ACU and ACU-Related Events

The ACU arranges, co-hosts and participates in a wide range of conferences, congresses and meetings to encourage communication and interchange among members, and between members and a variety of other organisations.

Future events

• UCEA's International Conference 'Managing the academic workforce:  Global challenges & opportunities' will take place in London on 3 & 4 July 2012, with ACU's support. The event aims to bring together senior managers from higher education institutions in Australia, Canada, mainland Europe, UK and other parts of the Commonwealth with responsibility for negotiations and strategic decisions around the employment, development and remuneration of academic staff. For more details please see http://www.ucea.ac.uk/en/Seminars/managing-the-academic-workforce.cfm

• The Association of Commonwealth Universities and the University of Namibia welcomes you to the fifth conference of the Human Resource Management Network and the fourth conference of the Public Relations, Marketing and Communications Network which are being held jointly from 14 – 17 October 2012, Windhoek, Namibia.  The theme of the conference is Realising Dreams: Personal, Institutional, Global. Please visit the event website, which is constantly being updated. 

 Past events

• The National Research Foundation of South Africa and the Association of Commonwealth Universities will host a two day seminar on 22 and 23 March in Pretoria, South Africa.  The aim of this seminar is to facilitate discussion between funding bodies and institutions to enable them to share experiences and articulate their overlapping needs.  The seminar will be informed by an ACU paper on the peer review landscape in Africa, which will be finalised and disseminated following the seminar.

• Measuring Impact of Higher Education Interventions for Development - London International Development Centre in partnership with the Association of Commonwealth Universities, London, 19-20 March 2012.  The aim of this conference is to examine the current status of impact evaluation for higher education interventions and to identify research gaps and needs for the future. For further information, including registration details please select this link.

• The ACU's first-ever Gender Conference – on the theme Critical Women: Women as Agents of Change through Higher Education – will be held in Colombo, Sri Lanka, from 6-8 March 2012.

• Integrated Marketing and Communications for Higher Education Providers workshops on Building a World Class Institution through Effective Engagement and Reputation Management Strategies will be held on 27-28 February 2012 in Singapore and 1-2 March 2012 in Hong Kong. Organised by Pacific Conferences and supported by the ACU.

• Publishers for Development Conference 2011 - Getting Research to Researchers in Developing Countries: The complex picture of availability, access and use. 2 December 2011, London. Organised by the ACU and INASP.

• The inaugural Commonwealth Summer School was held from 26-30 July 2011 at the University of Buea, Cameroon.  More information

• 2011 Conference of Executive Heads – the ACU Conference of Executive Heads took place in Hong Kong from 6-8 April 2011. The conference focused on the theme 'Higher Education in Hard Times - Risk, Reputation, Reform: Developing new business in a changing environment'.  Presentations are available for members to download.

• Foundations for the Future: Supporting Early Career Research in Africa - A workshop as part of the 'Nairobi Process', focusing on the early careers of African researchers and the potential for international collaboration, was convened jointly by the ACU, the British Academy and Higher Education South Africa at the University of the Witwatersrand on 16 February 2011.

• Collaborating with the Commonwealth 2011 - aone-day briefing on Research Funding and Partnership Opportunities, held on Friday 11 February 2011 at Woburn House, Tavistock Square, London.

• The ACU ran a management and leadership programme for women leaders in HE from 22-31 January 2011, in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, at the invitation of Fatima Jinnah Women University, and in association with the National University for Science and Technology and Pakistan's Higher Education Commission (HEC).

• Making the most of Africa's graduates and the role of international partnerships, an ACU/British Council conference, was held from 16-18 January 2011 in Accra, Ghana. Press release.   Conference presentations can now be accessed via the links in the Programme.

• The 3rd Euro-Africa Cooperation Forum on ICT Research was held from 7-8 December 7-8 2010 at the Marina Congress Centre, Helsinki, Finland. More information can be found on the EuroAfriCa-ICT project website.

• The third conference of the ACU PR, Marketing and Communications Network, Changing Times, Changing Markets and Changing Priorities, was held from 24-26 November 2010, in Melbourne, Australia.  

• The fourth conference of the ACU Human Resource Management Network, Successful Universities in a Changing World: HR Drives the Future, was held from 22-24 November 2010 in Melbourne, Australia.

• A one-day workshop on Internal Communications was held on 24 November 2010, in Melbourne, Australia. The event brought together delegates from the ACU Human Resource Management Network and PR, Marketing and Communications Network.

• Commonwealth of Learning (COL) and UNESCO are hosting an Open Educational Resources (OER) Workshop on 28 April 2010 in Cape Town, South Africa.  Further information on the COL/UNESCO workshop can be found at www.col.org/OER.

• The ACU Conference of Executive Heads was held in Cape Town, South Africa from 25-27 April 2010.  The theme of the conference was 'Universities and the Millennium Development Goals'. 

• ACU/SARIMA: International Network of Research Management Societies (INORMS) conference, 11-15 April 2010, Cape Town, South Africa. For further information, please visit the conference website at www.technoscene.co.za/inorms2010/ or the SARIMA website at  www.sarima.co.za

• Euro-Africa Cooperation Forum on ICT Research (2nd):  Addis Ababa (United Nations Conference Centre), Ethiopia, 4 February 2010.   The ACU’s Africa Unit is a consortium partner and Work package leader in the EuroAfriCa-ICT project.   For further information about the project and the conference, go to the EuroAfriCa-ICT project website. For further information, please contact Sarah Hinz.

• World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) 16-18 November 2009, Doha, Qatar. The ACU has been asked to be a partner in this major education gathering, which is organised by the Qatar Foundation. While the Summit will cover all levels of education, universities and higher education will play a very significant part. Attendance will be by invitation only. Furthermore, six international prizes will be presented at the Summit to individuals who have made important contributions to innovation in education. These prizes will be worth $20,000 each. Please refer to the Summit website at http://www.wise-qatar.org for further information.

• The Observatory on Borderless Higher Education (OBHE), conference on Global Connection, Local Impacts: Best Practices, Models and Policies for Cross-Border Higher Education, 21-24 October 2009, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

• Commonwealth of Learning (COL), Annual Board Meeting, 19-20 June 2009, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

• ACU Executive Committee Meeting, Council Meeting and Annual General Meeting, 13-14 June 2009, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

• 17CCEM (Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers) and parallel VC-Forum, 15-19 June 2008, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The ACU collaborated with the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education in planning the VC-Forum.

• The ACU Conference of Executive Heads was held in Hyderabad, India, from Friday 28 to Sunday 30 November 2008. The conference addressed the theme 'Dazzling technologies: Seismic shifts in higher education in a fast-changing and unequal world'.

• The 2008 IMUA (International Meeting of University Administrators) was hosted by the University of British Columbia, in Vancouver, from Sunday 17 to Thursday 21 August 2008.    

• The second conference of ACU's PR, Marketing and Communications Network was held at the Southern Sun Elangeni, Durban, South Africa from 14-16 July 2008. The theme of the conference was 'Building a profile: key relationships for the communications professional'. For further information, see www.acu.ac.uk/prnetwork.

• The conference of the International Network of Research Management Societies took place from 16-19 June 2008 in Liverpool, UK.

• The Third Conference of the ACU's Human Resource Management Network was held in the Hilton Hotel, Tobago, West Indies, from 23-25 May 2008. The theme was: 'HRM: Adding Value or Adding Complexity?', and two of the keynote speakers were Bryan Gould, former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Waikato, New Zealand and former UK politician and David Arkless, Senior Vice-President for Global Corporate Affairs, Manpower Inc. For further information, see www.acu.ac.uk/hrm/confmay2008.html.

• The ACU co-sponsored the inaugural West African Research and Innovation Management Association (www.warima.org) conference and workshop, held at the National Universities Commission in Abuja, Nigeria from 21-23 November 2007. 

• On Thursday 15 November 2007, both the ACU's Secretary General, Professor John Tarrant, and the former Director of the Policy Research Unit and of the Observatory on Borderless Higher Education (OBHE), Svava Bjarnason, spoke at a conference in London, co-organised by the Worldwide Universities Network and the OBHE on the topic of 'Realising the Global University: Developing effective international strategies in a rapidly changing world'.

• From 12-14 November 2007, the University of the West Indies HIV/AIDS Response Programme (UWI HARP) ran a conference in Ocho Rios, Jamaica, on 'The Role of Universities in Low- and Middle-Income Countries in 2007 and Beyond in the Response to the HIV Pandemic'. The ACU's Secretary General, Professor John Tarrant, contributed to that debate.

• The ACU, with the support of Pakistan's Higher Education Commission and Fatima Jinnah Women University, ran a Key Women Trainers Workshop for 16 senior women from universities in Pakistan and Sri Lanka, in Pakistan, from 28 October to 8 November 2007.

• The ACU's Libraries and Information Network, with the support of UNESCO, hosted its Inaugural Planning Meeting at the University of Botswana, from 22-24 October 2007.

• The Africa Unit at the ACU co-organised a pre-CHOGM symposium during Uganda's National Science Week. Entitled 'Science, Technology and Innovation: Key Drivers for Socio-Economic Transformation', the symposium was held in Mbarara from 13-15 September 2007. For further information please see www.east-sym.org.

• The ACU's 2006 Conference of Executive Heads was held under the auspices of the ACU, the Australian Vice-Chancellors' Committee and the New Zealand Vice-Chancellors' Committee, and hosted by the University of Adelaide, from 9-12 April.

• The inaugural conference of the ACU PR, Marketing and Communications Network was held in Toronto, Canada, from 17-19 July 2006. The theme was 'Making an Impact: the Role of PR, Marketing and Communications in a Global Higher Education Marketplace'.

• The 2nd conference of the ACU Human Resources Management Network was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from Friday 1 to Sunday 2 September 2006. The theme was 'Planning for the Future: university HRM in the next decade'.

• The ACU was delighted to collaborate with the Association of European Universities (EUA) in organising a conference on the theme 'Charting the course between public service and commercialisation: Prices, Values and Quality'. It was hosted by the University of Turin, from 3-5 June 2004, to celebrate the University's 600th Anniversary.

• The ACU, in conjunction with the Commonwealth of Learning, the University of Abertay Dundee and the Association of African Universities, hosted the final conference for 'Leadership and Strategic Change in Higher Education: a strategic development programme for leaders of Commonwealth Universities in Africa', 8-13 August 2004, Dudhope Castle, University of Abertay Dundee, Scotland.

• The 15th IMUA (International Meeting of University Administrators) was held in Beijing from 22-26 August 2004 at Peking University. The theme was 'Managerial Capacity Building in Universities: taking opportunities and managing risks'.

• The inaugural conference of the ACU Human Resource Management Network was held in Stellenbosch, South Africa in April 2004.

• The 15th Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers (15CCEM) was held in Edinburgh, UK in October, 2003.  A parallel Stakeholder Forum was organised for delegates from all over the Commonwealth.

• ACU's General Conference took place from 31 August to 4 September 2003 and was hosted by the Queen's University of Belfast, UK. Please follow these links for the conference themeand for the sessions and speakers.

• The Association for Commonwealth Studies held a conference on 'The Health of the Commonwealth' at the University of King's College, Halifax, Canada on 26 and 27 May, 2003.

• The ACU, in conjunction with eight of its member universities in the north-west of England, co-hosted the 12th Commonwealth International Sport Conference in Manchester in July 2002.

• New Generation Universities Conference, 21-22 June 2002: this conference, hosted by the University of Western Sydney, brought together leaders of "new" universities from around the globe to discuss the challenges, constraints and ambitions that they share. It was the first such gathering of its kind and the ACU is proud to have been one of the partners in the event.

• Reports from our Conference of Executive Heads which was held in Cyprus in April 2001 are available here.

• A meeting of the Chairs and Chief Executives of the Inter-University Bodies of the Commonwealth was also held in Cyprus in April 2001. The previous meeting was held in Singapore in August 2000.

• The ACU Council met in Ghana in April 2000 and in Sri Lanka in July 1999.

• The ACU and the University of Natal, Durban, co-hosted a symposium on HIV/AIDS and the Universities in the week preceding the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Durban, South Africa, November 1999. Click here for the purposeand report of the seminar and the Bulletin article.

• The Commonwealth Universities General Conference was held in Ottawa, Canada, in August 1998. Click hereto read the keynote address by the late Julius Nyerere.