UBC president Arvind Gupta has recently come back from a promotional trip to China, signing off documents that will substantiate several student exchange programs between UBC and prominent Chinese universities, including Peking University, Fudan University and Zhejiang University.
As a follow-up to former president Stephen Toope’s framework agreement with Chongqing government in 2013, UBC struck a research and student exchange deal with Chongqing Municipality, one of the five national central cities in China. Starting in January 2016, the Chongqing-UBC Higher Education Exchange Scholarship Program will send 45 UBC students to three of Chongqing’s most prestigious universities for three years, and send the same number of Chongqing students to UBC. Students who participate in the program will each receive $5,000 to cover tuition and living expenses.
According to VP Research and International John Hepburn, the $1.19 million program aims to facilitate research collaboration, education experience and cultural immersion for students.
“This burst of activity is a result of the strategic focus on China that has been building for a number of years," said Hepburn.
Hepburn also said that the world’s most populous country presents a rich study population appealing to researchers conducting clinical and population-based studies. He named the joint research conducted between UBC and the research institute for Alzheimer’s disease and childhood development disorders at Chongqing Medical University as an example.
“The university system in China is advancing very very rapidly because of [an] increased Chinese government emphasis on the post-secondary sector, so the Chinese universities have had a tremendous boost in their funding both for their operations and also for research," said Hepburn. "All areas of research are strengthening in China.”
With China’s rapidly expanding economic and political influence, UBC researchers are eager to study the way in which China copes with this leap of power through policymaking.
“Partnerships [with Peking University and Fudan University public policy and global affairs programs] are going to be enormously important as we develop stronger public policy programs in UBC,” said Hepburn.