The neighbouring Universität Münster, the Canadian University of Waterloo and the Mexican Tecnológico de Monterrey are now the UT's 'Global Academic Partners'. This means that the university in a broad sense is committed to cooperation with these international universities – in addition to national collaborations such as those with VU Amsterdam.
‘Global Academic Partnership’
The UT now distinguishes in terminology between institutional collaboration (Global Academic Partnership) and other types of collaborations and partner universities. 'The framework of what is or is not a strategic partnership was not clear. By having that clear, you can make sharper choices – also financially,' explains Executive Board spokesperson Laurens van der Velde. However, the change of course is 'not primarily financially driven', he says. 'But that does play a role in making choices.'
Other collaborations
The collaborations with the University of São Paulo and the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) will be reduced to faculty level. In the case of these universities, 'it is in line with the nature and perspective of the collaboration' not to label them as Global Academic Partners, according to Van der Velde. 'Our collaboration with USTC focuses a lot on student mobility and to a lesser extent on research. With São Paulo we have a very valuable collaboration in the field of PhD candidates, but the degree of joint research is somewhat limited.'
