The University of Warwick has been honoured for developing the International Conference of Undergraduate Research (ICUR) by the Institute of International Education (IIE).

The ICUR - which receives an Honourable Mention in the ‘International Partnerships’ category at the 2017 Andrew Heiskell Awards for Innovation in International Education - brings undergraduate researchers from seven countries together for online research panels and presentations.

Established through the award-winning Monash-Warwick Alliance, the partnership has grown to include Nanyang Technological University, Baruch College, and Kyushu University.

Using the latest in video conferencing technology, ICUR draws students together from universities across the world to participate in a single international forum with close to a hundred separate sessions conducted over 48 hours.

It allows participants to present their work from their home universities to an international and interdisciplinary audience, and provides a supportive yet critical environment for talented young scholars.

In the four years that ICUR has run, it has connected nearly 1,500 students across eleven institutions around the world.

Caroline Gibson, from Warwick's Institute for Advanced Teaching and Learning, comments:

“We are absolutely thrilled to see the hard work of the ICUR team recognised with this award. We are extremely lucky to be working with great international partners, in developing a truly global experience for our students, which gives them the opportunity to communicate their research internationally without ever leaving their home campus.

"We are excited about the coming years and the further developments we have planned for the conference and would like to thank the University for its support in building this initiative”

Chris Hughes, Pro-Vice Chancellor for Education, says:

"This is a fantastic commendation for a truly innovative education initiative, with student partnership, inter-disciplinarity and global connectivity at its heart. I’ve been proud to see the ICUR expand its reach over the last few years, becoming a key element of our partnership with Monash University, and connecting Warwick students to a whole host of other institutions across the world to be able to develop their research, presentation and extra-curricular skills.

"Many congratulations and thanks to the teams at Warwick, Monash and beyond for all they’ve achieved. I look forward to seeing the ICUR positively impact the experiences of even more students in the years to come.”

IIE's Heiskell Awards showcase the most innovative and successful models for internationalizing the campus, study abroad, and international partnership programs in practice today, with a particular emphasis on initiatives that remove institutional barriers and broaden the base of participation in study abroad and promote international teaching and learning on campus.

IIE will present the awards at a ceremony in Miami, Florida on March 14, 2017 as part of its annual Best Practices in Internationalization Conference for campus professionals. The conference will be held this year at Florida International University, which was a winner of the 2016 IIE Heiskell Award.

The awards honor the most outstanding initiatives in international higher education among the member campuses of the IIE Network, IIE’s membership association of more than 1,300 higher education institutions. This year’s awards highlight a total of eight initiatives: five campuses will receive the Heiskell Award and three more will be recognized with honorable mention. The winning campuses and their partners are notable for their geographic diversity, with campuses in six U.S. states across the country as well as winners and partners in Morocco, Australia and the UK.

During the sixteen years that it has presented the Heiskell Awards, IIE has recognized 130 programs that advance international education on IIE Network member campuses, and has made their profiles available as a Best Practices Resource online. Leaders from this year’s award-winning campuses will make presentations at IIE’s Best Practices Conference so that international education practitioners can learn from their experience and adapt their innovative internationalization strategies and models for their own campuses.

“The campuses that IIE is recognizing this year have developed new approaches to extending more study abroad opportunities to a broader segment of their student populations and integrating international programs into the campus experience,” said IIE President and CEO Dr. Allan E. Goodman. “We recommend these programs as models, and hope they will offer inspiration as well as guidance to professionals on other campuses who share the goal of preparing their students to live and work in today’s global environment.”

The members of the Selection Panel for the 2017 IIE Heiskell Awards include international education leaders from a diverse range of organizations: Peggy Blumenthal, Senior Counselor to the President at the Institute of International Education; Gretchen Cook-Anderson, Diversity Consultant, on behalf of IES Abroad; Arlene Jackson, Associate Vice President for Global Initiatives, American Association of State Colleges & Universities (AASCU); Anne Waters, Senior Advisor, Special Projects at Columbia University; and Brian Whalen, President and CEO, The Forum on Education Abroad.

The IIE Heiskell Awards were named for the late Andrew Heiskell, a former chairman of Time Inc. and a long-time member of the Executive Committee of IIE's Board of Trustees. Mr. Heiskell was a renowned international and cultural philanthropist and a dedicated supporter of international education.

24 January 2016

All images courtesy of www.martinneeves.com

Further information contact:

Luke Walton, International Press Officer

+44 (0) 7824 540 863

+44 (0) 2476 150 868

L dot Walton dot 1 at warwick dot ac dot uk