Forging links with China

Applications from Chinese students are up by more than 260% for courses beginning in September this year. The University has students from more than 100 countries so Chinese students are part of an increasingly internationally diverse student population. Exeter has around 15,000 students in total.

A delegation to China led by Exeter’s Vice-Chancellor Professor Steve Smith visited universities in Shanghai and Beijing, including top ranked institutions Fudan University (Shanghai) and Tsinghua University (Beijing). Reunions were also held with over 200 Exeter alumni living in China.

Professor Neil Armstrong, Exeter’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor in charge of internationalisation, said: ‘We had a fantastic welcome from colleagues in Chinese universities: there is a real desire to work more closely with the UK. We came away hugely impressed by the scale of investment in universities in Shanghai and Beijing. It underlines how important it is for UK universities like Exeter to think globally and demonstrates why the investment we plan in our own campuses is vitally important if we are to compete on the world stage.’

Links established with other Chinese universities include:

• East China Normal University, Shanghai, where a pan-institutional Memorandum of Understanding has been signed with Exeter. ECNU is one of China's leading universities and is generally considered to be ranked top for Education and Environmental Science, which are strong areas of research at Exeter.
• Shanghai University of Sport, which is among the top 3 Chinese universities for Sports Medicine. Again, Exeter has a strong Sport and Health Science department.
• China University of Political Science and Law, Beijing, which is regarded as number 1 for Law in China. A pan-institutional Memorandum of Understanding has been signed with Exeter. Exeter has also been awarded some prestigious Prime Minister's Initiative funding to establish a summer school with CUPL. Twenty Exeter students will spend a month in Beijing this summer studying aspects of Chinese society, including comparative China-UK law and economic development.

Fruitful meetings were also held with Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, where a pan-institutional Memorandum of Understanding was signed along with specific agreements to work closer together in Engineering and Business, and Hong Kong University, where initial agreements were signed relating to sports science and Business.