Engineering Excellence in UK Universities

The Sterling Group consists of research-led UK universities which share
a commitment to international excellence in Engineering research and
teaching. The current membership is 24
institutions. The Group was founded around ten years ago to
demonstrate to countries in South East Asia, particularly Malaysia and
Singapore, that the highest standards of Engineering education and
research were being maintained in the member institutions. The Group
is self-financing and is recognised and supported by the Royal Academy
of Engineering as a valuable means of maintaining the reputation of UK
engineering education.

Until recently, the main target has been South East Asia with
successful annual tours to Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Malacca and Penang.
The tour party consists of a principal speaker, who is a Fellow of the
Royal Academy of Engineering, supported by senior academics from the
member institutions. The main Sterling Lecture
in each location is targeted at senior representatives of industry,
universities and government and is followed by a dinner or reception. In
addition, members of the supporting party give supporting lectures to
students in the schools and colleges. Meetings are held with government
ministers and local professional engineering institutions. For the last
few years a very successful competition has been
run for Junior College students in Singapore. A further tour to the
region took place in March 2004 which included a visit to Bangkok
to explore opportunities for a possible full tour in due course.

Recently, the Group has sought to expand its activities into India. A
preliminary visit to Chennai and Bangalore in 2002 was followed by an
exploratory tour to Delhi and Mumbai in 2003. The success of these
two visits has led to the first full tour to Mumbai and Bangalore taking
place in September 2004. This tour was extremely successful and further
tours to India and S.E. Asia are planned for 2005.

The Sterling Group is led by an Executive
Committee.

The administrative office for the Sterling
Group is located at the
University of Durham.

The Sterling Group seeks to establish channels of communicatin between
its members and like-minded institutions overseas.