Last leg of the tour

OK the weekend over and back to work. Well not for me actually. When I was in the UK I pulled a muscle in my back. It has been giving me a lot of pain over the past week. But yesterday (Monday) I could not move at all. I was very sad to miss the lunch with two of our most prominent alumni in Mongolia. I was back on my feet by the evening and was very pleased to be able to attend the evening function with a much bigger group of Alumni.

The lunch was a great success with the Chancellor hosting the lunch. The Alumni gave a great deal of useful feedback to the Chancellor and our staff. We noticed that all of the Alumni who we met were working in very high powered jobs and that their careers were forging ahead. It really does demonstrate the power of an Australian degree.

That evening we hosted the largest alumni and partner event of the whole trip. It was a great opportunity to update Alumni on what has been happening at CQuniversity. It became apparent that our university has a very high profile in Mongolia and is the lead destination for Mongolian students. The event was also supported by Austrade who have been very helpful during the whole trip.

On Tuesday we were up early for a round of meetings.

First we met with Vice Minister Tulga Buya from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. We discussed some very exciting possibilities for progressing our engagement with Mongolia. We will be following up on these discussions over the coming weeks. It was also good to meet with Narantuya Tuya the Director of International Cooperation Division from the Ministry.

Then it was off to the National University of Mongolia to meet with Vice President for Research and International Studies Dr Bazartseren Boldgiv and Sh. Mendbayar. We discussed ways our two universities could work together including 2+2 degree arrangements. NUM is the oldest university in Mongolia.

Our next meeting was at the Mongolian University of Life Sciences. The President of that University Professor Tumurbaatar Kheruuga was very generous with his time. He briefed us on the activities of the university. We discussed how we could work together in the field of agricultural research and education. There are a number of similarities between our two universities.

The final meeting of the whole trip was at the Mongolian University of Science and Technology MUST. Unfortunately the President of the University Baatar Ochirbat was overseas. We did however have the chance to meet with Professor Gombodorj Batkhurel the Director of the School of Business Administration and Humanities. Again we discussed cooperation between our universities.

So that was the end of all the meeting and events. I am finishing this post on a Mongolian Airways plane flying between Ulaanbaatar and Seoul. I will post it when I arrive. It has been a fantastic trip - I am just about to write another post reflecting on the past couple of weeks.