Doctoral students from King’s College London will soon travel to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to discuss graduate education in a global context with Carolina doctoral students.

Hosted by the Graduate School’s Royster Society of Fellows, the July 26-30 conference will provide doctoral student participants with many ways to engage with one another; share their research; and gain information related to problem solving, communication and professional development within a global market.

Graduate students within the Royster Society and from King’s College London will participate in numerous workshops and seminars and even present their research to each other in “research lightning talks.” The public is invited to attend the seminar “Graduate Education in a Global Context: Barriers and Possibilities,” from 10 a.m. to noon on July 29 on the fourth floor of the FedEx Global Education Center. Marsha Collins, the Royster Distinguished Professor for Graduate Education, will lead the discussion.

The conference is the inaugural event for Royster Global, a Royster Society-led initiative focused on increasing awareness and understanding of graduate education across international borders.

“Our hope is that the Royster Global initiative will, now and in the future, help prepare doctoral students for the opportunities for research, networking and employment available in today’s global society,” Collins said. “We are grateful to King’s College London for collaborating with us on this conference and to the KCL doctoral students who have shared their enthusiasm for this opportunity.”

King’s College London is a research-led public university in London, founded in 1828. In 2006, UNC and King’s College London established the UNC-King’s Strategic Alliance, initiated between UNC’s College of Arts and Sciences and KCL’s School of Arts and Humanities and School of Social Science and Public Policy. The alliance has expanded to become one of the most ambitious partnerships between U.S. and U.K. universities, including long-standing and emerging joint activity in teaching, research and other initiatives in the arts, humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, law and health affairs.

The Royster Society of Fellows is an interdisciplinary fellowship program that fully supports students in doctoral programs across the Carolina campus, so they can achieve at their highest levels in research and teaching, and with professional skill development for a variety of career paths. The Royster Society also provides one-year fellowships that enable doctoral students completing their degrees uninterrupted time to focus on their dissertation research. Since 1996, close to 700 graduate students from 62 doctoral programs have received Royster fellowships.