College students face diplomatic challenge
Wednesday 21 February 2007
Over 150 students from five further education colleges in the south east of England are coming together for an opportunity to experience what it's like being a high level diplomat at the United Nations (UN) in a mock UN meeting. The UK 's highest representative to the UN during the first Gulf War and the genocide in Rwanda, Lord Hannay, will be attending the event at the University of Surrey on Tuesday 27 March 2007, putting the students' learning and experiences into perspective.
The mock UN meeting is the culmination of the 'UN at UniS' project, which has given participants key transferable skills that will prepare them for the day, and for work and life, such as negotiating, compromising, consensus building and persuading. Students have learnt about politics, the UN and how they affect their lives and introduced to substantive political issues, involving international decision making.
The project is being run by the Department of Political, International and Policy Studies at the University of Surrey and is comprised of a number of events at the students' colleges, online activities, and a final mock UN meeting. The event also has the strong support from Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Dr Kim Howells.
At the UN meeting, students will learn about the views and positions of other countries around the world on key political issues, enabling them to see alternative perspectives. Participants will take on the role of a country which they must negotiate and debate for, where millions of people will be relying on their skills to come up with solutions to some of the world's most pressing problems, while at the same time building consensus and persuading other countries to come to an agreement. Participants will have to come up with, and pass, a UN resolution on some of the most pressing matters facing the world at present such as the Israeli/Palestinian situation and the nuclear issue in Iran.
Ben Miller, the project's Outreach Officer, said:
"This project has brought the relevance and importance of international political issues to life for the students in an engaging and informative manner. Students will come away empowered by the project as they'll be exposed to challenging situations and will be equipped with relevant skills to help them in their lives."
The aim of this 'UN at UniS' project is to encourage students to continue their studies and increase their aspirations in life. It offers participants the chance to reflect on their learning and to contribute to various evaluation and dissemination activities, making it an engaging, inclusive and democratic project. 'UN at UniS' is funded by the university's widening access fund and contributes to the university's wider aim of encouraging those who have been traditionally under-represented in higher education to progress to university and continue their studies.
Editors' Notes
The University of Surrey is one of the UK 's leading professional, scientific and technological universities with a world class research profile and a reputation for excellence in teaching and research. Ground-breaking research at the University is bringing direct benefit to all spheres of life - helping industry to maintain its competitive edge and creating improvements in the areas of health, medicine, space science, the environment, communications, defence and social policy. Programmes in science and technology have gained widespread recognition and it also boasts flourishing programmes in dance and music, social sciences, management and languages and law. In addition to the campus on 150 hectares just outside Guildford, Surrey, the University also owns and runs the Surrey Research Park, which provides facilities for 140 companies employing 2,700 staff.
Media Enquiries
Peter La, Press Office at the University of Surrey, Tel: +44 (0)1483 689191, or Email mediarelations@surrey.ac.uk