Knowledge is power for city

KNOWLEDGE IS now one of Dundee’s major exports, the principal of Dundee University said yesterday.

Professor Pete Downes said he believed the institution was a “critical conduit” to connect the city to the wider world, attracting students and investment and benefiting the local economy.

“What drives our international reputation is not the jute, jam and journalism of the old Dundee, but knowledge – generated through our research and disseminated through our teaching – and its application to solve some of the world’s most intractable problems.

“Knowledge is the university’s major export – the wellspring of our city’s growing confidence, its reinvention as a city of discoveries and the reassertion of Dundee’s place in the world.”

Prof Downes was speaking at the university’s winter graduation ceremony, attended by about 500 students and their family and friends at the Caird Hall.

He pointed to the investment by overseas companies in Dundee’s bioscience cluster as one example of this “export industry” in action. The sector now accounts for 16% of the region’s economy.

“We are also working overseas with an increasing range of partners.

“Just two weeks ago I was in India promoting a new government-sponsored placement programme, where the university will place 20 students from across the UK with key Indian employers for six months each.

“And there is exchange in the opposite direction too.

“Our involvement in the Science without Borders scheme has seen and will see Brazilian students coming to Dundee, funded by the Brazilian Government, to gain invaluable experience in Scotland and the UK to follow sandwich courses and PhDs.”

These were examples of how the university was widening its horizons and equipping students with the tools necessary to succeed in the global economy, he said.

It was also taking its expertise out into the world, such as its distance learning nursing degree in Eritrea and its diabetes research links with Kuwait.

“I believe these examples, among many others which I could have chosen, show how the university’s ambitions are directed both locally and globally.

“Our best endeavours are founded in ensuring our researchers, teachers and students make a difference, in whatever field.

“And in doing so, the city benefits and so does the wider world,” Prof Downes said.

Among the graduates yesterday were Dundee sisters Katie (21) and Lois (25) Maxwell.

Katie received her bachelor in nursing degree and Lois her postgraduate certificate in primary education.

The ceremony also saw honorary degrees conferred on Jamie Byng, managing director of Canongate Books and stem cell biologist Sir Nicholas Wright.

A separate prizegiving was held for business school students, with final year accounting and finance student Christopher Parry receiving five of the 33 awards.

School of business graduates Slawek Gargas and Jamie Bronoski take a leaf out of Desperate Dan’s book as they celebrate their degrees.

Above left: fine arts students show off their degrees. Above right: civil engineering student Heng Lu is in a mood to celebrate. Below: the procession of students into the Caird Hall to receive their degrees.