UTIA faculty and staff have a history of collaborating with partners across Europe. An example of this includes the long-term partnership with the Salzburg University of Applied Sciences (SUAS) in Austria that has seen 37 Austrian students intern at UTIA over fifteen years. The Smith Center has also supported UTIA faculty Fulbright scholars in Austria and Finland. Other collaborations include our commitment to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the Global Challenges University Alliance and several Herbert College of Agriculture faculty-led study abroad programs. Find out more below about our work in Europe.
Current Partnerships
In 2020, the Smith Center and the UTK Center for Global Engagement worked with campus partners to begin reporting university progress towards achieving the SDGs to the Times Higher Education (THE)’s new university rankings system. The SDGs were adopted in 2015 to provide a framework for all countries around the world to work towards seventeen common global goals. The SDGs outline high-level targets in all spheres of human interaction with each other and the planet.
The Smith Center has helped UTK raise its SDG ranking to 101-200 in 2022 out of 1406 universities around the world that reported on their SDG impact, as well as rising to seventh in the United States for overall SDG engagement. Smith Center faculty teach ALEC 485/585: Global Sustainable Development Goals, which provides a primer to undergraduate and graduate students on the SDGs. The Smith Center and CGE have also joined the Global Challenges University Alliance (GCUA), a global consortium of universities working together towards the SDGs. GCUA provides opportunities for UT students to take SDG courses across the consortium, and professional development opportunities for graduate students and postdocs.
The Smith Center has supported UTIA faculty and staff through the process of building partnerships and leading study abroad courses throughout Europe. Learn more about some of our current and past study abroad opportunities below!
Past Programs:
- UK & France: Glorious Gardens
- Ireland: Equine Industries
- Italy: Viticulture & Enology
UTIA and the Salzburg University of Applied Sciences (SUAS), Austria, have been working together since 2007. The long-term partnership is stimulated by a double degree program for the master’s degree in wood technology and wood management at the Kuchl campus of SUAS. Tim Young, a professor in the School of Natural Resources, Center for Renewable Carbon, has been instrumental to this partnership, which has seen 37 Austrian students intern at UTIA over fifteen years. He also completed a four-month Fulbright to Austria during the winter of 2013-2014, which further developed the collaborations. The Smith Center has cemented this partnership with the support of Young, by providing resources and support to Austrian interns at UTIA. In addition, the Smith Center and Young led a UTIA delegation to Austria in the spring of 2019, including time at SUAS.