On the afternoon of June 21st, Song Xianzhong, President of Jinan University (JNU), and Adam Tickell, Vice Chancellor of University of Birmingham (UoB) were interviewed by the medias after the 2023 Graduation Ceremony of Jinan University-University of Birmingham Joint Institute (J-BJI), where they talked about the internationalization development strategy of the two universities, the phased development achievements of J-BJI, and the mutual improvement between two parties. They also shared their views on high-quality development of international education and cultivation of international talents.
Song Xianzhong pointed out that, J-BJI was an important part of the “Double First-Class” construction of JNU and a special project of JNU’s internationalized education system. In trecent years, JNU has constantly improved the quality and promoted the efficiency of Sino-foreign cooperation, and supported J-BJI to become demonstrative Sino-foreign cooperative education institution without separate legal entity. Since approved by the Ministry of Education in 2016, J-BJI has made great progress in various undertakings, with a unique demonstration effect of the school model, the formation of a distinctive brand in Party affairs construction, a significant improvement in talent cultivation, fruitful results in the construction of faculty team, and a significant improvement in the overall school level and social reputation.
JNU is now accelerating the second period construction of Panyu Campus. As the banner of Guangdong Province’s educational opening up, as well as a window of international educational exchange of JNU in the new era, J-BJI roots in China, bases on local, opens to the world, combines integration and innovation. In the future, JNU will optimize the resources of the campus, provide more space, devices and technology support in aspects of teaching, research and management, in order to create an academic environment with international perspectives, make contribution to the construction of talent highland in the Greater Bay Area.
Adam Tickell stated that, UoB had active cooperation with Chinese higher education, research institutes and related industries. As an important part of UoB’s international strategy, J-BJI had cultivate more than 500 outstanding alumnus for UoB after a few years of exploration, and also contributed a lot to enhance the international reputation of UoB.
He mentioned that graduates of J-BJI could enter College of Medical and Dental Sciences of UoB for further studies. In the future, UoB would continue to attach importance to talent cultivation, encourage scientific research, embrace technological progress, constantly promote the sharing of global higher education resources and high-quality development, and provide strong talent and intellectual support for promoting high-quality development in an all-round way.
