The University of Birmingham has signed an agreement with the University of Science and Technology Beijing (USTB) to create new education programs for Chinese students.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Sir David Eastwood welcomed a delegation of Chinese academics to the University, where he joined USTB President Professor Zhang Xinxin to sign agreements for two new student programs.

Sir David also presented Professor Zhang with an Honorary Professorship as part of the visit.

Senior academics from USTB’s Schools of Metallurgical Engineering, Computer & Communication Engineering, and Energy & Environmental Engineering toured Birmingham’s materials and metallurgy laboratories, as well as the Birmingham Centre for Energy Storage (BCES) and bio-energy facilities.

The new study opportunities are an MSc program in Thermal Energy & Power Engineering and an undergraduate program in Mechanical Engineering.

Both study agreements follow the universities establishing the Joint Center for Energy & Environment Research and Education (CEERE) in 2016 and colleagues at the research facility securing funding for a joint PhD program.

Professor Sir David Eastwood said:“We are delighted to be working with our colleagues at USTB to develop education opportunities that benefit students in China and allow the University of Birmingham to make a contribution to Chinese society.

“As a global ‘civic’ university in the 21st century, our responsibilities include contributing to enriching the life of both our home city and the wider world. These study programs further strengthen our relationship with USTB and represent another exciting opportunity to foster academic partnerships across the globe.”

Energy storage experts at Birmingham and USTB last year won funding from the Chinese government to enable eight PhD students each year from the Beijing university to study on projects in energy storage technologies and materials at BCES.

Professor Zhang Xinxin, USTB President said: “Since USTB was founded over 60 years ago, we have sought to build strong global partnerships. It brings us great joy to find new friends both near and abroad, and even more so to work with them for our mutual benefit. It is for that reason we have been most proud to count the University of Birmingham as one of our closest partner universities, having built a strong friendship in only a short time.

“We have achieved many successes since we first began our formal collaboration in 2015, establishing CEERE to carry out joint research and cultivate innovative talents. We have seen close academic exchanges between staff and joint research publications to help maintain a close relationship between both universities and there are a number of exciting future opportunities still under negotiation.”

CEERE was established in November 2015 and has seen staff and student exchanges, joint grants applications and joint research publications, as well as the development of student degree programs at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

During a visit to USTB last year, Professor Andy Schofield, Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the University of Birmingham, and Professor Martin Freer, Director of Birmingham Energy Institute, were awarded an Honorary Professorship and a Visiting Professorship respectively.

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