On 11 March 2019 WRoCAH and the three White Rose universities signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Utrecht University in the Netherlands. The MoU is wide-ranging but aims to enhance collaboration between the four universities through PhD training and support. Specific provisions include: making WRoCAH training courses available to Utrecht PhD researchers on a reciprocal basis; encouraging and brokering exchanges; and sharing of supervisory expertise.
Signing the Utrecht-WRoCAH MoU in the Faculty of Humanities, Utrecht University. Front row, left to right: Dawn Hadley (incoming WRoCAH Director), Keimpe Algra (Dean, Faculty of Humanities, Utrecht), Julian Richards (WRoCAH Director); back row (left to right): Moniek Lijster (senior policy advisor research, Utrecht), Ted Sanders (Vice Dean, Faculty of Humanities, Utrecht) Caryn Douglas (WRoCAH Manager), Julie Leijtens (Head of International Office and policy advisor internationalization, Utrecht).
In the first instance it was agreed that in Spring 2020 the first cohort of WRoCAH2 will be offered the opportunity to travel to Utrecht for a joint Colloquium with Utrecht PhD researchers, with the theme of internationalisation. Utrecht also expressed considerable interest in the WRoCAH Researcher Employability Project (REP) scheme and offered assistance in locating Dutch hosts for WRoCAH researchers. It was also agreed that Utrecht researchers should be eligible organisers for WRoCAH Student Led Fora (SLFs). The joint Colloquium was seen as providing an opportunity to develop such collaborations.
Utrecht University is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands, having been established in 1636. It is now one of the world’s top universities, ranked 74th in the Times Higher World University rankings in 2019 and its Faculty of Humanities has similar areas of research strength to the White Rose University Consortium. It comprises four Departments: History and Art History; Languages, Literature and Communication; Media and Culture Studies; and Philosophy and Religious Studies. Each Department hopes that the collaboration with WRoCAH will lead to longer term research collaborations with the White Rose Universities.