Stellenbosch University (SU) has again been selected to serve on the steering committee of AC 21 – Academic Consortium for the 21st Century. This was announced at the 2016 AC21 International Forum held at Chemnitz University of Technology (TU Chemnitz) in Germany from 29 April – 3 May 2016. SU, the only university from Africa represented in the network, hosted the biennial meeting in 2014. The consortium consists of 19 universities from Australia, China, France, Germany, USA, Thailand, Indonesia, Japan, New Zealand and Lao People's Democratic Republic. Its steering committee is responsible for making strategic decisions for the future development of the consortium.
More than 120 guests from AC 21 member institutions and stakeholders participated in the forum discussing networks of innovation for the transformation of society through science. Attending the 2016 meeting, Prof Wim de Villiers, Rector and Vice-Chancellor, Robert Kotzé, Senior Director: Postgraduate & International Office and Anita Nel, Senior Director: Innovation and Business Development, represented SU giving presentations on research excellence, innovation and next steps in internationalisation at the university.
Prof de Villiers took part in a panel discussion which included Prof Seiichi Matsuo, President of Nagoya University (Japan) and Prof Julie Owens, Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research Strategy at the University of Adelaide (Australia). Discussing 'Excellence in Research and Research Transfer' Prof de Villiers spoke of SU's "triad of scientific excellence, social relevance and transfer, which makes products out of research on the one hand and communicates knowledge about research results to society on the other hand".
The 2016 AC 21 International Forum coincided with the 180th Anniversary Celebrations of TU Chemnitz. Apart from consortium meetings, other topics discussed during the event included student mobility, staff exchanges and recent trends in international higher education. The programme also included extensive visits to TU Chemnitz's industry partners highlighting university-industry collaboration as vehicle for the transformation of society.
Such multilateral consortia have the further benefit of also enhancing our bilateral activities as evidenced by the number of bilateral collaborations SU has developed since joining this consortium (in bold): AC 21 members: The University of Adelaide, Jilin University, Nanjing University, Northeastern University, Peking University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Tongji University Shanghai, University of Strasbourg, Technische Universität Chemnitz, University of Freiburg, Gadjah Mada University, Nagoya University, National University of Laos, University of Canterbury, Stellenbosch University, Chulalongkorn University, Kasetsart University, North Carolina State University and The University of Minnesota.
Picture: SU's Robert Kotzé, Senior Director: Postgraduate & International Office (second from right) during a discussion of the 2016 AC21 International Forum
