Charles Darwin University (CDU) has recently hosted a delegation of senior staff from the University of Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS).
The delegation, which visited the Casuarina Campus on 18 September, was comprised of UNIMAS Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Abdul Rashid Abdullah, Prof. Mohd. Azib Salleh, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Academic and Internationalisation, Assoc. Prof. Dr Andrew Alek Tuen, Director, Institute of Biodiversity and Environmental Conservation, and Assoc. Prof. Dr Kasing Apun, Head, International Relations Unit.
Dr Tuen presented an overview of the research activities of the Institute of Biodiversity and Environmental Conservation.
Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Professor Charles Webb welcomed the visitors and Professor Chris Austin and Professor Bruce Campbell presented outlines of their teaching and research activities. The discussions highlighted considerable shared research interests and activities as well as opportunities for research collaboration and training.
Professor Rashid said that, “UNIMAS faces challenges as a small and new university operating in a regionally remote location and is looking for suitable partner universities to help train our academic staff and to enhance our research activities. Possible areas for future academic cooperation with CDU are in environmental sciences, biodiversity, ecology, natural resource management, and possibly in health sciences.”
Professor Rashid said that UNIMAS will prepare a draft MOU to formalise the relationship with CDU. He extended an invitation to CDU academic staff to visit UNIMAS as guest lecturers.
The visit concluded with a tour of the CDU research facilities, led by Professor Chris Austin.