The delegation brings together the most comprehensive visiting team ever assembled by an Irish university and reflects UCC’s steadily strengthening links with the education sector in China. UCC already enjoys a number of key strategic alliances with several leading Chinese educational institutions, and some 300 Chinese students are now studying at the Cork-based university. During the visit, which concludes on September 12th next, senior UCC managers will hold a number of meetings with their counterparts at Henan University of Finance and Economics (HUFE), which together with UCC, is seeking to establish a joint international college at Zhengzhou. The UCC/HUFE application is at present being considered by the Ministry of Education in Beijing.

As well as establishing new strategic partnerships with universities and research centres in Shanghai, the 17-strong UCC delegation’s brief is:

To enhance student recruitment of Chinese students as well as exchange opportunities for Irish students studying at UCC’s Institute of Chinese Studies
To lay the groundwork for new research partnerships with institutions in Shanghai
To further develop existing links with UCC’s university partners in Shanghai, Beijing, Guilin and Zhengzhou
To reinforce the Cork/Shanghai twinning agreement which has been instrumental in fostering close relationships between both cities.

The UCC delegation will be led by Professor Paul Giller, Registrar, who has led the discussions involving HUFE. Professor Fan Hong, Head of the UCC School of Asian Studies, will also be present together with Professor Grace Neville, Vice President for Teaching and Learning and Director of NAIRTL, the National Academy for Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning. Mr Éamonn Sweeney, Advisor to the UCC President, Dr Michael Murphy, who also played an important role in progressing the HUFE negotiations, is another member of the UCC team, as is Professor Irene Lynch-Fannon, Head of the UCC College of Business and Law.

In all, some 15 UCC academic departments and research centres will participate in the visit, many of them making contact for the first time with fellow senior academics working in similar fields in Chinese universities. As well as the School of English and the School of Mathematics, UCC’s Coastal & Marine Resource Centre; History Department; Aquaculture & Fisheries Development Centre; International Education Office; Analytical and Biological Chemistry Research Facility; Department of Biochemistry, and Department of French, will be represented in Shanghai during the visit. Throughout the week, the delegation will be assisted by the 21 UCC Institute of Chinese Studies students who are at present on a study abroad programme at Shanghai University.

The visit proper begins today (Mon September 6th) in Shanghai with an alumni/student reception hosted by UCC. Tomorrow (Tuesday 7th), a larger Cork delegation, comprising the UCC group as well as an 18-strong team from the Cork Chamber of Commerce, members of the Cork City Council and representatives of the Cork Institute of Technology, will come together in the Irish Pavilion at the Shanghai Expo 2010 for a gathering of academics from UCC’s partner universities as well as members of the Irish business community in Shanghai. On Wednesday, The President of Shanghai University, Professor Zhou, HUFE President, Professor Li, and Mr Zhang Xuanmin, Deputy Director, Shanghai Municipal Education Commission, will address a seminar on managing change in higher education, at which Professors, Giller, Neville and Lynch-Fannon, will be the key UCC speakers. The presidents of Guilin University of Electronic Technology, Beijing Information Science & Technology University and Beijing Technology and Business University, will be accompanied by their senior officials at the seminar. The Ministry of Education in Beijing is sending a five-member team to the event, and representative of all the major third level institutions in Shanghai as well as the China Europe International Business School, will be present.

During the visit, the UCC team will hold talks with the Henan provincial department of Education, the Beijing Higher Education Committee and the Ministry of Education, Beijing. The UCC delegation will also meet business leaders from the Shanghai Municipal Education Committee, the Shanghai Federation of Industry and Commerce and the Chamber of International Commerce, Shanghai.

On the final two days of the visit, UCC academics will present papers to students and faculty staff at the following universities:

East China University of Politics and Law
Fudan University
Shanghai Jiaotong University
East China Normal University
Shanghai International Studies University
Shanghai Normal University
Shanghai Maritime University
Shanghai Ocean University.

According to UCC President, Dr Murphy, China is an increasingly important market for UCC and the intensive round of discussions and presentations during the visit, will take the University’s relationship with sister institutions in China to the next level.

Image: Designed by Xiaoye Dai, UCC Computer Science graduate

1534MMcS

<<Previous Item Next Item>>

« Back to 2010 Press Releases