Dear colleague, I hope you are well. This is a very busy time of year, and I know colleagues across the University are feeling tired. I hope you are able to take some time over the summer to have a break, to rest and recharge.
At the moment I am in China with some colleagues, taking part in the graduation ceremonies of students from our partner universities. We have circa. 5,000 students in China, and it is a pleasure to meet some of them and their families and share in their celebrations at the graduation ceremonies. We also have some alumni events in Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai, which so far have been well attended, productive and very enjoyable. You can see some more information about the graduation ceremonies on our news page.
Open day
16 and 17 June saw our busiest open days yet by a significant margin. More than 13,000 prospective applicants registered, which is about 30% increase on last year. This demonstrates the growing popularity of our University: in 2017, we struggled to get over 2,000 applicants to an open day. At the open days this year, we had international visitors from a variety of different countries join us on our campuses and joining the online part of the event. The sun shone and I understand the atmosphere was terrific – have a look on Facebook. Well done and thank you to everyone who took part: I know these events take a lot of organisation, and also a lot of energy and enthusiasm on the days. I hear Queen Mary was looking its best and all our staff and students were, as ever, fantastic ambassadors for us!
Festival of Communities
We welcomed 7,000 visitors to this year’s Festival of Communities on 10 and 11 June. This annual Festival, run by our Centre for Public Engagement in collaboration with over 30 local community organisations, showcases research from across all three faculties through interactive exhibits, alongside exhibits from local organisations. The event is aimed at families, and helps create connections with the local community as well as providing an opportunity for our staff and students to develop engagement skills. A huge amount of hard work is needed to make an event like this happen: well done and thank you to all involved.
King’s Birthday Honours 2023
Finally, warm congratulations to Professor John Pasi who has been awarded an MBE in the King’s Birthday Honours List 2023. John’s research on haemophilia is groundbreaking. There is fantastic research produced from academics across disciplines: please do keep an eye on our news website for more details, and also the Research Highways pages where new content is constantly being added.
Best wishes,
Colin
Professor Colin Bailey, CBE, FREng, BEng, PhD, CEng, FICE, FIStructE, MIFireEPresident and Principal | Queen Mary University of London | Mile End Road | London | E1 4NS