Southampton extends global reach during USA tour
A recent coast-to-coast tour of the United States by University of Southampton President and Vice-Chancellor, Professor Mark Smith CBE, has resulted in agreements with a number of major new partners.
Professor Smith led a delegation that travelled across the USA – from California to New York – where Memorandums of Understanding were signed between Southampton and the University of California San Diego, the University of Rochester in New York and the US Military Academy at West Point, also in New York.
The student exchange agreement signed by the Professor Smith with UC San Diego Chancellor, Professor Pradeep K Khosla and Vice-Chancellor Marine Sciences, Professor Margaret S Leinen is specifically focused on the world-renowned Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The first students are expected to arrive at the start of the 2020-21 academic year.
On his Twitter account, Professor Smith said: “It’s a huge privilege to sign a student exchange agreement with UC San Diego and the Scripps Institution with its Director, Professor Leinen, describing it as a first unique agreement.”
The University of Rochester, a fellow member of the Worldwide Universities Network (WUN), is another key strategic partner, specifically in the fields of optoelectronics, data science and health sciences. The signing of a new university-wide exchange agreement by Professor Smith with Rochester Provost, Professor Rob Clark, paves the way for further student mobility from the USA to Southampton and opens opportunities for new research collaborations around the four WUN global challenges, with a view to developing a future WUN Research Development Fund (RDF) application.
Southampton’s relationship with the US Military Academy builds on the University’s long-standing reputation in military education. UoS is one of only two universities in the UK to host all four University Service Units: Officer Training Corps (OTC, Army), Royal Navy Unit (URNU), Air Squadron (UAS) and a joint, tri-Service, Defence Technical Undergraduate Scheme Squadron (DTUS). The agreement signed by Professor Smith with Brigadier Cindy R. Jebb, Dean of the USMA Academic Board, will offer a postgraduate scholarship for one cadet each year to study a Master’s programme in Southampton with the prospect of exploring mutual research links across Engineering and Physical Sciences, Environmental and Life Sciences and Social Sciences.