A 10-member delegation from the Université Paris-Dauphine (UPD) comprising senior administrators led by its Chief Operating Officer, Mr Etienne Desmet, visited SMU from 3 to 6 June 2013. UPD is a niche university which offers 169 Bachelor’s, Master’s and Doctoral programmes in management and decision sciences for some 8,500 students. The key objectives of the French delegation’s visit were to explore opportunities for academic collaboration and share best practices in administrative procedures, as well as in creating a robust experience for the students.
During the visit, Mr Etienne Desmet and his team of senior University administrators engaged in fruitful discussions and exchanged ideas on future collaboration with the management staff of SMU. They included SMU’s Deputy President and Provost, Professor Rajendra K Srivastava; Vice Provost (Special Projects) Professor Francis Koh; Chief Information Officer and Vice President (Integrated Information and Technology Services) Lau Kai Cheong; Vice President (Corporate Communications and Marketing) Alan Goh; University Librarian Gulcin Cribb and Director (Office of Strategic Planning and Quality Assurance) Sriven Naidu. The UPD delegates’ trip followed after a visit in December 2012 by UPD’s President, Laurent Batsch and Vice President (International Office), Arnaud Raynouard to SMU President, Professor Arnoud De Meyer.
Arising from the first visit to SMU by the UPD delegation, several areas of common interest were identified and both parties agreed to explore these opportunities for collaboration in greater detail. SMU Deputy President and Provost, Professor Rajendra K Srivastava said, “We are extremely pleased to have hosted our friends from the Université Paris-Dauphine. Their visit has allowed both SMU and UPD to benefit from learning from each other and from exchanging ideas. The commonality established by both institutions from this engagement bodes well for our future cooperation.”
[Featured photo: All smiles as Mr Etienne Desmet, Chief Operating Officer of Université Paris-Dauphine (left), posed for a picture with SMU Deputy President and Provost, Prof Rajendra Srivastava (right) after fruitful discussions between the two institutions.]
[Photo: Delegates from the Université Paris-Dauphine with their SMU hosts after completing a successful four-day visit.]
