This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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New education links with China
14/11/2005
One of China's leading Universities is to seek closer links with Scotland following a visit to Shanghai by Deputy First Minister Nicol Stephen.
Shanghai's Fudan University, which already has links with Edinburgh and Glasgow University, now wants to explore closer mutual collaboration with Universities in Scotland.
Fudan's President Professor Wang Shenghong told the Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning that he valued the educational and research links already established in Scotland and would like to see further links developed, including:
- Student exchanges with possible attendance at summer schools or single semester exchanges.
- The development of credits that could be mutually recognised.
- The possibilities of joint degrees.
- And the possibility of building a Scottish branch campus at Fudan.
Mr Stephen, who was visiting Fudan at the invitation of China's Education Minister Zhou Ji, whom he met in Edinburgh recently, said he would meet with Scottish University leaders on his return to discuss how these proposals could be further developed.
He said:
"Minister Zhou Ji, when we spoke during his visit to Edinburgh earlier this year, made clear that there were many opportunities for our Universities and Colleges to forge new and rewarding links with some of the 2,000-plus universities in China.
"He invited me to visit Fudan, and it was an honour to do so. Fudan is one of China's leading Universities, and it is very exciting that they want to build on the links they have already established in Scotland.
"I have promised to take their proposals back to Scotland and discuss them with our Universities, to see how we can build new links that will benefit both countries."
Still on an education theme, the Deputy First Minister also visited Shanghai's Tongji University, which has developed strong golf-related education links with Elmwood College in Fife.
Tongji is one of seven organisations in China now signed up as partners with Elmwood in the China/Scotland Golf Education Partnership, which provides expert knowledge on golf-related education to Chinese educational institutions.
During his visit, the Minister met with Mr Qui Can Hua, Dean of Tongi's Golf Business School, who spent seven months at Elmwood last year, and with Miss Qin Yu, a graduate from Elmwood who achieved an HND in Golf Facility Management.
Qin Yu was the first student to receive a major grant from the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews to assist her studies, and having qualified with merit in the summer has just taken up the position of Director of Golf Operations at the prestigious Suzhou Jinji Lake International Golf Club.
The Minister met other students who have also benefited from the Elmwood link, and also with Mr George Manson, Project Manager of the China/Scotland Golf Education Programme, who has pioneered Elwood's work in China for the past five years.