Strong China links bolster education ties

Chinese student numbers are booming across northeastern England, sparking more cooperation between universities from both countries.

Estimates suggest that a tenth of the populations of some institutes are Chinese, and the numbers are growing.

There is also a healthy number of Chinese scholars working in the area, many of whom are involved in joint ventures with counterpart universities in China.

"We have always seen China as a partner in education," says Jennifer Thompson, head of business development at Durham Business & Innovation Services, part of historic Durham University.

"There's a long history between us especially in science and humanities subjects, and at the business school."

At Durham, around 1,000 out of its 17,000 students are from China, and it has 47 Chinese academic staff.

"We believe a strong part of the student experience should be that everyone should work alongside those from a wide variety of experiences. We really look to 'internationalize' our student population," she says.

Durham academics have become well used to working with those from Chinese universities, and current tie-ups exist with Peking University, Zhejiang University, Tsinghua University, Shandong University, Fudan University, Dalian University of Technology and the University of Hong Kong.

"Our focus is on research and research-led teaching, so we are looking at partners who will give us interesting research collaboration.

"We also work with innovative companies that can take research, and develop it commercially," Thompson says.

Like many UK universities, Durham organizes regular visits by its academic staff to partner universities in China, and welcomes others in the other direction, and there are summer schools on campus, too, for students from China to enjoy life in the United Kingdom.

For the third year running last year, its Faculty of Science sponsored 19 undergraduate science students to take part in Dalian University of Technology's summer school.

Studying elementary Chinese for three weeks, the English students also took classes in either Chinese culture or environmental science.

Another flagship program has been its development of a joint undergraduate degree with Peking University, in which students complete their first two years of study in Beijing and then spend another two years at Durham's Department of Chemistry.

Supported financially by Proctor & Gamble, the US consumer products multinational, it is believed to be Peking University's first collaborative undergraduate degree.

Its Chinese activities include a research collaboration between its own Energy Institute, with Harbin Institute of Technology, Zhejiang University, Dalian University of Technology's School of Control Science and Engineering, the Institute of Electrical Engineering, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing.

Sun Hongjian, a lecturer in smart grids at Durham, hopes the institute's efforts can now go one step further by involving more Chinese companies in the research process. It is already hoping for additional funding from the UK government's 200 million pound ($323 million) Newton Fund which promotes science and innovation partnerships with developing countries.

Thompson says: "We always try to link our research strengths with companies that might be able to work with us－that might mean working with a group of physics or chemistry academics, or training for their executives at the business school.

"The Industrial Revolution played an important role in this area, so we've always had companies working alongside universities."

Elsewhere in the region, too, Newcastle, Northumbria, Sunderland and Teesside universities are growing their ties with China.

At Newcastle, its 2,000 Chinese students make up 10 percent of the total on campus, prompting the opening there last year of a Confucius Institute.

Confucius Institutes were started by the Chinese government in 2004 to help teach Chinese language and culture overseas. Newcastle's institute co-sponsored the city's 2014 Chinese New Year events with a party for over 200 people.