(nst) The second weekend in January saw the official launch In Singapore of the International Alliance of Research Universities (IARU) (1) . The new global alliance of universities is to smooth the way for shared cooperation in research and teaching. The IARU draws together a selected group of ten internationally renowned, research-intensive universities.

Apart from ETH Zurich the members of the alliance are: the Australian National University Canberra, the National University of Singapore, the Peking University, UC Berkeley, the British flagship universities of Oxford and Cambridge, the University of Copenhagen, the University of Tokyo and the Yale University. ETH Zurich has already been in league with the University of Tokyo since 1997 within the framework of the Alliance for Global Sustainability (AGS). The number of IARU members is restricted to ten, for the next three years.

At the signing ceremony of a corresponding Memorandum of Understanding, Gerhard Schmitt, Vice-President Planning and Logistics, represented ETH Zurich. The university's former president, Olaf Kübler, was also present.

Ian Chubb, the President of the Australian National University will be chairing the IARU for the next two years. "The IARU is an exciting development with the potential for global benefit. If offers a chance to enhance the education of future leaders around the globe and produce research outcomes that benefit people beyond each of our national borders, " Professor Chubb said.

Possible forms of co-operation are exchange programmes for students and lecturers or the development of shared teaching programmes. Joint research projects for young scientists are a further idea being aired. The IARU could also serve as a platform for the exchange of best-practice experience or for the benchmarking of competing universities worldwide, as it says in a media communique. And not least, shared programmes of IARU universities could contribute to the broadening students' cultural competence in addition to their intellectual capabilities.