On Thursday 5 November, over 45 alumni and friends joined alumni Professor KK Phua (PhD Mathematical Physics, 1970) and Ms Doreen Liu (BSocSc Economics, Politics & Sociology, 1970) at their home in Singapore.
KK and Doreen warmly welcomed alumni and friends into their home for an informal drinks and buffet dinner. Prior to dinner, Doreen discussed the importance of networks within Singapore and staying connected to the University.
Guests were also joined by Professor Saul Becker (Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Head of the College of Social Sciences), who thanked our gracious alumni hosts for welcoming fellow alumni in the region into their home. Professor Becker also shared news about the University, including successes from the past year and future campus developments.
The evening was punctuated with lively conversation, good food and great company. There was a great mix of Birmingham and SIM alumni in attendance. As well, many of the guests hailed from different parts of the world, which made for an international evening. Photos from the event can be found on our Flickr site.
The University has a dedicated Facebook group, which enables alumni in South East Asia to remain connected. We are keen to actively increase the range and volume of our alumni activity in Singapore. To do this, we need active local volunteers who would be happy to offer some time to support us in our aims! If you live in the area, please keep in touch so that we can keep you informed and please do pass details to any other alumni with whom you are in contact. If you are interested in becoming more involved in supporting the delivery of local alumni activity, please email alumnioffice@contacts.bham.ac.uk.
We also have a variety of other opportunities that you may be interested in:
- Work placements: Birmingham academics are looking for 12-week work placement opportunities for BSc Business Management students in Singapore. Placements could be in SMEs or MNCs, and they can be in a variety of different areas including marketing, operations, HR, or finance, but all should be graduate level roles.
- Internships: Our Global Challenge Internship Programme offers our most talented Birmingham-based students the opportunity of a lifetime to intern with exceptional employers and organisations worldwide. We are looking to work with companies in Singapore to offer new internship opportunities for this programme.
- Alumni group: Help set up a Singapore alumni group to meet, network and socialise with other University of Birmingham alumni.
- Smartphone videos of alumni in Singapore: For the new digital version of Old Joe (coming out in the spring), we would like alumni from around the world to take short smartphone videos of themselves in front of an identifiable building or monument in the city or country they live in and share them on our social media channels. We will then edit them together for Old Joe.
- Webinars: The Birmingham Business School alumni team are launching a new webinar series for alumni and are looking for alumni to take part as guest lecturers and participants. Please send your lecture pitches or tell us what topics you would be most interested in learning more about.
- International profiles: Career profiles are agreat way to demonstrate the breadth and depth of our global alumni community to current and prospective students. We are looking for new profiles from alumni from across the University.
- Mentoring: We work closely with our Careers Network team to pair alumni mentors with student mentees to provide them with practical career and industry advice. These can be formal or informal, long-term or short-term relationships.
- Distance learning: We are interested in hearing from those of our alumni who never studied in the UK and speaking to them about their experiences as Birmingham alumni.
- Pre-departure events: The University hosts pre-departure events around the world to help welcome new students and their parents into the Birmingham community, and we are looking for alumni in Singapore who might want to take part.
If you would like to find out more about any of the above, please contact Danielle Albracht at socscialumni@contacts.bham.ac.uk.
Finally, we are also considering launching a quarterly e-newsletter for alumni in South East Asia. The newsletter will highlight key strengths, news from alumni and student associations in South East Asia, volunteer opportunities, details of future events and other relevant news. We would welcome your thoughts on this and if you have any feedback or would like to discuss the University’s commitment to the region, please email Anne-Marie Vassiliadis, Alumni Events Manager, at a.f.vassiliadis@bham.ac.uk.