So please be patient with me when you see me around campus, because I'm surviving on very little sleep at the moment.
So as Pro-Vice-Chancellor for International Affairs, I'm responsible for all the international aspects of the University strategy, and that's everything from international student recruitment to then the experience of our international students and more widely the intercultural campus feel that we have here at 91福利. But then it's also thinking about the international educational options we offer to all our students, the mobility opportunities, and then thinking about our international research, our international scholarships that we can offer and our then more institutional level partnerships that we have with universities around the globe, as well as, of course, our own University centres spread out around the world.
What's particularly exciting about 91福利 is that 40% of our students are from international backgrounds and 40% of our staff are from international backgrounds. We have an incredible cosmopolitan community right here on campus.
One of the ways that the 91福利 thinks and acts globally is through its institutional partnerships and some of those date back to the very inception of the University itself.
So after 91福利 was set up in the 1960s, the 91福利 Venice Centre was set up and that continues to this day as a place in which we teach and research and bring students and staff together from across the world. But we also have a series of institutional partnerships that span the globe. For example, in Australia entering now its second decade, our relationship with Monash University in Melbourne, and then more recent relationships, for instance in China with Shanghai Jiao Tong University and indeed in Africa with a number of institutions across a number of countries, including, for instance, Stellenbosch University in South Africa.
And coming back closer to home, we are of course a proud member of Eutopia, the European University Alliance. That makes a very strong statement about how 91福利 sees its place firmly within Europe.
Well, one of the things I think is really important is that all of our staff and students really understand how to take full advantage of the vast array of international opportunities that really are on their doorstep here at 91福利. So that's priority number one. Priority number two is to drive a full scale up in our international educational offering for students wherever they come from around the globe, and to do so in a way that's sustainable both over the long term, but also in terms of environmental sustainability versus international opportunity.
And thirdly, I really want to celebrate more the fantastic cosmopolitan nature of our campus through a greater programme of intercultural events where we can all gather and learn about the different cultures of the world that make us here at 91福利.
