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ASU and the world


December 19, 2014

The agreement to bring the Thunderbird School of Global Management into the ASU knowledge enterprise is the latest expression of the university’s increasing emphasis on global engagement.

ASU sends more than 1,800 students to study abroad each year, and it is ranked eighth in the nation for international students, with more than 8,600 students from more than 150 countries enrolled. But ASU’s approach to global engagement goes beyond enrollment.

The most pressing problems facing us today are tied to issues that require transnational solutions. As a public research university, ASU is committed to the search for those solutions, and it has executed a number of strategic partnerships around the globe to further its research mission.

Examples of such partnerships include:

ASU Biodesign Center in China

Arizona State University and China’s Shandong University are establishing a joint Biodesign Center, in Qingdao, to focus on cancer and vaccine research, water and air purification systems and advanced explorations of nanotechnology.  The joint venture, announced in October 2014 and modeled after ASU’s Biodesign Institute, in Tempe, will develop solutions by studying the natural world’s engineering.

ASU in Mexico

ASU is strengthening its partnerships in Mexico in four arenas: 1) Research and capacity building, including planned collaboration with the National Autonomous University of Mexico, in Mexico City, Latin America’s largest university, 2) Economic development, 3) Education programs, and 4) Institutional ties, such as ASU’s growing partnership with Tec de Monterrey, an internationally renowned university.

ASU, Dublin City University – Transatlantic Higher Education Partnership

ASU and Dublin City University are launching the world’s first International School of Biomedical Diagnostics in 2014 in partnership with Ventana Medical Systems, Inc., a member of the Roche Group.

The two universities, together through Biodesign Europe, also will leverage the capacity and expertise of 16 health-focused research centers – 11 from ASU’s Biodesign Institute and five from DCU. A combined team of more than 400 researchers will tackle some of the most important challenges in 21st-century health care.

ASU and DCU will develop joint student entrepreneurship programs, providing students a global perspective by working with international partners and focusing on global grand challenges, especially in the developing world.

ASU in Vietnam

Since 2010, ASU and Intel Corp., working with the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training, run a program designed to modernize the teaching and learning in Vietnam’s colleges and universities, and support that nation’s economic development. With with funding from the United States Agency of International Development, the program relies on faculty from the Fulton Schools of Engineering to provide a model for advancing engineering education that prepares engineers to support Vietnam’s growing high-tech industry.

Based on the success of that endeavor, ASU signed a memorandum of understanding in October 2014 with the Posts and Telecommunications Institute of Technology, in Vietnam, to improve teaching methods there. The two institutions plan a joint educational conference in Hanoi, a short training course on cyber security at ASU, the establishment of a joint master’s of science program and the development of a new learning management system. The agreement came one year after ASU forged a partnership in the Vinh Phuc province to support sustainable growth in the province.