Australian University Honors McRobbie
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowIndiana University President Michael McRobbie has received an honorary doctorate from Griffith University in Australia. McRobbie is a native Australian and will also serve next week as commencement speaker at the school. July 25, 2014
News Release
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Indiana University President Michael A. McRobbie will be awarded an honorary doctorate and serve as the commencement speaker this month at one of the most respected universities in his native country of Australia. This is the fifth honorary doctorate McRobbie has been awarded since he was appointed president.
McRobbie will receive a Doctor of the University from Griffith University at a ceremony July 25. Griffith serves more than 43,000 students on five campuses along the southeast coast of the state of Queensland in Australia. Its largest campus is in the Gold Coast region where McRobbie spent much of his childhood and which is one of the fastest-growing areas of Australia.
In announcing the honor, Griffith cited McRobbie's international reputation as an information technology innovator and a leader in higher education, as well as the fact that McRobbie is one of only a small number of native Australians to be named a fellow in the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
“I am deeply honored to be awarded a Doctor of the University honorary degree from Griffith University,” McRobbie said. “I grew up on the Gold Coast before it had a university, and it is wonderful to see Griffith established now as the city's major university with a vibrant and dynamic presence in so many professional and academic areas, and playing a central role in education and research in the region.”
McRobbie came to IU as the university’s first vice president for information technology in 1997 from Australia National University, where he worked as a professor of information science and CEO of the Cooperative Research Centre for Advanced Computational Systems. He became IU's 18th president in July 2007.
He earned his bachelor's degree from the University of Queensland and his doctorate from Australia National University. Both of those universities, as well as Sung Kyun Kwan University in Korea and the South East European University in Macedonia, also have awarded McRobbie honorary degrees since he became president of IU.
“Though such awards are personally gratifying, I feel they also honor the whole of Indiana University and our international standing, and I am deeply grateful to Griffith for this honor,” added McRobbie.
Source: Indiana University