New e-book charts VU’s 10-year partnership with UTEP

To mark the University's centenary year, the VU Library has published an e-book on VU’s partnership with the University of Texas at El Paso.

Victoria University's 10-year partnership with the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). is celebrated in Ten Years of a Global Partnership: Victoria University and University of Texas at El Paso.

Ten Years of a Global Partnership is the first ebook published via the online publication service that VU Library provides to VU colleges and research centres. It publishes online open access journals, conference proceedings and e-books.

The new e-book tells the stories of the people, programs, collaborations and knowledge building activities resulting from a partnership between two universities situated on opposite sides of the world. The partnership is based on a shared mission to provide an accessible and excellent education experience for students of the 21st century.

The e-book includes the reflections of UTEP President Dr Diana Natalicio and VU Vice Chancellor Professor Peter Dawkins on the partnership between the two universities, and their vision for the future.

It highlights the various initiatives and the international recognition resulting from the partnership:

• Student employment and exchange program for UTEP and VU students to exchange places for a semester to study and work on the other campus
• Student writing mentors in writing spaces providing support similar to the UTEP writing centre
• Global learning community that facilitated collaboration via technology among students from the two universities
• Health sciences research seminars that allowed postgraduate students to exchange their research expertise and research staff to collaborate on research projects as part of the International Collaborative Research Grant Schemes
• Library exchange with the development of learning spaces, service delivery and student mentoring roles at the two university libraries
• VU early uni pathways program and UTEP’s early college high school program providing students with opportunities to continue higher education
• VU/UTEP partnership recognised with an honourable mention in the 2012 Andrew Heiskell Awards for Innovation in International Education.

Ten Years of a Global Partnership, which is available online, is one of the many ways to explore and celebrate the VU Centenary.