First ever Phnom Penh Victoria University Alumni event
Professor Roberto Rabel with ELTOs and other Victoria Alumni
Professor Roberto Rabel, Pro Vice-Chancellor (International) and Jeff Howe, Director International Programmes, hosted a reception for Victoria alumni in Phnom Penh on 11 September 2013.
The 40 attendees were mainly officials who had studied on Victoria‘s long-running English Language Training for Officials (ELTO) programme. Some former NZAID Scholarship students also attended, as well as representatives from IDP Cambodia and Cambodian university partners.
This was the first alumni event held by a New Zealand university in Cambodia and it coincided with the 15th Meeting of the Greater Mekong Sub-region Tertiary Education Consortium Trust (GMSTEC), a grouping established by Professor Neil Quigley in 2002 to link Victoria with leading Universities from the Mekong sub-region.
The current members are: Can Tho University, Vietnam; Hanoi University of Science and Technology, Vietnam; Khon Kaen University, Thailand; King Mongkut‘s University of Technology, Thonburi, Thailand; National Economics University, Hanoi, Vietnam; National University of Laos, Lao PDR; Royal University of Agriculture, Cambodia; Royal University of Phnom Penh, Cambodia; University of Economics, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; and Yunnan University, China, and Victoria.
Professor Rabel has represented Victoria on the GMSTEC Board of Trustees since 2006 and Mr Howe has served as the Executive Director since 2003. In a follow-up to the GMSTEC meeting, Victoria will be hosting an International Leadership Programme for 20 students from GMSTEC partner universities in November 2013.
These well-established links with the region and our continuing involvement with the ELTO and ELTSO programmes, and the ASEAN Scholarship programme, are key components of Victoria’s connections with the ASEAN region,” says Professor Rabel.