Universities and the Knowledge Society Seminar
Held at the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries
Cultural and Education Section British Embassy

25 April 2005
Speech by Alex Thompson

1. Mr. Chen, Proffessor O’Shea, Presidents, Ladies and Gentlemen, it is my great honour to be invited to speak to you today on behalf of the British Embassy.

2. I feel that I ought to start by congratulating the China-EU Association, the People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, and the University of Edinburgh for organizing such an innovative and worthwhile seminar to explore the question of universities and the knowledge society, and in particular the role of international collaboration.

3. Along with my fellows speakers this morning, I have been asked to talk about the rationale for international collaboration between universities, and I will attempt to do so from the perspective of the British Council, which, for those of you who do not know us, operates here as the Cultural and Education Section of the British Embassy.

4. In fact, my topic today is one which goes to the heart of the very existence of the British Council. Our role and purpose is to respond to the strong desire that exists amongst individuals and organizations, in the UK and around the world, to undertake international collaboration in the fields of education and culture. The continued growth and development of our operation in China in recent years is in large part due to the continued and strengthening interest here and back home, in international cooperation and exchange, particularly in the education sector.

5. We are lucky enough to be involved in a wide range of education collaborations. Firstly, we work to support bi-lateral relations in education between the governments of China and the UK. Not limited to high-level dialogue and ministerial visits, the governments and national bodies on both sides are increasingly investing in projects and initiatives to better support education exchange between the two countries. For example, a new PhD Scholarship programme has just been agreed between the Ministry of Education and the Department for education and Skills, and the Scottish Executive will soon be launching a programme of school links to build relationships between schools in Scotland and China. Both countries recognize that education is a key sector where China and the UK are already closely linked, and that further cooperation in education can deliver wide benefits to both countries, as well as to our future relationship to one another.

6. We also work at the institutional level. We play an active role in the marketing of study in the UK, and in supporting UK institutions seeking to develop their links in China. The large numbers of Chinese students choosing to study in the UK is an indicator of the high reputation which UK universities enjoy here. But it also demonstrates the very international perspective that young people in China are now taking towards their education and personal development. We see this also through the very strong demand for English language learning and qualifications here.

7. Much is made of the financial incentives for our institutions to recruit students in China. But for many of our best UK institutions, the motivation for recruiting students overseas lies in the their desire (and some would say responsibility) to seek out the best students and researchers, wherever they may be in the world. The high quality of study and research carried out by international students makes an enormous contribution to the academic communities in the UK. They also lead to the greater internationalization of our universities and campuses.

8. For several years now we have also been seeing British institutions collaborating closely with universities in China through joint-courses, collaborative, programmes, staff and student exchanges. This often creates opportunities for Chinese students to experience UK education here without the need to spend long periods overseas. For both partners, these collaborative relationships also create a valuable opportunity to exchange experience and best practice with one another and to build capacity within their institutions. The signs are there that in the future our institutions will be looking for collaborations with China that deliver even greater opportunity and mutual benefit, including larger research collaborations and even joint campuses.

9. As you well know, collaboration between academics is probably one of the oldest and most established forms of international cooperation. The nature of academic research demands the pursuit of the latest ideas and discoveries in the field and encourages the development of international relationships in the search for new advances. As such, the sharing of information and the development of links between individual academic staff in the British and Chinese institutions s an almost inevitable aspect of a rich research environment.

10. With the development of information technology and communications, it is increasingly easy for such links to develop. Since 1996 the academic networks of UK and China have been linked through collaboration between JANET and CERNET. Year on year there has been a steady increase in the traffic of information and data being shared between the universities in both countries via this network link. 

11. Collaborations between individual researchers usually develop out of a common interest between two academics, independent of institutional or even departmental strategy, and with little central support. But, these individual links and relationships are also often the seeds from which larger departmental or even institutional collaborations grow. British Council recently celebrated 20 years of the Higher Education Links Scheme in China, funded by the UK Government’s Department for International Development, which supported small-scale academic links relating to sustainable development. Our experience was that despite the modest levels of funding available to the linking academics, through a few years of stable support, they were actually able to achieve a great deal, and many links have led to sustainable research or teaching collaborations far beyond the end of the funding period.

12. I have mentioned briefly collaboration at the national, institutional, and individual levels, however, I also believe that some of the motivation for education collaboration are the same for each of them. Education is increasingly a globalised venture, with ever more exchange of people and ideas between countries and regions. No one seems to doubt that this trend will continue in the future. So, international collaboration is an ever more important aspect of education. In our schools, this means we increasingly recognize the need for our children to learn foreign languages, and to understand other countries and cultures. For the university sector, it means that successful international collaboration is necessary in order for you to remain competitive in both teaching and research, and to continue to meet the needs of your stakeholder in the wider, increasingly globalised society.

13. The rapid development of Chins is leading to great change and development in the higher education sector, as well as in most other aspects of the economy and society. This leads to a particularly strong desire here to forge international links, in order that current and future policies and practices in China can fully take account of international and best practice standards. In the UK and other countries this is reflected by an equally strong demand for better knowledge and understanding of China, as it becomes an increasingly influential force in global higher education and research.

14. In the UK we are very proud of our higher education and especially of our research intensive universities such as Edinburgh. I believe that our institutions can offer very valuable partners to China’s leading universities, as they continue to master ways to meet the demands placed on them by a rapidly developing economy. Of course, in Britain we also have our own challenges to face in maintaining and developing excellence in our universities, and in ensuring that they remain able to continue to play their role effectively in the society of the 21st century. But developing our relationships and collaborations with China, whether as individuals, institutions or at a national level, can only help us to meet these challenges and others which we will face in the future.

15. The motives for collaboration between higher education institutions in China and the UK are strong, and growing ever stronger. But successful international collaboration takes time and effort to develop its potential, and to deliver results. It requires commitment to over extend periods of time, and can all too easily become a casualty of more urgent priorities close to home. Therefore, it is important that institutions in the UK and China include mutually beneficial international collaboration in the strategic planning, and remain committed to it for the longer term, rather than just the quick-win opportunities. We need to continue to develop new models of collaboration which will meet the needs of tomorrow, as well as today. I believe that today’s seminar will be valuable in exploring what is required for UK and Chinese institutions to collaborate with one another in the future, in ways which will deliver benefits to higher education, in both countries for a long time to come.