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Media Release

December 15, 2003

Huang to be honoured at UniSA international graduations

Former Lord Mayor of Adelaide, Alfred Huang, will be presented with an honorary doctorate by the University of South Australia at an international graduation ceremony to be held this Wednesday.

Huang – the first Chinese-born person to be elected mayor of an Australian state capital, and a tireless promoter of South Australian education – will be one of more than 250 graduands from 27 countries to ‘cross the floor’ at the Adelaide Convention Centre ceremony at 2pm on Wednesday, December 17.

Since finishing his term as Lord Mayor earlier this year, Huang (who already holds a Masters in Engineering and an MBA) has been appointed as an Adjunct Professor at UniSA’s International Graduate School of Management, where he lectures in Adelaide, China, Hong Kong and Singapore as part of the MBA program.

UniSA’s Pro Vice Chancellor for Research and International, Professor Ian Davey, says the doctorate recognises Huang’s work in building relationships between South Australian and Asian universities and attracting international students to Adelaide.

"Alfred Huang is an outstanding ambassador for the state of South Australia," says Professor Davey. "He has been a tireless promoter of Adelaide as a vibrant, multicultural city with a world class education system and significant intellectual capacity in research and development.

"Alfred has always been a close friend of the University of South Australia and I am delighted that we can in some way recognise this through the conferral of this honorary doctorate"

Huang says he is honoured to receive the doctorate and is looking forward to continuing to promote Adelaide as a ‘university city’.

"During my time as Lord Mayor I always felt strongly that Adelaide was a great place to study, and I took that message to Asia, with several education delegations involving all three South Australian universities," he says.

"I want Adelaide to be known as a university city, like Boston or Oxford, and I think it’s entirely appropriate particularly when you consider that two of its three universities are based in the city centre.

"Bringing more international students here not only helps the state financially but it also fosters better understanding between people from different cultural backgrounds – it’s really a win-win situation and I think we should continue to promote that.

"I believe UniSA is very unique in the way it approaches education. It is very quick to get hold of new ideas and follow them through – it’s a progressive and multicultural university and that’s why I’m very honoured to be a part of it."

What: UniSA international graduations
Where: Adelaide Convention Centre
When: Wednesday December 17, 2003, 2pm

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