NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Worldwide Universities Network

The Worldwide Universities Network (WUN) is an invitation-only group of 16 research-led universities which have agreed to carry out research and research training on a collaborative basis. The WUN provides financial and infrastructural support to member universities to allow student and staff exchanges, development of international training programs and collaborative research work. Jump to: navigation, search This article is about the year 2000. ... World map showing Europe (geographically) When considered a continent, Europe is the worlds second-smallest continent in terms of area, with an area of 10,600,000 kmÂ² (4,140,625 square miles), making it larger than Australia only. ... Jump to: navigation, search World map showing North America (geographically) A satellite composite image of North America North America is a continent in the northern hemisphere, bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the south by the Caribbean Sea, and... Jump to: navigation, search World map showing Asia (geographically) Asia is the central and eastern part of Eurasia and worlds largest continent. ... Professor Eric Thomas Eric Jackson Thomas, born 24 March 1953 in Hartlepool, County Durham, has been Vice-Chancellor of the University of Bristol since 2001. ... The University of Bristol is a university in Bristol in the United Kingdom. ... Jump to: navigation, search Research is an active, diligent, and systematic process of inquiry in order to discover, interpret or revise facts, events, behaviours, or theories, or to make practical applications with the help of such facts, laws, or theories. ... Jump to: navigation, search A professor giving a lecture at the Helsinki University of Technology A university is an institution of higher education and of research, which grants academic degrees. ... Students attending a lecture at the Helsinki University of Technology Etymologically derived through Middle English from the Latin second-type conjugation verb stÅdÄ“rÄ•, which means to direct ones zeal at; hence a student is one who directs zeal at a subject. ...

Introduction

Founded in 2000¹, the Worldwide Universities Network is an invitation-only, nonprofit group of universities from the United Kingdom, Europe, the United States and China. The network provides for collaboration among its members, principally by organizing online, interactive video-seminars (although traditional conferences are also organized) and by financing exchanges of research students and staff². It has also developed two research-based Master's degree programmes as well as other online training courses³, (see later). These courses are written jointly by academic staff from several of the participating universities. Jump to: navigation, search This article is about the year 2000. ... A non-profit organization (sometimes abbreviated to not-for-profit, non-profit or NPO) is an organization whose primary objective is to support some issue or matter of private interest or public concern for non-commercial purposes. ... World map showing Europe (geographically) When considered a continent, Europe is the worlds second-smallest continent in terms of area, with an area of 10,600,000 kmÂ² (4,140,625 square miles), making it larger than Australia only. ... Online means being connected to the Internet or another similar electronic network, like a bulletin board system. ... There are several conceptual views of interactivity, the most general being the contingency view. ... Jump to: navigation, search This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... A seminar is a form of academic teaching, normally at a university in small groups where students are requested to actively participate during meetings. ... Jump to: navigation, search A masters degree is an academic degree usually awarded for completion of a postgraduate or graduate course of one to three years in duration. ...

Initially, the WUN comprised ten universities⁴, but has now expanded to include sixteen⁵. The current members are (in alphabetical order): University of Bergen, University of Bristol, University of California, San Diego, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, University of Leeds, University of Manchester, Nanjing University, University of Oslo, Pennsylvania State University, University of Sheffield, University of Southampton, University of Utrecht, University of Washington, Seattle, University of Wisconsin, Madison, University of York and Zhejiang University. WUN's current chair is Eric Thomas⁶, Vice-Chancellor at Bristol. The University of Bergen (Universitetet i Bergen) is located in Bergen, Norway. ... The University of Bristol is a university in Bristol in the United Kingdom. ... The University of California, San Diego (popularly known as UCSD) is a public, coeducational university located in La Jolla, California. ... Learning & Labor The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, also known as UIUC and the U of I (the officially preferred abbreviation), is the largest campus in the University of Illinois system. ... Jump to: navigation, search Parkinson Building, University of Leeds The University of Leeds, England, is one of the largest universities in the United Kingdom and the most popular by applicants, with 52,444 applicants in 2003 for 7,228 places (UCAS). ... The University of Manchester in Manchester, England is a university that was formed from the merger of the Victoria University of Manchester (commonly known as the University of Manchester before the merger) and UMIST (University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology) on 1 October 2004. ... Jump to: navigation, search Nanjing University (å—äº¬å¤§å¦, å—äº¬å¤§å¸, Pinyin: NÃ¡njÄ«ng DÃ xuÃ©; colloquially å—å¤§, Pinyin NÃ¡ndÃ ) is one of the oldest higher learning institutions in the world, and became the first modern Chinese university in the early 1920s. ... Jump to: navigation, search The University of Oslo (Universitetet i Oslo, in Latin Universitas Osloensis) was founded in 1811 as Universitas Regia Fredericiana (the Royal Frederick University, norwegian ), modelled after the recently established University of Berlin. ... Jump to: navigation, search The Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (commonly known as Penn State) is a state-related land-grant university in Pennsylvania, with over 80,000 students at 24 campuses throughout the state. ... The University Of Sheffield. ... University of Southampton Dolphin logo The University of Southampton is a British university situated just north of the city of Southampton, on the south-coast of the United Kingdom. ... Utrecht University (Universiteit Utrecht in Dutch) is a university in Utrecht, The Netherlands. ... The University of Washington, founded in 1861, is a major public research university in the Seattle metropolitan area. ... Plaque on Bascom Hall, UW-Madison. ... The University of York (also known as York University) is a campus university in York, England. ... Zhejiang University æ±‚æ˜¯åˆ›æ–° (Seeking truth, making innovation) Zhejiang University (æµ™æ±Ÿå¤§å¦, pinyin ZhÃ¨jiÄng DÃ xuÃ©) is one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in China. ... Professor Eric Thomas Eric Jackson Thomas, born 24 March 1953 in Hartlepool, County Durham, has been Vice-Chancellor of the University of Bristol since 2001. ... A Vice-Chancellor (commonly called the VC) of a university in the United Kingdom, other Commonwealth countries, and some universities in Hong Kong, is the de facto head of the university. ...

The network is funded principally by its member universities, who each pay a one-off fee of $50 000 to join². It also draws occasional financial support from industry as, for example, when Sun Microsystems commissioned an online course development sofware package from the network in exchange for $500 000². The online training courses that have been developed have also been supported financially by external organisations. Jump to: navigation, search USD redirects here. ... Jump to: navigation, search Sun Microsystems (Sun Microsystems, Inc. ...

Themes

WUN organizes its activites into five main areas, which it terms 'themes'⁷. These represent the principal areas of collaboration among its member universities.

Research and 'Grand Challenges'

The research that WUN members work together on is divided into six areas⁸. Within each area there are a number of research projects, but the universities have decided to give particular focus to some of these as 'Grand Challenges'⁹. At present, these areas and their ' grand challenges' are:

There are numerous individual projects within each area. // What is science? There are different theories of what science is. ... The red line indicates the 10Â°C isotherm in July, commonly used to define the Arctic region border The Arctic is the area around the Earths North Pole. ... Jump to: navigation, search Bioinformatics or computational biology is the use of techniques from applied mathematics, informatics, statistics, and computer science to solve biological problems. ... Chemistry (in Greek: Ï‡Î·Î¼ÎµÎ¯Î±) is the science of matter that deals with the composition, structure, and properties of substances and with the transformations that they undergo. ... Unsolved problems in physics: Is it possible to construct a practical electronic device that operates on the spin of the electron, rather than its charge? Spintronics (a neologism for spin-based electronics), also known as magnetoelectronics, is an emergent technology which exploits the quantum propensity of electrons to spin as... Categories: Information technology ... Wireless was an old-fashioned term for a radio receiver, referring to its use as a wireless telegraph. ... Jump to: navigation, search // Grid computing uses the resources of many separate computers connected by a network (usually the internet) to solve large-scale computation problems. ... Earth science (also known as geoscience, the geosciences or the Earth Sciences), is an all-embracing term for the sciences related to the planet Earth. ... For other meanings of Pacific, see Pacific (disambiguation). ... Weathering is the process of decomposition and/or disintegration of rocks in situ, that is, in place. ... hi Sustainability is a systemic concept, relating to the continuity of economic, social, and environmental aspects of human society. ... Terms like SOSE (Studies of Society & the Environment) not only refer to social sciences but also studies of the environment. ... Jump to: navigation, search Globalization (or globalisation) is a modern term used to describe the changes in societies and the world economy that result from dramatically increased international trade and cultural exchange. ... Chemistry (in Greek: Ï‡Î·Î¼ÎµÎ¯Î±) is the science of matter that deals with the composition, structure, and properties of substances and with the transformations that they undergo. ... Main articles: Life All organisms (viruses not included) consist of cells, which in turn, are based on a common carbon-based biochemistry. ... A precise definition of the arts can be contentious, but the following areas of activity are usually included: Art / Visual arts Architecture Crafts Dance Design / Graphic design Drawing Film Literature Music Painting Photography Pottery Sculpture Theater In academia, the Arts are usually grouped with or a subset of the Humanities. ... The humanities are a group of academic subjects united by a commitment to studying aspects of the human condition and a qualitative approach that generally prevents a single paradigm from coming to define any discipline. ...

Global exchange programme

The Global Exchange Programme allows research students and staff at WUN members to spend time researching at other institutions in the network. The program is aimed primarily at research students and junior academic staff so that they might be able to develop contact networks of their own early in their careers. It is also hoped that the possibility of inter-university and international collaboration may help attract funding to research work. In the first three years of the scheme, about 400 awards have been made¹⁰.

The exchanges are funded by the universities themselves and usually by the 'home' university of the individual on the exchange. This means that the scope and duration of exchanges can vary, but there is an obvious emphasis on the main research areas of the WUN (see above). In the case of students, an academic supervisor must be found at the 'host' university as well the home university and there is an agreement that tuition fees will be waived for the duration of an exchange¹⁰.

The scheme (that is, the home university) pays for travel expenses and subsistence, including accomodation and any local travel costs. On returning, the individual is required to write a report describing the exchange and how it benefitted the institutions involved and the WUN at large¹¹. The following is a list of subsistence techniques: Hunting and Gathering, also known as Foraging freeganism involves gathering of discarded food in the context of an urban environment gleaning involves the gathering of food that traditional farmers have left behind in their fields Cultivation Horticulture - plant cultivation, based on the...

Video seminars

The WUN organises regular online, interactive video seminars which are available to people at member universities. These seminar series are delivered by a number of academics from various of the universities and their topics approximately align with the research areas mentioned above. At present, they cover¹²:

The WUN intends to add seminars on wireless communications, informatics and mediæval history later¹². Human geography, also known as anthropogeography, is the most boring subject devised by mankind. ... Jump to: navigation, search Bioinformatics or computational biology is the use of techniques from applied mathematics, informatics, statistics, and computer science to solve biological problems. ... In US politics, social policies are those which regulate and govern human behavior in areas such as sexuality and general morality. ... Jump to: navigation, search Social Work is a profession carried out by trained professionals or Social Workers in many different countries . ... Chemistry (in Greek: Ï‡Î·Î¼ÎµÎ¯Î±) is the science of matter that deals with the composition, structure, and properties of substances and with the transformations that they undergo. ... Wireless was an old-fashioned term for a radio receiver, referring to its use as a wireless telegraph. ... Information science or informatics is the science of information. ... The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times, beginning with the Renaissance. ... ...

eLearning

This theme branches out a little from WUN's research focus and includes efforts at collaboratively developing taught programmes. These include two research-based Master's degree courses: one in public policy and management, and one in bioinformatics and a series of offline seminars hosted at WUN institutions on e-learning³. Jump to: navigation, search A masters degree is an academic degree usually awarded for completion of a postgraduate or graduate course of one to three years in duration. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Management (from Old French mÃ©nagement the art of conducting, directing, from Latin manu agere to lead by the hand) characterises the process of leading and directing all or part of an organization, often a business, through the deployment and manipulation of resources (human, financial, material, intellectual or intangible). ... Jump to: navigation, search Bioinformatics or computational biology is the use of techniques from applied mathematics, informatics, statistics, and computer science to solve biological problems. ... Jump to: navigation, search Typical Managed Learning Environment with a navigation menu and online community building tools. ...

Some the WUN's less successful collaborations have been in the teaching area, with UKeU (UK eUniversities Worldwide Limited), an online University funded by the UK government which ultimately folded in 2004. WUN and UKeU agreed a course in geographical information systems¹³ which does not appear on WUN's e-Learning page and the establishment of an 'eLearning Research Centre'¹⁴, funded by HEFCE, which is still running [1], obviously without the involvement of UKeU, of which the seminar series mentioned is part. The UKeU (UK eUniversities Worldwide Limited) was a company and website that promoted online degrees from UK universities. ... Jump to: navigation, search 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... A geographic information system (GIS) is a system for managing data that has a spatial specialized form of an information system. ... The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) acts on behalf of the UK Government to distribute funding to Universities and Colleges of Higher and Further Education in England. ...

Contents

Introduction

Themes

Research and 'Grand Challenges'

Global exchange programme

Video seminars

eLearning

See also

References

External links