WUN welcomes newest member Makerere University

We are delighted to announce that Makerere University has joined the Worldwide Universities Network. WUN warmly welcomes Vice Chancellor Barnabas Nwangwe and colleagues as partners. Click through to learn more.
Webinar on restarting research during the pandemic: summary of insights from across five continents

The third instalment of WUN’s webinar series sharing experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic focused on research: how universities are managing priorities during campus closures and conditions on returning to work. Click through for a summary and recording of the event.
Global study on the pandemic’s impact on university staff and student wellbeing

An international consortium of WUN member universities along with WUN+ partners is examining the experiences of staff members and students at universities around the world, seeking to reveal the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic on their mental health and wellbeing. Click through to learn about the project and to access their global survey for academic staff members.
Advancing telerobotics to make hospitals safer for health workers

With health care workers across the world taking on extreme risks during the COVID-19 pandemic, WUN is supporting a team of engineers and scientists to make treating patients safer for hospital staff. Read more here about the collaboration between members Zhejiang University and The University of Sheffield to develop a robot that will reduce the risk of infection on isolation wards.
WUN Webinar on ‘Restarting Research During the Pandemic’ to be held on 10 September – Register Now

On 10 September, we will explore what strategies have emerged from both an institutional and researcher perspective, and in response to challenges presented by different disciplines, to restarting research during the pandemic. We will discuss what we’ve learned from both success and failure, and how the diversity of experiences from around the network can help inform the way we restart of research in this new landscape. Click through for more information and to register.
Launch of the WUN 2020 Research Development Fund: Sustainable Recovery

WUN is pleased to announce that the Research Development Fund (RDF) 2020 round, focused on the theme of Sustainable Recovery, is now open.
As the world approaches investment in recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, increasing attention is being paid to doing this in ways that will be sustainable, which is aligned with WUN’s strategic goals and focus on sustainable development. This presents the network with a unique opportunity to initiate projects that anticipate the major investments that will be made over the coming years, and enlarge the impact and global recognition of WUN.
CUHK Study Suggests Hot Nights Pose Greater Threat to Public Health

A study done by the Institute of Future Cities at CUHK reveals that hot nights pose greater threat to public health than hot days and better urban planning and building design are needed to mitigate the impact.
Adaptive sociality: WUN-funded research explores student learning during COVID-19

It will take years to understand the impacts, positive and negative, of the mass experiment in distance learning catalysed by COVID-19. Supported by WUN, researchers have started to explore the experiences of university students, using cases across four continents to bring out comparative insights.
WUN Executive Director presents to high-level UN meeting on universities and the SDGs

Peter Lennie discusses the importance of collaborative networks at the Sustainable Development Solutions Network ‘University Sector Support to UN Secretary-General’s Call for a Decade of Action on the SDGs: A Meeting of Presidents of Universities’. to an audience of university and United Nations leaders.
Maintaining student engagement and attention online: insights from the latest WUN webinar

In the second of the WUN webinars on challenges universities are facing during the COVID-19 pandemic, teaching and learning experts shared their experiences and techniques for helping students stay engaged with their courses during online delivery. Every university in the Network has been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic and has had to adapt at pace. However, these common challenges have taken diverse forms and prompted distinctive solutions, with each university responding to a specific and locally grounded set of dynamics.
Click through for a summary of the discussion and to watch a video of the webinar in its entirety.