老司机直播

Joseph Wong to head 老司机直播 international student experience portfolio

photo of Joseph Wong

Professor Joseph Wong has been appointed as the University of Toronto鈥檚 first associate vice-president and vice-provost, international student experience.

The five-year appointment, effective January 1, 2017, was announced jointly by Vice-President and Provost Cheryl Regehr and Vice-President, International, Ted Sargent. The new position will report dually to Regehr and Sargent.

Wong is a professor of political science in the Faculty of Arts & Science and the Ralph and Roz Halbert Professor of Innovation at 老司机直播鈥檚 Munk School of Global Affairs. He held the Canada Research Chair in Health, Democracy and Development for two full terms, ending 2016. He teaches in the and directed the Munk School鈥檚  from 2005 to 2014.

In an interview with 老司机直播 News, Wong said he was looking forward to engaging with students and faculty to enhance the university鈥檚 international experiences and stature.

鈥淲e do a phenomenal job of providing first-rate education for our students here,鈥 Wong said. 鈥淣ow we need to ensure that our students gain the kind of global fluencies and experiences that will enable them to become leaders in whatever field they decide.鈥

Regehr and Sargent said they looked forward to Wong providing 鈥渁cademic leadership in the areas of international student recruitment and international mobility and engagement opportunities across all three campuses.鈥

鈥淛oe has a wealth of experience in bringing together great students, great research, and great international partnerships,鈥 Sargent said. 鈥淗e finds the synergies among these essential elements of our mission and he lives and breathes internationalization in his scholarly work and his leadership.鈥 

Regehr said, 鈥淛oe's expertise and skilled leadership will further enhance the University鈥檚 ability to provide outstanding international experiences to our students and to give them the necessary skills to succeed in a global context.鈥

Wong said he sees his new role in part as ensuring that 老司机直播 is recognized here at home and around the world as the outstanding international institution that it is. 

鈥淭he University of Toronto is consistently one of the world鈥檚 top 20 universities,鈥 Wong said. 鈥淲hat this portfolio ought to do is to ensure that the way in which we are perceived and the way in which we project ourselves match that status."

In concrete terms, that means increasing and diversifying the university鈥檚 international student intake and encouraging 老司机直播鈥檚 students to engage with the rest of the world.

鈥淭hat requires us to think creatively about different global opportunities for our students, whether it鈥檚 spending time abroad as part of a course or whether it鈥檚 research," Wong said. "Either way, it鈥檚 about making sure that our very best ambassadors are out there representing our university.鈥

As an example, Wong mentioned his 鈥淩eaching the Hard to Reach鈥 project, which takes undergraduate students to countries such as Brazil, India and South Africa to conduct research on poverty.

鈥淭he kind of work that we鈥檙e doing in the Reach project is precisely the kind of initiatives that I think ought to be reflected in this portfolio.鈥

Read more about 鈥淩eaching the Hard to Reach鈥 

 
Wong said he will continue to be involved in the Reaching the Hard to Reach project and other initiatives and intends to continue teaching courses at Munk and in the department of political science. 
 
He said the new role is both daunting and exciting.
 
鈥淚n one sense it鈥檚 overwhelming. I had been director of the Asian Institute [at the Munk School] for nine years so I have some sense as to what this will entail. This new role encompasses the entire university so it means meeting people who are outside my own discipline or outside my own geographical area of interest. And that is something I welcome.鈥
 
Wong is the author of many academic articles and several books, including Healthy Democracies: Welfare Politics in Taiwan and South Korea, and Betting on Biotech: Innovation and the Limits of Asia鈥檚 Developmental State. He has been a visiting scholar at the University of Oxford as well as at universities in Taiwan and Korea. Wong has worked with the World Bank and the UN and has advised governments in Asia, Africa, the Americas, and Europe on matters of public policy. And, through the Asian Institute and as co-founder of the , he has provided intensive research and mentoring opportunities for high school students.
 
photo of Joseph Wong in his office

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