University of Groningen delegation inspired by a productive visit to Macquarie University

From 11 to 15 March 2024 a University of Groningen delegation visited Macquarie University in Sydney, strengthening ties with an already close partner university that is a key part of the UG’s strategic partnership framework (SPF). Macquarie’s strategy is detailed and well thought-out, and places its Global PhD at the centre of a wide-ranging programme, with academic excellence and global societal impact at its heart. Leading the delegation, President Jouke de Vries found the trip inspiring and thought-provoking.

Macquarie University: strategic partner

Macquarie University has officially been a strategic partner since the birth of the UG’s Strategic Partnership Framework (SPF) in 2021. Yet collaboration between the two universities dates back more than a decade, with the extremely successful PhD consortium IDEALAB. IDEALAB sits within the UG’s Faculty of Arts, but is a partnership of four universities (UG, MQ, Potsdam, and Newcastle in the UK).

IDEALAB is an example of continuing successful collaboration between the two universities, and is going strong with more than 50 global PhD graduates, and more in the making. As part of the consortium PhD, candidates spend time with at least two of the consortium’s four partners, and therefore benefit not only from a wealth of academic expertise, but also from meeting and collaborating internationally as a core aspect of their PhD.

Cohort-based PhD collaboration

The success of IDEALAB, as well as Macquarie’s strategic focus on a cohort-based global PhD programme, has potential to inspire developments in the UG’s international PhD collaborations. Students in the IDEALAB have benefitted from beginning a PhD within a pre-defined group of colleagues working on the same research theme. The shared expertise and camaraderie that this affords is attributed as a major factor for the consortium’s success, and could serve as a model for the broadening collaboration with MQ.

Overlapping research interests

More than 10 UG colleagues have already used the UG’s SPF travel grant in order to visit their counterparts in Sydney and develop further connections; Macquarie offers the same support for their own colleagues to apply to come to Groningen, and the UG has hosted around 15 visitors from Macquarie. The collaboration often develops organically, as colleagues continue by connecting online in spite of the time-zone difference. Matches have already been made in many of the UG’s faculties, including FSE, FSS, Law, Arts, and GSMS; all of MQ’s four faculties are actively collaborating with the UG in many areas.

The UG delegation’s visit

The delegation was led by UG President Prof. Jouke de Vries. He was joined by Dr Konstantin Mierau, Academic Ambassador for Oceania; Prof Pedro da Faria, Faculty of Economics and Business; and Mr John Falvey, International Policy Advisor (Oceania).

The group represented the UG at Macquarie’s Strategic Research Partner Forum. Macquarie has a network of 9 global partners, many of which are also partners of the UG, such as the University of Hamburg, University of Ghent, Mahidol University and others. The forum afforded opportunities to consider how research collaboration can be optimised in a rapidly changing world, and how higher education can play its role to bring academic excellence together across international borders, and in spite of growing global geopolitical tensions.

Macquarie presented their own highly developed approach, and Prof de Vries presented the UG’s strategy of making connections: between academic disciplines, between knowledge institutions and the local community in the northern Netherlands, and in both EU and global contexts. Together with Macquarie’s academic director of the Graduate Research Academy, Prof Jennifer Cornish, UG Academic Ambassador for Oceania, Dr Konstantin Mierau presented several joint teaching modules for PhDs that the two partners have been offering since 2021. We also heard from a number of Macquarie’s partners from the Asia-Pacific and the globe.

As part of the forum, UG delegates were treated to a tour of Sydney’s magnificent harbour hosted by the VC of Macquarie, Prof S. Bruce Dowton. Overall it was a very warm welcome from our friends and colleagues down under.

Next steps

In recent years, Double Doctoral candidates with UG/MQ have received a PhD scholarship during their time in Groningen; the end of the scholarship experiment in the Netherlands has meant that extra funding is needed in order to realise the potential of the partnership across the many UG faculties. The UG is actively exploring ways to make this kind of collaboration more seamless, and the visit has enabled UG colleagues to see where some of the obstacles to further collaboration might lie.

President Jouke de Vries remains positive about the collaboration, and is ambitious that a way can be found to ensure the investment that Macquarie makes in the partnership is met by investment from the UG’s side. Looking forward, Prof de Vries is eager to welcome Macquaries’ VC, Prof S. Bruce Dowton, during the UG’s strategic partner forum in May of this year, where a roadmap for further successful collaboration can be forged.

For more information about the collaboration with Macquarie, please contact Dr Konstantin Mierau (Academic Ambassador for Oceania) or John Falvey (International Policy Officer for Oceania). If you would like to know more about the SPF travel grant, applications are open now, please take a look at the website.