The visit to Zhejiang University-University of Edinburgh (ZJU-UoE)

On December 22nd, a delegation of School of Science (SCI) professors led by Dean John Moraros visited Zhejiang University’s Haining International Campus. The delegation was warmly received by the Dean of the Zhejiang University-University of Edinburgh (ZJU-UoE) Institute, Dr. Yuehai Ke, and the Assistant Dean, Dr. Mikael Bjorklund.

Over the last decade, Zhejiang University (ZJU) has risen steadily in global prominence to be recognized as one of the premier higher education institutions in the world (#44 by QS). Like XJTLU, ZJU is also one of the most internationalized universities in China, with high ratios of foreign students and staff. In line with this global focus, the ZJU-UoE Institute was established in 2014 to foster close academic and research ties between ZJU and the University of Edinburgh in the critical area of biomedical science: a fruitful collaboration that has, in the last year alone, led to over twenty publications. Dean Moraros commented “ZJU is a globally recognized top academic institution and just like XJTLU reflects a strong commitment to internationalization, innovative academic programming and cutting edge research. There are many synergies that we can explore together that would prove particularly beneficial to our students and faculty as part of our proposed exciting collaborative initiatives and MoU.”

Given SCI's own interests in biomedical science, a variety of topics were discussed between the delegations. Featuring most prominently was the recognition that SCI and ZJU-UoE share many similarities in history and mission, with each having been founded to foster interdisciplinary collaboration between East and West, expanding academic and research opportunities for students and faculty alike. A wide range of potential partnerships were discussed, with SCI’s strengths in industry and technology collaboration being mentioned as notable points of interest for ZJU-UoE. Assistant Dean Bjorklund said “Personally, it was a fantastic day, filled with collegial meetings and exchange of ideas and sharing experiences in transnational higher education and research training with our XJTLU friends and colleagues. The discussion made it clear that that we, as two nearby Sino-British joint institutions have common interests and should indeed proactively search for possibilities as well as challenges that may be tackled more effectively together.”

The visit ended with each side cordially agreeing to continue high-level discussions aimed at a signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in the coming months. To this effect, each side agreed to explore suitable activities for building student exchanges (another notable SCI strength) and map ongoing areas of research to identify potential collaborations between faculty. Combined with the recent agreements SCI has signed with partners like Pusan National University (South Korea) and Taylor’s University (Malaysia), these discussions add to the growing list of initiatives being pursued by SCI to help expand opportunities for students and staff, building connections with a host of globally-recognized institutions.