More than 400 journalists from around the world registered with UBC to report on the rare meeting of three Nobel laureates.

Related Links

• Official Site, Dalai Lama Vancouver Visit 2004
• Institute of Asian Research
• Contemporary Tibetan Studies

Learning

The Roundtable Dialogue

For a few days in April, UBC was host to an extraordinary meeting of three Nobel Peace Prize laureates: (opposite, left to right) His Holiness the Dalai Lama, South Africa's Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and Iranian lawyer Dr. Shirin Ebadi. They came together in front of a capacity crowd at the Chan Centre for the Peforming Arts, joining Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi and UBC professor Jo-ann Archibald of Canada's First Nations community, to explore "Balancing the Mind with Educating the Heart."

The rare joint appearance came about as a result of an invitation from UBC's Institute of Asian Research, Canada's foremost research centre on Asia, to His Holiness the Dalai Lama to help launch the university's Contemporary Tibetan Studies program. The program will focus on Tibet and the application of Buddhist principles to contemporary policy issues. All three laureates received honorary Doctors of Laws degrees from the university.

Milestones

Largest in-kind technology contribution in UBC history. In November 2003, the Partners for the Advancement of Collaborative Engineering Education (PACE) made the largest in-kind technology contribution in UBC history. An alliance between General Motors, EDS, Sun Microsystems and UGS PLM Solutions, PACE contributed computer-aided design, manufacturing, and engineering software, hardware and training to students, faculty and staff.

UBC's first International MBA graduates. The Sauder School of Business graduated the first class of students this spring from its ground-breaking business degree program, offered in partnership with China's Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Launched in 2001, the program sees Chinese students study at both universities to earn a UBC MBA.

First Nations Educator Program celebrates 30 years. UBC's Native Indian Teacher Education Program (NITEP) began in 1974 when there were fewer than two dozen Aboriginal educators in B.C. That number has now grown to more than 400 educators, with the majority coming from NITEP. The program aims to improve the quality of education in Aboriginal schools and strengthen the cultural heritage and identity of First Nations educators.

Mentoring with a twist. UBC Career Services, in partnership with the Faculties of Agricultural Sciences, Applied Sciences, and Science, and the Golden Key International Honour Society, developed a tri-level mentoring program. Approximately 300 students and 140 mentors participated in this innovative program which matches faculty or industry mentors with upper level students, and, in turn, has them mentor first- and second-year students.