UCD's Global Week 2018 Wrap-Up

Last week saw UCD's Office of Global Engagement host the inaugural UCD Global Week, which showcased the University's relationships around the world and the importance of the partnerships that faculty and staff have worked so hard to build over the past number of years.

UCD's Vice-President for Global Engagement Professor Dolores O'Riordan formally opened proceedings by providing staff with an update on UCD's Global Engagement strategy 2016-2020. She was joined by Minister Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Minister of State for Higher Education) who outlined the important role that universities play in the international education strategy (Globally Connected"). The Minister's visit to UCD coincided with the Taoiseach's launch of "Global Ireland" Ireland's Global Footprint to 2025.

Speaking about the week, Professor Dolores O'Riordan said, 'The week was a great success, with attendance from across the University. We had an incredibly diverse mix of speakers, and special thanks to the external panellists who participated, in particular Minister Mary Mitchell O'Connor who opened the event.

'As Ireland's Global University, we are proud of the networks, partnerships, and student and staff cohort that we have from around the world. The workshops and discussions that took place during the week gave us the opportunity to not only showcase the extent of our global reach, but also reflect on our practices around managing our global partnerships, and international student recruitment and support.
 
'We had excellent engagement online throughout the week, with those unable to attend able to get a real flavour of the events through our social media accounts. We look forward to reviewing this inaugural year with participants and colleagues, and will begin planning for Global Week 2019 very soon.'
 

Highlights from UCD Global Week 

A broad range of presentations, panel discussions and workshops took place during UCD Global week, facilitated and led by both internal staff and faculty and invited guests. Highlights from sessions with external speakers included:

  • Indian ambassador to Ireland, HE. Vijay Thakur Singh led an interesting discussion with UCD staff on building relationships with institutions in India.
  • Anesa Hosein from the University of Surrey and Namrata Rao from Liverpool Hope University ran a workshop on migrant academics & internationalisation.
  • UCD staff took part in an intercultural awareness and engagement workshop with Guido de Wilde from our U21 partner the University of Amsterdam.
  • Secretary-General of the Department of Foreign affairs Niall Burgess led a panel discussion on Ireland's plan to develop and expand presence in the Asia Pacific region.
  • Isabell Majewsky Anderson from the University of Edinburgh facilitated a workshop on Internationalising the student experience. 
  • Gail Armistead from the University of Nottingham spoke about international strategies and making them a reality on the ground.
  • Colum Cronin from UCD International co-presented with Sinead Lucey from the Irish Universities Association on Ireland's Immigration system. 

An important element of UCD Global Week was also learning from our peers on the importance of international collaborations in their field, and interesting and engaging panel discussions were held throughout the week.

We have a dedicated area of available resources from UCD Global Week on the UCD staff intranet. If you have any issues accessing this page, please do not hesitate to contact internationalagreeements@ucd.ie