Tuesday, April 13, 2010

UofT gets $60 million for new School of Global Affairs

The University of Toronto has received $35 million from Peter and Melanie Munk (plus $25 million from the Ontario government) to set up a new school of global affairs. Of course, Peter Munk also donated the money a few years ago to set up the Munk Centre for international Studies. (oddly, the Globe seems to have scooped UofT itself on the announcement - nothing on the UofT web page)

In conjunction with the recent founding of Centre for International Governance Innovation or CIGI and the Balsillie School of International Affairs in Waterloo (Jim Balsillie should also be noted for his donations and funding), it is all terribly exciting if you're an international affairs junkie like me.

Although I still suspect that the Munk Chair in international patent law or Balsillie program in global intellectual property affairs are still a long ways off. (These programs spend too much time thinking about global warfare, famines, the middle-east and the like instead of important issues like trademark dilution ;) )

In any case, hooray for Mr. Munk!

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