Durham, NC -

President Richard Brodhead talks with Jeffrey Hardee, T 80, of American Chamber of Commerce Board of Governors, during a talk at the organization in Singapore.

President Richard Brodhead travelled to Singapore this week to visit the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School and meet with leaders of Singapore government agencies, the National University of Singapore and the health care network SingHealth.

Thursday evening Brodhead and Duke Global Health Institute Director Michael Merson spoke to parents and spouses of students at the first Duke-NUS family event. They answered questions about Duke and medical education, and offered perspectives on current global health issues.

On Friday, Brodhead addressed the American Chamber of Commerce, the largest expatriate business organization in Singapore. Speaking to an audience of more than 80 people that included a number of Duke alumni and parents, including program chair Jeffrey Hardee, Brodhead emphasized the ways that American research universities are intentionally and increasingly engaging with the world through their teaching, research and global partnerships.

Citing Dukes international collaborations in creating the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School in Singapore and the new Duke Kunshan University in China, Brodhead said, Increasingly, universities have the potential to join partners at the table as we tackle the worlds problems together. The challenges of the 21st century will not be solved by government alone, or the private sector alone. We need the brightest minds from many different perspectives, with different kinds of training and approaches, to come together in a collaborative space to work on problems with innovation and imagination. That sounds like what a university does best.

Brodhead and the Duke delegation, which included Vice President for Public Affairs and Government Relations Michael Schoenfeld and Director of Global Programs Eve Duffy, also visited Yale-NUS College, a new liberal arts institution on the campus of the National University of Singapore.

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In Singapore, Brodhead Discusses Global Partnerships in Higher Education