attend a “foreign university” at your doorstep 20 years ago, the university of nottingham ningbo ningbo pioneered sino-foreign cooperative education
2024-09-27
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chao news client reporter lu yao jiang xiaorong correspondent zhou wanjun
"welcome to china! tonight's event is particularly special because of your arrival!" on the evening of september 25, the boya international exchange center of the university of nottingham ningbo ningbo was bustling with people from more than 40 countries and regions including switzerland, italy, australia, and thailand. 120 international students put on traditional chinese costumes, experienced the charm of chinese culture in an immersive event, and celebrated the upcoming national day with chinese teachers and students.
on september 4, 2005, the university of nottingham ningbo china welcomed its first batch of new students. the picture shows foreign teachers distributing materials to new students who have registered. photo by reporter shao quanhai and wu xiaopeng
the university of nottingham ningbo ningbo is the first sino-foreign cooperative university in the country, where eastern and western educational concepts and cultures collide, blend, and create sparks.
founded in 2004 and completed in 2006, the university of nottingham ningbo ningbo has received full support from the zhejiang provincial party committee and provincial government since its birth.
at the turn of the century, although zhejiang has become a major economic province, there are still many shortcomings in higher education. many people of insight have proposed that the development of modern higher education in zhejiang should have more diverse forms and levels, so that more people have the opportunity to enter universities.
xu yafen, the founder of zhejiang wanli education group, has a long-gestating idea: to introduce high-quality educational resources from the university of nottingham, one of the world's top 100 prestigious universities, to establish china's first sino-foreign cooperative university.
at that time, there was no such precedent in the country, and many ideological and institutional obstacles needed to be overcome to accomplish this. xu yafen is lucky. she has the full support of the zhejiang provincial party committee and the provincial government.
in march 2003, sir colin campbell, executive president of the university of nottingham, and his delegation went to ningbo to conduct substantive negotiations on cooperative education matters. xu yafen made full preparations. her greatest confidence is that several provincial leaders and leaders of relevant provincial departments came from hangzhou to participate in the negotiations.
just before the two parties met, xu yafen learned a new situation: the negotiation time was reduced from one afternoon to two hours, and colin would go to other provinces for inspection that night. she knew clearly that if she didn't seize these two hours, the project would probably go to waste.
xu yafen immediately proposed: change the agenda, cancel the welcome ceremony, change the location of the conversation from the conference room to the campus, and discuss while visiting. a provincial leader said, "we fully support you in completing the negotiations, so let's do it!"
in the cold wind of early spring, a group of people walked on the campus of zhejiang wanli university and answered every question raised by the british side in detail. by the end of the visit, everyone was feeling warm and colin had a smile on his face.
"can the two parties sign an agreement of intent first to speed up the next step of cooperation?" xu yafen seized the opportunity and asked.
colin readily agreed.
the first battle was won. in the following days, xu yafen became a "trapeze artist". in order to promote the follow-up process, xu yafen and her colleagues frequently traveled between beijing and zhejiang, with three or four flights a week becoming a daily routine.
finally, the university of nottingham ningbo china was established in 2004 with the approval of the ministry of education. this is the first sino-foreign cooperative university in china with an independent campus and independent legal person status.
after years of hard work, the university of nottingham ningbo ningbo, which has gathered world-class teaching resources, has produced numerous educational achievements.
on september 25, international students from the university of nottingham ningbo ningbo experienced making intangible cultural heritage lacquer fans. photo courtesy of the university of nottingham ningbo china
“the school’s international, open and diversified development background gives us the wings to pursue our dreams and move us towards a broader world.” said li zhenghan, a 2024 graduate who has received admission notices from many top foreign universities. nearly 10,000 chinese and foreign teachers and students from more than 70 countries and regions around the world live together, study and work on campus day and night. graduates from the university of nottingham ningbo ningbo go to the world's top universities for further studies, and more than 95% of them return to china after completing their studies.
since the 18th national congress of the communist party of china, the university of nottingham ningbo china has taken the initiative to align with the national education opening-up strategy, adhere to "based on china, look at the world", continue to build a high-level scientific research platform, actively enhance the international academic competitiveness of teachers, and promote the cultivation of high-level talents and high-quality deep integration of scientific research.
in september 2020, the university of nottingham’s excellence lighthouse program (ningbo) innovation research institute was launched, focusing on the three key areas of intelligent manufacturing, green chemicals and energy, and life and health. enrico masili, associate professor of life and health at the institute and a top scientist in the world, said that the scientific research environment full of creativity and vitality attracted him. what he and his team have to do is not only solve problems in the laboratory, but also hope to apply the results to life. middle. at present, lighthouse research institute has built more than 40 scientific and technological innovation laboratories to contribute to the integrated development of educational scientific and technological talents.
"the seeds of hope that were sown back then have now blossomed into fragrant flowers, and they continue to blossom and explore a path of sino-foreign cooperative education that suits themselves and the times." xu yafen said with emotion.
the university of nottingham ningbo ningbo has experienced ups and downs along the way, which is the epitome of the development of higher education in zhejiang. at present, zhejiang is sounding the clarion call to build a strong province with higher education. with the iterative improvement of zhejiang's new round of policy system for building a stronger province through higher education, the leading role of higher education continues to be highlighted.
zhejiang is continuing to deepen the comprehensive reform of higher education, further optimizing the layout, structure and scale of higher education, in-depth implementation of the "double first-class 196 project", accelerating the construction of high-level universities and first-class disciplines with extraordinary measures, increasing the supply of high-quality higher education resources, and strengthening top-notch innovative talents can independently cultivate their abilities and work together to improve the service innovation and development capabilities of colleges and universities.
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