UCL and Tsinghua University to deepen collaboration in addressing global challenges

President, Professor Li Luming and Vice President, Professor Wang Hongwei welcomed the UCL delegation to Tsinghua’s campus in Beijing on 25 November, where representatives from both institutions signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) agreeing to seek to work more closely together across education, research, and innovation, particularly across health-related areas.

More broadly, discussions during the visit reflected closer recent UK-China collaboration in priority areas such as healthcare, climate change and education.

Professor Li welcomed the UCL delegation and updated them on Tsinghua's latest advancements in global engagement, academic developments and scientific research. He emphasised Tsinghua's commitment to building a distinctive health and medicine offer, noting the university's progress in basic medical research, clinical medicine and medical education within the healthcare sector.

Professor Li highlighted the solid foundation of cooperation between the two universities and the fruitful outcomes in joint research and through student-faculty exchange. He suggested that further collaboration in areas such as medical and clinical sciences, medical system development and public health to address global challenges and enhance China-UK partnership could be fruitful.

Dr Michael Spence shared insights into UCL's work in digitally-driven healthcare and discussed closer cooperation between the two universities across research and education. Through closer collaboration across future-oriented areas such as medical service models and innovation-focused joint clinical research, he emphasised the potential to leverage both institutions’ strengths and resources to advance the development and application of innovative approaches and technologies that could address global challenges in health and sustainable development.

Dr Michael Spence, UCL President & Provost said: “We are excited to be embarking on the next phase of UCL’s collaboration with Tsinghua University, with whom we share a desire for closer and complementary UK and China cooperation to help address some of the most pressing global challenges facing us all, particularly in health.”

Tsinghua University President, Professor Li Luming said: “UCL and Tsinghua have complementary strengths as global comprehensive universities. This MoU signifies our intent to work towards pushing our collaboration further and deeper, especially in the area of medicine and human health."

The UCL delegation also visited Tsinghua Medicine and attended a symposium on collaboration around a new medical campus. At the symposium, Professor Wong Tien Yin, Vice Provost of Tsinghua University and Senior Vice-Chancellor of Tsinghua Medicine, presented the university’s latest developments in medical education, clinical and medical research, and international exchange/mobility cooperation. He noted the close collaboration between Tsinghua Medicine and UCL in the field of medical sciences and expressed his desire for ongoing promotion of research collaboration and medical talent development.

Other members of the UCL delegation included Vice-Provost (Research, Innovation & Global Engagement) Professor Geraint Rees; Pro-Provost Health Professor Ibrahim Abubakar; Executive Dean (UCL Faculty of Life Sciences) Professor Gail Taylor and Vice-Dean Health (UCL Faculty of Engineering) Professor Qasim Rafiq.

Following the UCL visit to China, Dr Michael Spence and Professor Li  took part in the China-UK Universities roundtable in the UK on 12 December and a League of European Research Universities (LERU) Association of University Presidents of China Presidential Dialogue meeting hosted at UCL on 13 December.

A senior delegation led by Vice President Professor Wang from Tsinghua University also visited UCL’s Bloomsbury and East campuses on 16-17 December to progress discussions on future opportunities for health-related collaboration.

The UCL-Tsinghua meetings have followed positive connections between the UK and Chinese governments this year. On 18 November Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer met President Xi Jinping at the G20 summit and emphasised the importance of a "strong UK-China relationship", particularly in "areas of mutual cooperation" such as international stability, climate change, economy and trade, science and technology, finance, healthcare and education. 
 
On 1 November, China’s Vice Minister of Education Chen Jie also met Jacqui Smith, Minister of State (Skills) for the UK Department of Education at the G20 Education Ministers' Meeting in Brazil.

Links

• Strengthening UCL’s partnerships and links in mainland China and Hong Kong
• UCL and Tsinghua University sign a Memorandum of Understanding to Enhance Collaboration in Civil Eng
• UCL and China
• Tsinghua University
• Tsinghua Medicine