London and Sydney sign university accord

Two new areas of joint working featured the Knowledge Dock, and co-operation between WSU and UEL's School of Arts and Creative Industries (ACI) and the Department of Sport within the School of Health, Sport and Bioscience (HSB).

As part of the transformation of the Knowledge Dock into the Royal Docks Centre for Sustainability in partnership with the Royal Docks Enterprise Zone, the University is establishing a new Sustainable Enterprise Centre. This new Centre has features in common with WSU's Launch Pad, a tech start-up incubator. Together, the two operations will explore opportunities for co-working.

Collaboration around the schools may open up the possibility of students who have, for example, completed their undergraduate degree at one university, taking postgraduate studies at the other, with special scholarships available to incentivise students.

These initiatives are in addition to the previous explorations around research opportunities, thought leadership and knowledge exchange outlined in the 2021 MoU.

Dr Paul Marshall, pro vice-chancellor for careers and enterprise, pictured, left, signed the addendum on behalf of the University of East London.

He said, "The parallels between the University of East London and Western Sydney University offer many exciting opportunities. Despite our locations on the other side of the globe from each other, we both serve similar communities, we are both key place-makers in our locations and we both have a mission to diversify the talent pipeline.

"This agreement builds on our shared priorities, with our discussions revealing more areas of common ground. We were delighted when WSU joined our global family of partner institutions, and this latest development shows how we are moving forward to ensure that our students can take advantage of our strong links with Australia to gain a global perspective on issues critical to their futures."

Senior deputy vice-chancellor and provost of Western Sydney University, Professor Clare Pollock, pictured right, said, "As the number one ranked University in the world for our achievements in sustainability, we are committed to addressing the challenges facing our community. 

"We were pleased to see that same commitment in University of East London, which speaks to our shared mission as evident during our visit. We also appreciated the engagement of the guests invited by UEL to broaden our conversations on potential collaborations between the University of East London and Western Sydney University."

Before the signing of the agreement, delegates from both universities held round table discussions to explore issues such as education, sustainability and the role of universities in their communities.

Among the panel of invited guests were representatives from the British Council, Department for International Trade, Universities UK International, Siemens and the Royal Docks Enterprise Zone.