A delegation from Queen Mary University of London led by Vice-Principal (International) Professor Colin Grant recently visited Southeast Asia to strengthen collaborations in the region.
The week-long trip included meetings with key research, education, policy and industry bodies in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.
The delegation visited one of Queen Mary’s most recent partners, the world-renowned National University of Singapore (NUS), where both institutions signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) earlier this year.
Other highlights were visits to Khazanah, Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund, and INTAN, the Malaysian government agency responsible for the training of civil servants in management and administration.
In Singapore, Queen Mary launched a new partnership with the country’s leading research agency, A*STAR. This was attended by the British Deputy High Commissioner to Singapore, Alexandra McKenzie. The partnership will develop joint research across medicine, health, science and engineering, and includes funding a number of PhD scholarships.
On the same day, Queen Mary doubled the number of places available on its student exchange programme with longstanding partner, Nanyang Technological University Singapore (NTU). NTU is consistently ranked as one of the top universities in the world (QS World University Rankings 2018).
Commenting on the extension, Professor Grant said: “We are delighted to be extending our partnership with NTU, a university that is renowned for its cutting-edge research and young talent. By increasing the number of exchange places available to our students, we are circulating global talent and enabling more students to expand their cultural awareness.”
Augustine Tang, President of Queen Mary’s Singapore Society and a third year LLB student, commented on his experience as an international student at Queen Mary: "I’ve received a world-class education at Queen Mary, and the skills and knowledge I’ve acquired were very useful during my various internships back home in Singapore. I am confident that the A*STAR initiative will give any student the best of both Singapore and London, and much more.
“Completing a degree overseas was daunting at first, leaving behind family, friends and the comforts of home. Two years later, I now know that there was nothing to worry about. At Queen Mary I have made friends from all over the world, while learning to be independent and adaptable."
Queen Mary currently has 663 Southeast Asian students across all levels of study, with the majority hailing from Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. This makes Southeast Asia the third largest region for international student recruitment at Queen Mary, after East and South Asia.
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