Macquarie University Vice-Chancellor, Professor Bruce S. Dowton, and a delegation of university leaders visited Bristol recently for the signing of the agreement and high-level talks about renewed academic collaborations.  Representatives from the University of Bristol and Macquarie University have signed a renewed Dual (Cotutelle) PhD Framework Agreement, which will run from Sept 22 to Sept 27.

This renewal follows the initial agreement which began in 2017 and was the first of its kind for Bristol. Since the initial agreement began, the two institutions have jointly supported 21 co-supervised research students. Several of these students have successfully completed their joint PhD programme and others are currently continuing their studies at Macquarie's campuses in Sydney.

The University of Bristol has benefited enormously from Macquarie University’s experience in the field of dual PhD projects. The renewed Cotutelle agreement will fund up to a further 25 postgraduate research students over five years, who will spend two years at each institution, providing them with access to state-of-the-art facilities and resulting in a PhD from both partners.

Kevin Higgins, Global Bristol PhD Programme Manager for the Bristol Doctoral College says that "The University of Bristol has benefited enormously from Macquarie University’s experience in the field of dual PhD projects, with more than 20 collaborative PhD projects being developed. We are delighted to have extended this prestigious partnership for a further five years".