Earlier this summer, delegations from the University of York School for Business and Society travelled to Korea and Thailand to strengthen ties that have been forged over decades, helping to encourage cooperation around health, social security, and criminal justice. We spoke to Professors Neil Lunt and Bob Doherty about the importance of this international work.
Korea: Professor Neil Lunt
The University of York’s Department of Social Policy (now part of the School for Business and Society) has strong and longstanding links with Korea. We were one of the first university departments in the UK to have several public servants from Korea doing PhDs and postgraduate study here. As a result, we have some well-established relationships with people that were graduates here 20 years ago and are now in a range of positions in the public sector, in government, and in academia. We now try and get out to Korea at least once a year to keep those networks alive.
A key part of our trip this year was a visit to an organisation called KIHASA – the Korean Institute for Health and Social Affairs – a large public research organisation which does research on a range of social policy and health areas. Their current president, Lee Tae Soo, spent a sabbatical in York in 2013. We have renewed our memorandum of understanding with them which means we collaborate in all sorts of ways, writing research reports together and giving seminars. This year, Bob Doherty was able to renew this agreement on behalf of the new school, and we aim to bolster this relationship over the next three years through full sabbaticals and more detailed writing and project work.
Following this, we met up with several of our alumni in Seoul and had a seminar in which we had two presentations from former PhD students now working back in Korea, and two from University of York staff. This kind of informal seminar is great way of renewing relationships and keeping colleagues up to date with policy developments from the UK.
The 2022 University of York Alumni Workshop in Seoul, Korea
The final leg of our trip saw us visit the Korean Institute of Criminology and Justice, with an eye towards beginning a formal relationship with them. Like KIHASA, it is a large research institute but with a focus around criminal justice. This is an area of work that is now being more fully explored at York with the award of a £10 million ESRC Centre that will carry out research around vulnerability and policing. The opportunity to talk with this organisation in Korea about this subject and look at the opportunities for collaboration was therefore quite exciting.
Thailand: Professor Bob Doherty
I met up with colleagues Dr Carolyn Snell and Dr Antonios Roumpakis for a series of meetings in Thailand. At the United Nations Development Programme, we discussed how government, private enterprise, social enterprise and third sector collaborations could tackle the Sustainable Development Goals. We have now been asked to write a report with Thammasat University Business School colleagues on this. We also discussed best-case examples such as Doi Tung (a social enterprise working with Northern Hill groups on livelihood development), MORELOOP (a circular economy social enterprise), and Ricult (an agri-tech social enterprise).
Next stop was the British Embassy, where we met three of their senior team and discussed the REFOCUS Newton programme and how we can help with policy work, particularly on food systems. They are keen on scoping work on the future of cities and ageing.
We held a number of meetings at Thammasat University, beginning with the Faculty of Social Administration, where the Associate Dean of International Affairs is Pred Evans, a former regional director of the British Council who I have worked with since 2013 on social entrepreneurship in Thailand. He is very keen on joint MA and BA programmes with SBS. We have much common ground with Thammasat as their university vision is based on the common good and empowering students to be change agents. They have a BA in Social Policy and Development that is taught in English and has modules on social entrepreneurship and sustainability that dovetail with expertise in SBS.
Thammasat University. Back, from left to right: Dr Gate Pichawadee, Dr Carolyn Snell. Middle: Professor Peter Ractham, Professor Bob Doherty, Dr Anthonios Roumpakis. Front: Professor Ruth Banomyang
The Dean of the same department, Professor Auschala Chalayonnavin, does research in the areas of human trafficking and modern slavery. We discussed the potential for collaboration with our own Dr Joyce Jiang, who has just won Co-I BA funding on UK modern slavery.
At the Thammasat University Business School, we discussed preparing an MoU to be signed on their trip to York on 24th October for a workshop on ‘Tackling Grand challenges for Business and Society’. They do not currently have any official UK partnerships, but are keen on joint research, joint degree programmes and student exchange.
Finally we had a meeting with several faculties from Mahidol University, chaired by Professor Nopraenue Sajjarax Dhirathiti, vice president for International Relations and Corporate Communications. We discussed potential research collaboration around food systems work, particularly on policy work, as well as circular economy approaches. They were interested in BioYorkshire and BioVale, and were also keen on Dr Carolyn Snell’s work on the impact of climate change on disadvantaged families.
To arrange interviews with Professors Lunt or Professor Doherty or to receive further details, contact Harry O'Neill at Insight Media: harry@insightm.co.uk