THE UNIVERSITY VISITS LONDON SOUTH BANK UNIVERSITY (UK)

A delegation from Applied Science University visited London South Bank University in September 2019 to discuss matters relating to the ongoing partnership between the two universities. ASU’s delegation consisted of Professor Waheeb Alkhaja (the Chairman of ASU’s Board of Trustees), Professor Ghassan Aouad (ASU’s President), Mr Abdulla Alkhaja (Director of Administration & Finance) and Ms Catherine Hogan (Head of International Partnerships). The ASU delegation had fruitful meetings with the Vice Chancellor of LSBU Professor David Phoenix, the Deputy Vice Chancellor Professor Paul Ivey and many other senior colleagues. The discussions spanned institutional and national updates, partnership management and collaboration on academic degrees, joint research and staff development activities.

The ASU and LSBU partnership was established in 2014 and covers a range of activities. In September 2017 the first students were admitted to the LSBU degrees hosted at ASU (in architectural design engineering and civil & construction engineering) and several more degrees are planned to open in September 2020. On the research side, ASU faculty are collaborating with LSBU faculty on joint research projects relevant to Bahrain’s national priority for renewal energy solutions (one on the relationship between roof shapes, energy consumption and thermal comfort and the other on integrating wind turbines in the built environment). Staff development activities include leadership development, teaching strategies in higher education and other topics designed to enhance the student experience. Future plans for the partnership include summer schools, study abroad schemes for students and staff exchange schemes. ASU and LSBU are also organizing their second international research conference – the International Conference on Innovation, Technology, Enterprise & Entrepreneurship will be held in Bahrain on 24/25 November 2019.

ASU has recently been awarded Accreditation by Bahrain’s Higher Education Council and its courses have achieved confidence status from Bahrain’s Quality Assurance Authority. In international rankings, ASU has reached #45 in the QS Arab Region University Rankings 2019; the 301+ category of the THE University Impact Rankings 2019; and the 601+ category (and #25 in Arab region) in the UI GreenMetric World University Ranking 2018 – all three are the highest placing among Bahrain’s private universities in all the rankings. HEA Fellowships have now been awarded to 53 of our staff in recognition of professional standards in supporting student learning. In addition, ASU’s students won University Company of the Year in the Young Entrepreneurs Competition 2019, organised by INJAZ Bahrain. Like ASU, LSBU is a student-centred university with a focus on entrepreneurship and employability. LSBU has a Silver rating in the UK government’s Teaching Excellence Framework and was awarded University of the Year for Graduate Employment in 2018.