It’s been a busy few months for the Global Academy with applications for 2018 Entry open to potential students. We have undertaken meetings and events with schools, universities and students across the globe with China, United States, Canada, Malaysia, India and Kelso just some of the places visited! Awareness raising of our programmes has been a key focus along with meeting institutions around the world to discuss collaborations and ways to offer students an international experience. In addition to the in-country meetings we held our first Live Web Chats – an opportunity for potential students, parents and guidance counsellors to hear more about the Global Academy, how to apply and ask us any questions they have. We will be running more chat sessions throughout 2018, so look out on this page for details. Part of our mission is to provide work-leading education in support of global food and environmental security and we were recently asked to participate in the Royal Highland Education Trust’s Food and Farming event in Kelso. This two-day event was attended by approx. 250 secondary school pupils from nine schools in the Scottish Borders. We provided an interactive workshop on food miles followed by a group discussion asking pupils to consider the financial, human and environmental impacts of transporting products. The evaluation of our workshop was overwhelmingly positive – one 13-year old pupil said, “I enjoyed the debate about food miles and carbon footprint with the University of Edinburgh and hearing different points of view. I now want to think about a career as an agricultural engineer.” We are planning a series of events for 2018 and if you are interested discussing ways to get involved, please email globalagriculture@ed.ac.uk. There are exciting times ahead as we prepare to welcome several new academic members of staff early in the new year as well as the first UCAS deadline for applications.
