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- Category: 2019
Bogor Agricultural University (IPB) and Kasetsart University (Thailand) have officially renewed their long-standing Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on April 24th, 2019 in IPB Dramaga Campus, Bogor to specify more into education and research. There were present both Rectors of IPB—Dr. Arif Satria and Kasetsart University—Dr. Chongrak Wachrinrat, accompanied by Deans and officials from Kasetsart University and IPB. Dr. Arif Satria conveyed several points related to history of cooperative relations between two institutions, due to competencies similarity in agricultural field. MoU renewal is essential on reinforcing Indonesia–Thailand bilateral relations. Sharing alike market shares, one of the most potential demographics are in the European Union. The emerging challenges nowadays towards Southeast Asian agricultural products became the key motivation on this collaboration, aiming to utilize each other’s potentials to the best extent. Dr. Chongrak Wachrinrat also explained what Kasetsart University and IPB had done together. With its "Kitchen of the World" motto, Thailand has been extensively conducting student exchange programs. The trend of Thai youth to pursue study in non-tropical countries (Japan, Korea, Europe, U.S.A) clashed with the fact that there would be more proper to polish expertise on agricultural field in countries with the same climate as Thailand, such as Indonesia and IPB, especially, considering IPB’s standing among nation’s best institution & world’s leading (QS Top 100) agricultural university.
Source: IPB
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- Category: 2019
LOS BAÑOS, LAGUNA, Philippines – Deans and Heads of Animal Science and Crop Science Departments of six (6) member universities of the Southeast Asian University Consortium for Graduate Education in Agriculture and Natural Resources (UC) revisited the status of curriculum and research programs on pasture and forage crops through a roundtable discussion held at the SEARCA Headquarters on 24- 25 April 2019. The two-day meeting aimed to identify the strengths, gaps, opportunities, and challenges in curriculum and research programs, and to recommend solutions to address the gaps and challenges, including those faced by students pursuing forage and pasture science as an area of specialization.
The roundtable was partially funded by the Food Security Center (FSC) of the University of Hohenheim. FSC is one of 5 centers of excellence under the program EXCEED - Higher Education in Development Cooperation funded by the German Federal Ministry for Cooperation and Development (BMZ) through the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).
Representatives of the UC member universities delivered brief presentations about the current status of their respective curriculum and research programs on pasture and forage. After the presentations, participants were formed into two (2) groups for a brainstorming session to identify common issues, gaps, and challenges with regard to curriculum and research programs. As a result of the exercise, participants ascertained the need to increase the number of experts in the field of forage and pasture, strengthen policy support, standardize courses, reevaluate the number of credited units in the courses, improve laboratory facilities, and mobilize additional financial resources, among others, that fall under curriculum-related issues. In terms of the research programs, the participants cited issues such as the decreasing number of students taking up the course, weak communication and networking among forage scientists, lack of government support for research on forage and pasture, and decreasing land area for forage production.
To address said issues, the participants formulated collaborative proposals that aim to help revitalize research and improve curriculum on pasture and forage crops. These include forming a Southeast Asian Forage and Pasture Science Society, conduct of workshops for curriculum standardization in the UC, teacher trainings and student exchanges/internships, joint researches, joint supervision of students, and joint publications, among others. The outputs of the meeting will also be used as basis for determining other possible cooperation programs for the benefit of all UC member universities.
The UC member universities that joined the meeting include the Institut Pertanian Bogor (IPB), Kasetsart University (KU), Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM), Universitas Brawijaya (UB), Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), and University of the Philippines Los Baños. SEARCA supported the meeting as UC Secretariat. (Mary Grace Aquino)
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- Category: 2019
The 2019 QS World University Rankings is now out and all five regular members of the Southeast Asian University Consortium for Graduate Education in Agriculture and Natural Resources (UC) are in the top 200 in the world with respect to the subject area of Agriculture and Forestry.
Kasetsart University (Thailand), Universiti Putra Malaysia, and Institut Pertanian Bogor (Indonesia) rank among the Top 51-100, while the University of the Philippines Los Baños and Universitas Gadjah Mada (Indonesia) are in the Top 151-200 in world rankings for agriculture and forestry.
The QS World University Rankings is based on the following evaluation criteria: academic reputation (40%); employability of graduates (10%); faculty-student ratio as a metric for teaching quality (20%); citations per faculty as a metric of research quality (20%); international faculty ratio (5%); and international student ratio (5%).
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- Category: 2019
The Call for Applications for the 2019 MSFSCC Summer School and one-semester mobility is now open. Deadline for applications is 12 April 2019.
The Joint Master program in Food Security and Climate Change (MSFSCC) is a project of the Southeast Asian University Consortium for Graduate Education in Agriculture and Natural Resources (UC) being led by Kasetsart University in Thailand. It was awarded funding for three years effective October 2016 by the ERASMUS+ program under its Capacity Building for Higher Education component. The MSFSCC project aims to establish a joint master program within the UC that would build capacities of individuals working to address the twin issues of food security and climate change. The ERASMUS + funding supports the participation of students in the Summer School and a one-semester mobility.
The 2019 Summer School is a pilot offering of one of the four newly established core MSFSCC program courses titled Assessment of Sustainability in Agriculture Production and Food Processing Systems. It is a 2-credit course scheduled from 15 to 31 July 2019 that will be offered by the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) and is organized jointly with the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU), Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM), and SEARCA. The course provides a venue for the students to level-off their understanding of the inter-linkages among food security, climate change and sustainable production, and experience active learning with international and interdisciplinary team on holistic assessment of farming systems sustainability. The course will discuss theories, methods, and practices to understand and facilitate transitions in natural resources management. This includes the identification of appropriate entry points and the design of facilitation measures to accompany complex social, ecological, and economic transitions. Students learn how to assess the diversity of farming systems and rural livelihoods, how to accelerate change, and how changes at practical level correspond with the relevant institutions and policies. This year, the field work will be done at Camarines Sur, Philippines.
Applicants who are ongoing Master students from any of the MSFSCC project partners in Southeast Asia that could proceed to a one-semester mobility to any of the UC partners will be given priority. For more details about the MSFSCC project, see http://msfscc.org. Online application may be accessed at https://bit.ly/2Ia4RsS.
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- Category: 2019
VANCOUVER, Canada – The University of British Columbia (UBC), here, is offering a Travel Grant for a faculty member from a University Consortium (UC) member-university to visit the Faculty of Land and Food Systems (LFS) for at least four (4) weeks between 1 September and 30 November 2019. The objective of the visit is to strengthen ties between the UC visitor and UBC professors in research areas of common interest and expertise. The UC visitor will be expected to present a research seminar, deliver two guest lectures to an undergraduate class, and present a fireside chat with interested graduate students.
All expenses related to this participation such as travel, hotel accommodation, meals, and relevant research expenses shall be reimbursed by the Travel Grant to a maximum of CAD 10 thousand. Preference will be given to applicants who have made contact with an LFS faculty member, and where there is an indication that collaboration in research will be mutually beneficial. Applications are welcome from faculty whose research interest and expertise relate to the following research priorities: (1) sustainable agriculture; (2) food, nutrition, and health; (3) food quality and safety; and (4) food and resource economics.
Application letters duly endorsed by the respective UC Executive Officer or Coordinator should be sent to SEARCA before 15 March 2019. Interested applicants must also include their curriculum vitae (CV) and a statement of their objectives and proposed research topic.
