China Office celebrates its 10th anniversary

A celebratory reception was held at the UK Embassy in Beijing

THE University of Huddersfield celebrated its continued relationship with China at a celebratory event to commemorate the 10th Anniversary of the launch of the University’s China Office in Beijing.

Hosted in the elegant surroundings of the United Kingdom’s Embassy, the event was attended by the University’s Vice-Chancellor Professor Bob Cryan, International Partnerships Manager Tong Wong and Senior Research Fellow Dr Zhen Tong, who is also the Vice-President of the Chinese Students and Scholars Association (CSSA-UK), which is the largest community for Chinese students and scholars in the UK. 

The decade of success achieved by the China Office, under the leadership of Peter Jia Chen, has led to the opening of two regional offices, the East China Office in Shanghai and the South China Office based in Guangzhou.

Over the last ten years, the University’s Chinese student population has steadily increased to over 1,000 students with over 60% achieving a First Class or Upper Second degree.  Many regularly take part in the international campus events to celebrate their culture with the University’s student and staff.

A video, broadcast to guests at the celebratory event, showed a visit by three of the University’s students to a rural Chinese children’s charity to deliver the money raised by students and staff at the University’s latest Chinese Spring Festival Celebration.

Growing links

At the 10th anniversary reception, Professor Cryan delivered a speech highlighting the University’s growing links with China.

These included the announcement in the summer that the University was establishing a Confucius Institute.  The signing ceremony was attended by His Excellency Liu Xiaoming, the Chinese Ambassador to the UK.  Huddersfield will become the 30th UK university to acquire such an Institute, but the first that will concentrate on innovation in science and technology.

In becoming a Confucius Institute, the University will link with the East China University of Science and Technology in Shanghai, as its partner institution.  The new relationship will look to grow the number of research collaborations with colleagues in China.

His Excellency also revealed that the Chinese Government will offer 20 scholarships to students from Huddersfield to undertake short-term study in China as an introduction to Chinese language, culture, innovation and enterprise.

Professor Cryan also spoke about a number of research projects that the University of Huddersfield enjoys with university colleagues in China.

In the field of diagnostic engineering, Huddersfield’s Professor Fengshou Gu alongside Professor Andrew Ball created the Centre for Efficiency and Performance Engineering, which is the largest research centre of its kind in predictive maintenance.

Earlier this year, the Centre expanded into China linking with a number of leading universities with the Beijing Institute of Technology in Zhuhai positioned as a central hub.  The collaborating universities included Shanghai Jiao Tong, Xi’an Jiao Tong, Tsinghua, Chongqing, Nanjing, Tianjin and Zhejiang.

Another Huddersfield research centre, the Centre for Precision Technologies, is led by Professor Dame Xiangqian Jiang, who is also Director of the Future Metrology Hub, funded by the UK government’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.  A growing number of researchers come to the Centre from China.

Professor Jiang herself was originally from Shanghai and she is now one of the leading academics in the field of precision engineering.  In 2017, she was created a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the Queen’s Birthday Honours.  Professor Jiang received the honour at a ceremony at Buckingham Palace in London.