St Mary’s Welcomes Australian Catholic University Vice-Chancellor

On 14th October St Mary’s University, Twickenham, hosted a visit from Prof Greg Craven, Vice-Chancellor of Australian Catholic University (ACU) to discuss developing links between the two institutions. Underpinned by a shared understanding, mission and values along with similarities in academic provision, St Mary’s and Australian Catholic University have been collaborating on student exchanges since 2010. This latest meeting followed a recent visit by ACU’s Provost (Chief Academic Officer) Prof Pauline Nugent, which explored what it means to be a Catholic university in the 21st century and to seek tangible expressions of Catholic identity. During the visit Prof Craven and ACU’s Executive Director for International Chris Riley were welcomed by St Mary’s Vice-Chancellor Francis Campbell and were able to meet with St Mary’s leading academics and senior management team. About the visit Francis Campbell said, “Prof Craven and I spoke about how St Mary’s and the Australian Catholic University could strengthen ties and also how St Mary’s could learn from ACU, which has grown significantly in recent years to be the largest Catholic University in the English speaking world.” Prof Craven, an authority on constitutional and public law in Australia, was appointed Vice-Chancellor of ACU in 2008. He widely promotes the importance and place of Catholic universities across the world and the value they to communities and higher education. ACU is a national public University with seven campuses including those in Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne and Sydney, and has four faculties in Education and Arts, Health Services, Law and Business, and Theology and Philosophy. Prof Craven also had the opportunity to meet St Mary’s Director of Research Dr Glenn Richardson, who has recently launched a new Australian History module available on the BA (Hons) History undergraduate degree, one of the only universities in the UK to do so. The new module, which is available to Level Five students will cover a broad political, cultural and social history of the country, which dates back more than 40,000 years. On 13th to 17th July 2015 ACU will host the 25th General Assembly of the International Federation of Catholic Universities called ‘Times change. Values endure’, which will be held in Melbourne.