Leadership
I am pleased to share a short email I wrote to fellow World Technology Universities Network (WTUN) Operational Board members at the end of my Chairmanship, which ran from August 2025 to July 2026.
Dear colleagues,
As my term as Chair of the WTUN Operational Board came to an end in July 2026, I would like to put on record my thanks.
In the manifesto presented to the WTUN Operational Board just over a year ago, I committed to fostering “a collaborative, innovative and inclusive environment that enhances the sustainable academic, research and community impact.” I am glad to see two initiatives from the past year give that commitment substance.
The first is our online session, Best Practices in Promoting Gender Equity in Science and Technology HEIs, hosted on 13 March 2026 and moderated by our good friends from Mae Fah Luang University of Thailand, with panellists from the University of Bradford, Shibaura Institute of Technology, the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria and KMUTT.
The second is the Sustainable Finance Committee, initiated at WTUC 2025, formally proposed in January and with its membership confirmed in May. Its purpose is straightforward: to reduce the Network’s reliance on membership fees and give our shared ambitions a broader and sustainable financial base.
Alongside these, the Board funded 18 of 20 exchange proposals, saw Student Competition entries rise from 22 to 28 teams under the theme “Responsible Science”, opened a review of the Exchange Programme framework, and agreed to launch a guest research blog. My thanks to the assessors, who each reviewed fourteen entries, and to every Board member who joined calls at difficult hours.
I am grateful to all members for their support throughout my term as the Chair, and particularly to Denise Whitehead, whose work as Secretariat made the role possible and whose close collaboration I will miss.
I hand over with confidence to Dr Manoharan as Chair and to Ms Kamilla Trubicki as Deputy Chair, and I look forward to continuing to serve the Network as a member of the Board.
With best regards,
Chawin Chantharasenawong
KMUTT