Profile

Prof. Zaini Ujang is a professional environmental engineer cum scientist who integrates studies on water ecology with engineering systems towards pollution control and sustainability, especially with reference to river rehabilitation in developing countries. His interest in the field leads him to collaborate with leading scholars worldwide, particularly in membrane bioreactor, granulation process and biofouling control. At present he is leading the oldest technical university in Malaysia and South East Asia, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. He also sits on various boards, such as the Chemical Companies of Malaysia (CCM), Institute of Sultan Iskandar for Urban Habitat and High Rise Buildings, private universities Multimedia Technology Enhancement Operations Sdn Bhd (METEOR) and Chair of Proton Technology Advisory Council, a leading car manufacturer in South East Asia. For his remarkable contribution to the nation, he became the first recipient of the prestigious Malaysia Merdeka Award 2009 for the category of Outstanding Scholastic Achievement. He is representing Malaysia for the Transitional Finance Committee of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC, 2011). Zaini obtained his B.Eng. (Chem. Eng.) from UTM, and MSc and PhD in environmental engineering from University of Newcastle, UK. He is also an alumni of the Harvard Business School (AMP 177), a Fellow of the Academy of Science Malaysia, King Saud University, Chairman of the Environmental Quality Council, Malaysia and Fellow of the Institute of Chemical Engineers, UK. He has registered more than 20 intellectual property rights, published more than 250 technical papers and 27 books.

Professional Insight

There is a need to have a balance between environmental and developmental demands to ensure that the benefits of development will not lead to hefty cost in environmental change. The challenges towards the environment, such as the utilization of land, consumption of natural resources and rapid urban-based economic development requires systematic and strategic effort, especially from the higher education institutions, in creating innovative solutions that would meet both environmental and developmental demands. Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), as a research university in science and engineering, seeks to champion initiatives that contribute towards environmental sustainability. In the context of UTM, the concept of sustainability has been implemented in two major areas: sustainable eco-campus, a concept enabling the university to function as a sustainable community, embodying responsible consumption of materials, energy, food and water; and sustainable research, integrating the available expertise in various disciplines to comprehend and provide solutions in matters related to sustainability issues. With principles of sustainable development in mind, it is hoped that such initiatives would help in addressing current environmental and resource issues in an integrated and holistic manner.

Profile

i-graduate founder Will Archer directs the world’s largest study of international students. Tracking student opinion and reporting in confidence to universities across the globe, his team benchmarks student and stakeholder perceptions using proprietary survey instruments.

Adopted by governments and universities across 5 continents, the International Student Barometer™ has taken feedback from more than 600,000 students of 190 nationalities. Related studies compare perceptions of prospective students, alumni, education agents, staff and employers.

Will worked previously for 15 years as an adviser to multinational corporations and governments on international recruitment, researching and recruiting talent across Asia, Africa, North America and Europe.

In 2005 he founded i-graduate, with the goal of improving the education experience for students and educators worldwide.

Publications include “Working in the European Union” (European Commission, 1993), “Attitudes to Recruitment and Retention – a study of senior managers” (Financial Times, 2004), “Mission Critical? Modernising HR in Higher Education” (HEPI, 2005), “The Market for International Research Students” (UUK, 2008), “Graduate Employability: what do employers think and want?” (CIHE, 2008), “Global Horizons and the Role of Employers” (CIHE, 2008) and “Enhancing the International Student Experience” (UUK, 2010).

An alumnus of London Business School and Thames Valley University, Will is a trustee and board member of HECSU and a member of the Council for Industry and Higher Education. He is non-executive chairman of Tokyo-based strategy group GTF.

Professional Insight

This session will draw upon the latest research findings from the world’s largest international student survey - the International Student Barometer - to demonstrate whether Higher Education institutions are managing, meeting and exceeding student expectations.

An in-depth picture of student perceptions will be presented, outlining satisfaction with factors such as employability, accommodation and visa advice – both on a national and international level. We will also drill down into the data and examine student recommendations to give a more detailed picture.

In order to identify if the UK student experience is improving, we will compare student satisfaction today against levels over the past five years.

Recommendations will be given as to how institutions can improve the international student experience and ensure that education provision really is worldclass.

Profile

Dr. Downing is Deputy Registrar (Senior Coordinator Academic Planning and Quality Assurance) at City University of Hong Kong. Reporting directly to the Provost, his portfolio includes strategic and academic planning, institutional research, and liaison with the Universities Grants Committee of Hong Kong. He has experience of teaching in the UK, Hong Kong, Mainland China, Singapore, Malaysia, Romania, Latvia and France, and is a Chartered Psychologist and Chartered Scientist with a current Licence to Practice and Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society. He has substantial published work in the fields of psychology and education, and is current editor of International Health, and a member of the editorial boards of the British Journal of Community Justice, and the International Journal of Fashion Design, Technology and Education. He is also Editor-in-Chief elect from June 2011 of Educational Studies. Dr. Downing is Chair of MAPLE the Middle East and Africa Professional Leaders in Education conference.

In his current role he has helped successive President's reshape City University of Hong Kong and take them from 198th in the 2004 Times Higher/QS World University Rankings to 129th in the 2010 World University Rankings. In the Asian University Rankings they have risen from 18th in 2008 to 15th in 2009. As a consequence City University is now recognised as one of the rising stars of the Asian region.

Dr. Downing is the recipient of the City University of Hong Kong Teaching Excellence Award for his contribution to the development of blended learning with the innovative use of technology. He successfully developed teaching materials and learning environments that promote active student engagement. He is also the recipient of the prestigious International Award for Innovative use of Technology in Teaching and Learning conferred in the USA in April 2004.

Professional Insight

Many university Presidents and Vice-Chancellors greet the publication of the various global rankings with a mixture of excitement and trepidation, some referring to rankings as an unavoidable ‘poison' potentially ‘fatal' in terms of some promising academic careers. They are a wonderfully accurate measure of progress whilst your university is rising in global prominence but contain a criminally inaccurate set of non-representative criteria when you are heading in the other direction. With the advent of another new addition to global rankings in 2010 from the Times Higher, Kevin Downing argues it is time to choose your poison carefully.

Profile

Mr. Ishikawa is responsible for managing the global marketing activities of Elsevier’s Performance, Planning and Funding Solutions. Goki puts strong emphasis in taking the time to communicate closely with Elsevier’s current and potential customers in both Academia and Government, which helps him to introduce Elsevier’s solutions, identify customer’s unmet needs and reflect the feedback to product development processes. Currently, Goki focuses on identifying how Elsevier can further assist Academic and Government decision makers in their research strategy planning through Elsevier’s “SciVal” suite products.

Goki also takes initiative in conducting discussions with senior government policymakers in Japan, to increase awareness of using quantitative information to enrich government policymaking and funding decisions related to Science and Technology.

Prior to joining Elsevier, Goki was a strategy consultant at the Boston Consulting Group, in the Tokyo Office. He has experience in leading projects with both global and Japanese clients in medical devices, pharmaceutical, automobile and retail finance industries.

Goki started his career in the Japanese Government, after passing the “1st Class National Public Service Exam”. As a central government policymaker, he was involved in various policy making, lobbying and funding processes, before leaving the bureaucracy as Section Chief.

Professional Insight

Research today is increasingly global and multi-disciplinary; researchers, research ideas and technologies are highly mobile; rules of engagement are increasingly global as quality assessment relates to ranking systems and regulatory systems are multijurisdictional. In addition, government and funding agencies are demanding greater accountability and economic development return on their research investments.

In response to these challenges brought about by the current research landscape, since 2007, Elsevier has developed multiple products in the so-called “SciVal” suite. Within the SciVal suite, we have a solution called “SciVal Spotlight”, which provides insight into research strengths at both the institutional and national level. Currently, we have more than 50 customers globally using this product for their strategic research planning. We are working closely together with the Research Executives and policymakers globally, to assist them in evaluating their institution’s research performance, as well as keeping them updated on information to define strategic direction, staff recruitment and retention, and potential collaboration.

In this presentation, we will share some insight into how universities can utilize information on “national level research strengths” to further strengthen their research strategies at the university level. Key questions we want to cover in the analysis are, “Which areas are my country’s strengths?”, “Are our researchers contributing to the creation of our national strengths?”, “What actions can we take to further contribute to the development of existing and future national strengths?” We will show an example using data of one country. We hope you will enjoy the presentation.

At the core of the strategic planning and operations of course is the human element and the prime challenge and responsibility for all international educators: How can our actions empower people – individually and collectively – to navigate through the complexities of the modern world and to make their positive contribution as global citizens.

Profile

Ian Lynes is Business Director of QS Unisolution, a division of QS providing software and services that support higher education institutions with student recruitment and internationalization. In addition to overseeing the operations of the company, Ian has specific responsibility for TopApply, a software solution that helps universities to establish and manage relationships with prospective students. Ian advises universities about how they can effectively use online marketing and application systems to reach their target markets and achieve their recruitment goals.

Prior to joining QS in 2007, Ian’s career included 14 years at IBM, where he worked with a wide range of organizations to help them to utilize the web to improve their marketing and other business processes. Ian has an honours degree in Computing Science.

Professional Insight

The expectations and demands of today’s prospective students are higher than ever before. The new generation of international candidates have never known a world without the internet and they use it extensively to satisfy their hunger for information, stimulation and interaction. This means that when making an important decision, such as
where to study, the internet plays a vital role.

The internet offers universities and other educational institutions new ways to attract and engage candidates. During the session, we will explore how to use social media to deliver messages that resonate with your target candidates. And we will identify how online tools and software can be utilised to engage with candidates; building their interest and encouraging them to submit their application forms, through to turning up on the first day.

Profile

John O'Leary is a journalist and education consultant, who works for QS and a variety of newspapers and magazines, universities and national organizations. He edited The Times Higher Education Supplement from 2002 until 2007 and was previously Education Editor of The Times, having joined the newspaper in 1990 as Higher Education Correspondent. From 2008 to 2010, he edited the monthly Policy Review magazine.

He writes regularly on education for The Times, Education Journal and Higher Education World, and is a frequent speaker at international conferences. He also edits The Times Good University Guide, which has been published annually since 1993, and is co-author of the Top Universities Guide, which includes the QS World University Rankings. He is a member of the executive board responsible for the rankings.

John O’Leary is the author of Higher Education in England, published by the Higher Education Funding Council for England in 2009, and was a member of the Government inquiry into primary school testing in 1999. He is married with three adult children. He began his career on the Evening Chronicle, in Newcastle upon Tyne, after a year as president of the students’ union at Sheffield University, where he took an honours degree in politics. He was at the Times Higher Education Supplement throughout the 1980s, becoming deputy editor.

Professional Insight

It sometimes seems that every government wants a world-class university. This session will examine why this is and what governments are doing to make their universities internationally competitive. It will look at the tensions between the desire for top-ranked institutions and world-class systems of higher education, focusing on individual countries' strategies. The presentation will also trace some of the international trends, particularly on student fees.

Profile

Professor Raupp is currently the Vice President for Research and Technology (VPRT) and concurrently the Dean of Graduate Studies at City University of Hong Kong. His technology expertise and professional experience span many technical disciplines from engineering, materials science, manufacturing and product design to biocompatible implantable medical devices and chemistry of sustainable green processes.

Professor Raupp received his B.S and M.S. degrees from Purdue University and his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He began his academic career with Arizona State University in 1985 where he advanced to become Professor in 1994. From 1999 – 2002 he was Associate Dean for Research in the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and then was promoted to Associate Vice-President for Research in 2002. In these roles he was responsible for crafting and managing a diverse portfolio of interdisciplinary research initiatives, which included such unique ventures as ASU’s Biodesign Institute; the Arts, Media and Engineering Program; and the Center for Conflict and Religion. He became the Founding Director of the Flexible Display Centre at Arizona State in 2004 through a US$94M, 10-year Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. Army Research Laboratory. Under his leadership, a world-class industrygovernment- university partnership model was created, one that enabled organisations with dramatically different missions and scales to collaborate effectively to advance science and technology on a broad front and create a portfolio of enabling commercial manufacturing technologies.

Professional Insight

Are Asian institutions finally coming out of the shadow cast by their Western counterparts? At the recent 2010 World Universities Forum in Davos, an emerging theme was China's increasing public investment in higher education at a time when reductions in public funding are being seen in Europe and North America. China is not alone in Asia in increasing public investment in higher education with similar structured and significant investment evident in Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan (Marginson, 2010). Although in many ways this investment merely reflects the continued rise of Asia as a centre of global economic power, it nonetheless raises some interesting questions in relation to the potential benefits of rankings for Asian institutions. Interest in rankings amongst the Asian higher education sector is undoubtedly high and the introduction of the QS Asian University Rankings in 2009 has served to reinforce this. The publication of ranking lists is now greeted with a mixture of trepidation and relief by many University Presidents and is often followed by intense questioning from the media who are interested to know what lies behind a particular rise or fall on the global or regional stage. This paper explores the potential costs and benefits of rankings for Asian institutions.

Profile

Ben Sowter is Head of Research at QS, leading the QS Intelligence Unit. Ben has a BSc in Computer Science from the University of Nottingham, where he was also awarded the Union Prize for outstanding contribution to the student union and served as chairman of the Nottingham University Debating Society.

Upon graduation, Ben spent two sabbatical years, working for the UK national office of international student charity, AIESEC, the latter for which he was elected National President and led his team in successfully increasing operational results for the charity, whilst also consolidating their financial security.

Soon after joining QS, whilst working in a role focused principally on marketing. Ben recognized the great research potential in QS broad range of relationships with employers, educators, applicants, job-seekers and the media and made this a focus of his work.

Ben is fully responsible for the operational management of all major QS research projects and is actively involved in all the collection, compilation and tabulation of all the data that lead to, amongst others, the QS Top MBA Applicant and Recruiter Research and the World University Rankings research in partnership with Times Higher Education – in which he has been involved since its initial inception in 2004 to 2009. Ben is a frequent contributor to the press and is his opinion and his expertise is used regularly by major global publications.

Ben has travelled to over 40 countries and spoken on his research in over 20. He has personally visited over 30 of the world’s top 100 universities amongst countless others and is also a regular on the conference speech circuit. His lectures, seminars, workshops and opinions are highly sought after.

Professional Insight

Exclusively at QS World Class, Ben Sowter, Head of the QS Intelligence Unit will reveal the results of the first release of the QS World University Rankings Subject Tables. Released throughout April and May these represent the first attempt to compare global universities at a discipline level. This first release will cover subjects in the Engineering & Technology area including:

- Computer Science
- Civil & Structural Engineering
- Mechanical Engineering
- Electrical & Electronic Engineering
- Chemical Engineering

Indicators will include academic and employer reputation alongside a measure based on research publications, powered by Elsevier's Scopus database.

During the session the full methodology will be revealed as well as the headline results with a spotlight on the performance of Asian institutions. The full results will be simultaneously released to the global media and published on www.topuniversities.com.

Speaking on: “Beyond rankings – what is really needed to choose the right university?”