International network of universities

Four of the world’s major research university groups are to form an international network. The Association of American Universities (AAU), the League of European Research Universities (LERU), the China 9 League of leading universities and the Australian Group of Eight (Go8) research-intensive universities plan to join forces to tackle what the groups see as the challenges facing research institutions around the world.

The network organisers plan to provide research university input to the global research council, which was launched last May during a multinational summit promoted and hosted by the US National Science Foundation.

Go8 Executive Director Michael Gallagher says that the initial focus would be on three issues: a joint statement from the four groups on the roles and importance of contemporary research universities; benchmarking data so universities in each of the groups could be compared in terms of their capacity and performance; and the relationship of the network with the global research council, which at present had no “provider universities” input.

(04|2013) Source: Universityworldnews