students will really benefit from the partnership.”

So far joint appointments have been established. The next step will be joint pHDs, with students able to spend time at each university and do research across them. Boe said: “both Monash and Warwick are centres of excellence in certain fields, so there’s some good collaborative work that can be done in many areas. The joint appointments have already been set up, and the joint pHDs look to be set up next year. The University is taking it one step at a time rather than rushing into it.”

A further objective of the partnership will be undergraduate exchanges between the universities, although this will take several years to implement.

The scheme is part of Warwick’s internationalism strategy, which has also witnessed attempts to make links in New York, and an abandoned excursion into establishing a campus in Singapore in 2009.

Boe said that the current partnership is part of making Warwick an internationally viable university, “There’s this question about how universities will be able to compete on an international level, and it’s partnerships like these which will make the difference, and make certain universities stand out, especially in terms of research excellence and the student experience.

“It’s what a lot of universities aspire to do, but can’t as they are not in the position Warwick are in. I don’t think anyone would say that it was a negative thing for students or for the future of the University.”