Nottingham Trent University (NTU), located in Nottingham UK, is an urban institution with an ethos and grit that well matches DePaul’s traits. Our Global Engagement team has cultivated a relationship with NTU based, to date, primarily on the opportunity to conduct Global Learning Experiences. As DePaul’s School of Cinematic Arts continues its intentional effort to increase opportunities of international engagement for their students and faculty, NTU came to the fore as a potentially good partner, given their experience in film production and animation. To better explore the possible connection, a group of faculty from DePaul’s School of Cinematic Arts (SCA) visited NTU earlier this year. Noelle Thomas, Dana Kupper, and Brian Andrews, joined the SCA director Gary Novak, and spent an intense week at NTU in June 2024 during which they explored various collaborations including designing and implementing GLE projects, joint teaching and research projects, reciprocal visits, and staff exchanges. Tee Diamond, Associate Director for NTU Global, worked hard to provide opportunities for our faculty to engage with their NTU peers in brainstorming sessions. Our faculty also had the opportunity to interact with local film industry professionals, getting a better sense of the local market. The week included visits to NTU’s brand new facilities for the digital arts programs and to external locations where NTU students shoot their film projects, including an exciting afternoon spent filming in a water tank.
At the end of the visit, Brian Andrews observed:“NTU impressed us with the scope of investment in their facilities. The faculty we met were enthusiastic to share the nuances of their programs and find opportunities for collaboration and global exchange. At the end of the week we had developed quite a list of potential collaborative projects across a range of disciplines. The challenge is not finding points of potential connection, but focusing on a few from the range of possibilities. I am looking forward to developing global learning exchange opportunities with them.”
Conversations are ongoing in various areas, including animation, production design, virtual production and more, with already some concrete results, as noted by Noelle Thomas:“This partnership presents exciting opportunities for DePaul students to engage in unique, cross-cultural collaborations. In the near term, we are piloting a joint production design project in my Winter Quarter course, connecting NTU and DePaul students to collaborate creatively and share diverse perspectives. Looking ahead, we are planning additional initiatives to deepen this partnership.”