The University of Queensland (UQ) will strengthen its Asian connections this September with a graduate celebration in Hong Kong and several alumni events in China.
The international events, which are scheduled between September 10 and 15, will be some of the last University functions attended by Vice-Chancellor Professor John Hay, AC.
Professor Hay will retire on December 31, 2007 after 12 years as UQ’s Vice-Chancellor.
The Hong Kong celebration, to be held on September 15 at the Island Shangri-La Hotel, will provide an opportunity for recent Hong Kong graduates to be presented to the Chancellor in front of their families and friends. Similar ceremonies were held in Beijing and Shanghai in October 2006.
Currently, there are more than 1000 Chinese students enrolled at UQ predominantly in the areas of business and engineering.
They comprise the university’s largest single cohort of international students and about one-fifth of the total number of international students.
The graduate celebration will be attended by a number of UQ’s most prominent staff including the Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor and senior members of the Executive.
The international alumni celebrations which, this year, will be held in Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou and Hong Kong, provide an opportunity for recent graduates and friends of UQ to make new contacts and reconnect with old ones.
UQ has 58 teaching and research agreements with 30 Chinese universities.
These agreements support a range of student and staff exchange, research collaboration, and institutional strengthening activities.
In October last year, Queensland Brain Institute (QBI) neuroscientists from UQ formalised a research agreement with the Chinese Academy of Science, Institute of Neuroscience (ION).
The QBI and Zeiss Australasia have created a travelling fellowship providing funds for QBI scientists to visit China to collaborate with their Chinese colleagues, and for Chinese scientists to come and work with QBI for up to 12 months.
In November last year, one of UQ’s most acclaimed researchers, Professor Max Lu, became the only Australian included in a list of the 50 most influential Chinese in the world.
The list, compiled by Phoenix Weekly magazine for its September issue throughout China, ranked Professor Lu, Director of the Australian Research Council Centre for Functional Nanomaterials with the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN) at UQ, among the 10 leaders in academia and science.
UQ, which has three campuses in Queensland, Australia, is one of the country’s top universities.
UQ’s first-class facilities, exceptional research performance and the outstanding success of graduates in gaining employment allow it to maintain a world-class ranking.
More information on graduate and alumni celebrations is available at www.uq.edu.au/graduations/international.
