Glasgow and Nankai to set up joint graduate school

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Two-year master’s degrees, taught in English by academics from both institutions, will be offered at Nankai’s campus in Tianjin from this autumn.

The graduate school will initially offer MSc degrees awarded jointly by Glasgow and Nankai in urban and regional planning, international relations, and environment management.

The institutions have been working together on research and teaching collaborations since 2008.

Glasgow’s Confucius Institute was opened in 2011 in partnership with Nankai and the Office of Chinese Language Council International (known as Hanban), while last year the Adam Smith Business School formed a Collaborative Innovation Centre for Chinese Economy with Nankai.

Anne Anderson, Glasgow’s vice-principal, said the new initiative would “combine the very best features of UK and Chinese higher education”.

“Some of our most talented academics will be involved in teaching the MSc degrees at the joint graduate school,” she said. “They are very much looking forward to the opportunity to engage with some of China’s brightest postgraduate students and work alongside eminent colleagues at Nankai University.”

Enrolment for the joint graduate school is already under way, following the approval of the project by the Chinese Ministry of Education in November.

Seventy-five students are expected to be recruited in the first year with the aim for this to rise incrementally to around 180 by 2018.

The move comes against the backdrop of increasing scrutiny of China’s involvement in Western higher education through the establishment – aided by Hanban - of Confucius institutes at various universities.

chris.havergal@tesglobal.com