On January 27, the Chinese Embassy in the UK held 2022 Chinese New Year online reception for the Chinese and British education communities, where Ambassador Zheng Zeguang delivered a speech. Scott McDonald, Chief Executive of the British Council, Dame Janet Beer, President of Universities UK and the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Liverpool, and Erika Boak, Head of International Strategy and Partnerships at the Department for Education, delivered speeches. Around 300 guests attended the online event, including chancellors, vice-chancellors and heads of 88 British universities and educational institutions, and representatives of Chinese students and scholars in the UK.
Ambassador Zheng opened his speech by extending New Year greetings to all friends from the education community of the two countries, and to Chinese students and scholars in the UK! He also expressed his tribute and thanks to friends from the education community for their contribution to closer China-UK cooperation on education.
In the Chinese culture, the Spring Festival is one of the most important occasions and has rich and beautiful implications. It is a time for taking stock of the achievements in the past year and exchanging best wishes for the new. “The past year saw our two countries brave difficulties to press forward in educational exchanges and cooperation. Through our joint efforts, we have made encouraging progress,” added the Ambassador.
First, both Chinese students in the UK and British students on Chinese scholarships increased in number despite Covid-19. China became the most popular destination in Asia for British students planning to study overseas.
Second, dialogues on education between the two countries made new headway. In the past year, the quarterly meetings between the Chinese Embassy in the UK and the UK Department for Education, which had been disrupted by the pandemic, were resumed, enabling closer policy dialogue between our two sides. Universities from both countries took an active part in the China-UK Higher Education Workshop and the Forum on China-UK Transnational Education. Well-known programs, such as the China-UK Mathematics Teacher Exchange Programme and the Mandarin Excellence Programme, continued to make progress. The British Luban Workshop, the first of its kind in Europe, passed acceptance evaluation with excellent performance.
Third, China-UK educational cooperation continued to grow in depth and dimension. By December 2021, there were 190,000 students enrolled in 396 China-UK joint education institutions and programmes, and about 5 million people had taken part in the language learning or cultural activities hosted by the Confucius Institutes or Confucius classrooms across the UK during the year. High-level cooperation between the schools and universities of the two countries continued to deepen with positive results. Chinese and British universities also led the establishment of the World Alliance of Universities on Carbon Neutrality.
Ambassador Zheng noted, China and the UK will mark the 50th anniversary of their ambassadorial diplomatic relations in 2022. At this new juncture, the two countries should strive to make new and greater progress in our educational partnership in three aspects.
First, enhance policy dialogue. China is accelerating and expanding the opening up of the education sector in the new era, deepening reform in school education and vocational education, and optimizing the structure of the education system, so as to build a high-quality education system that is fair, open and flexible. At the same time, the UK is making vigorous efforts to implement the education catch-up programme. It aims to reshape and improve post-pandemic education system by increasing funding for research programmes of universities, providing extra student aid, and updating the International Education Strategy in 2021. It is important that China and the UK enhance communication and dialogue on education policies, seize the opportunities and address the challenges together.
Second, deepen mutual learning. As great Oriental and Western civilizations, China and the UK have respective strengths in the education. In China, basic education has a solid foundation, higher education is developing rapidly, and teaching and research capabilities are growing strong. China also has the world’s biggest team of teachers and a training system for teachers that is supported by the national and local governments as well as schools and universities. In the UK, higher education emphasizes innovation and vocational education is nimble and flexible, known for the unique modern apprenticeship. China and the UK have all the conditions ready at hand to enhance exchanges, learn from each other, and match their respective strengths, so as to achieve win-win results and common progress.
Third, build closer ties for cooperation. The education community and overseas students are important bonds for closer understanding and friendship between the peoples of the two countries. The two sides should step up student exchange and encourage the education communities to engage each other and leverage their unique strengths. Both China and the UK should not only train students who are knowledgeable, learned and have strong research and innovation capabilities, but also foster goodwill envoys with a global vision and a sense of dedication to serving the people and contributing to world peace.
The Ambassador expressed his hope that the education community and overseas students will seize the day, work hard and be creative, so as to build closer bonds and contribute more wisdom and strength to the friendly exchanges and win-win cooperation between the peoples of the two countries.
Chief Executive McDonald said in his speech that UK-China education cooperation is of great significance to both countries. Chinese students enrich the academic diversity of British universities, improve academic quality and serve as a cultural bridge between the UK and China. The British side welcomes Chinese students coming to study in the UK. In the past 20 years, the number of UK-China joint education programmes has grown rapidly. There are now about 240 UK-China joint education programmes at and above the undergraduate level, 35 UK-China joint institutions and 2 UK-China joint campuses with independent legal personality. Education cooperation has laid the foundation for broader cooperation between the two countries in business and trade and in addressing common challenges. The British Council is committed to facilitating more educational exchanges and collaborations between the UK and China.
Vice-Chancellor Beer said that the UK and China have a long history and solid foundation of partnership in the field of higher education. And these long established connections between British and Chinese institutions are the most well developed and innovative that exists between the two sides. Cross cultural exchange between our nations and students has never been more important than it is today. She strongly believes that students from China and the UK will play a pivotal role in deepening mutual understanding and forging new partnerships in the future.
Ms. Boak said that the UK and China have established wide partnerships with fruitful results across all phases of education from early years and schools through to skill，technical education and higher education. The China-UK Mathematics Teacher program has had a great impact on the teaching of English and mathematics in primary and secondary schools in the UK, and more than 8,000 pupils of British public schools have benefited from the Mandarin Excellence Programme; the Generation UK programme has supported many British students from disadvantaged backgrounds to take part in study and internship in China. She looks forward to the education communities of both countries working together and cooperating in the Year of the Tiger for the benefit of both countries and peoples.
After the Reception, 2022 Chinese New Year Gala, organized by the Chinese Students and Scholars Association in the UK (CSSAUK), was held online. The gala was themed “Hand in hand, Embracing A New Spring” and was presented in three chapters, namely “commitment”, “partnership” and “shared future”. It featured Chinese classical music, folk dances, magic show and British opera. The performances by Chinese and British artists and students showed Chinese and British classics and were loved by the audience. They also displayed the spirit of win-win cooperation, paid tribute the hard efforts in the past years and called for joint effort to create a better future. More than 800,000 viewers around the world, including Chinese students and Chinese communities in the UK, students and parents in China and other countries, and guests of sponsors watched the gala through multiple live video platforms. The Gala was broadcast live on 12 platforms simultaneously.
