U21 network – fruitful global meeting place

Lund University doctoral students Rong Cao and Ulrika Gunnerud are researching different aspects of food and nutrition. But it was only when they both happened to attend a U21 conference on the other side of the globe that they met and realised they had something in common.
“The U21 network brings students, lecturers, researchers and administrators together across the boundaries of cultures and disciplines. Take the opportunity to get to know colleagues all over the world,” urges Jane Usherwood, U21’s secretary general, on her recent visit to Lund.
Although Lund University has been part of the global U21 network for ten years, it is relatively unknown among students and staff. But at the start of the semester a well-attended workshop was held which, it is hoped, will lead to more people becoming aware of the network. Perhaps 2012 will also turn out to be a breakthrough year – as U21’s annual meeting will take place in Lund in May.
Doctoral students Rong Cao, Applied Microbiology, and Ulrika Gunnerud, Applied Nutrition and Food Chemistry, met at the conference on ‘Food Security’ in Kuala Lumpur.

“As a research student you are extremely focused on your own subject area, but in Kuala Lumpur we met colleagues from other subjects and from ten other countries. And so we got to know one another,” they tell LUM.

It was useful to gain perspective on research about food, they think.

“Since there were only around forty participants, we got the opportunity to engage in fairly deep discussions with each other”, says Ulrika Gunnerud.

U21 organises several meetings for students, researchers/lecturers and administrators every year. Sara Goodman, a lecturer in gender studies, travelled to Fudan University in Shanghai this summer with students Linn Alenius and Louise Lorentzon to attend the Undergraduate Research Conference. Linn Alenius had earned a place with her essay on gender mainstreaming.

“I am not used to speaking in front of large audiences and even less so in English. It was good practice,” she says.

“The quality at the conference was high” says Sara Goodman, “and the concrete experiences gave people a grasp of what U21 is.”

Over the years, several students from Lund University have taken part in U21’s annual summer school. In 2005 it was held in Lund, while the most recent summer school took place in Dublin on the theme of conflict resolution, with examples from Northern Ireland. Several Lund University students testified that the workshop was an engaging experience.

“At the start, U21 was a bit of a dining club for the vice-chancellors,” says Secretary General Jane Usherwood bluntly. “But then the network acquired more substance and increasingly included more groups, subjects and levels.”

Lund University pays an annual membership fee of USD 44 800 to U21. A large part of U21’s budget goes to student mobility, but more investment is now being made in collaborative groups, not least for young researchers, and in increased support for various research networks. If these really get going, there is an increased chance of expanding U21’s joint PhD programme, which Lund University has recently joined.

This is Universitas 21

A global network of 23 leading research-intensive, comprehensive universities in 15 countries. Lund University has been a member since the year 2000.

Aim

To facilitate collaboration and cooperation in education, research and administration on a scale that no individual university would be able to achieve through traditional bilateral alliances. Collaboration on global sustainable development and progress in teaching are prioritised.

Annual student events

Every year, U21 arranges a summer school for 100 students and 20 members of teaching staff, an interdisciplinary undergraduate research conference for students and teaching staff, and a research conference for doctoral students. Lund University covers conference fees and provides grants for travel and expenses.

Joint programmes

Six U21 universities, including Lund, offer the interdisciplinary Global Issues programme; students can choose from 70 courses, of which 15 can be taken online.
In 2011 Lund signed a declaration of intent which opened the doors for a joint PhD within U21.

Collaborative groups

Groups exist to improve student mobility, support young researchers in their careers, work with new teaching platforms, etc. There are a number of professional networks for vice-chancellors, heads of administration, programme directors, academic leaders, international relations managers, human resources managers, etc.

Research collaborations

Networks exist in Digital Humanities – a workshop will be held in Lund in May 2012 – and in Health Science, where the Faculty of Medicine is involved in several projects. ‘Water Futures for Sustainable Cities’ is a large interdisciplinary research project, in which Lund is an active partner.