On the afternoon of September 23, HUST and the Queen Mary gathered online, to jointly review the cooperation and interactions in the past, discuss ways towards in-depth cooperation, and sign the “Key Partnership Agreement”. Li Yuanyuan, President of HUST, Chen Jianguo, Vice President of HUST, Colin Bailey, President and Principal of Queen Mary, Colin Grant, Vice Principal (International) of Queen Mary, Martin Walley, British Deputy Consul General in Wuhan, and heads of the Office of International Affairs of HUST, relevant administrative departments and schools of the two universities attended the ceremony. Professor Yang Zhi, Dean of School of Management(SOM) of HUST, was invited as the representative of the School.
In his speech, President Li Yuanyuan pointed out that both China and the UK enjoyed splendid civilizations and long history. The two universities have a solid foundation for cooperation and exchanges, strong similarities and complementarities in terms of preponderant disciplines and development strategies, and broad prospects for cooperation on the way forward. He further noted that the signing of this “Key Partnership Agreement” not only represented the outcome of our friendly cooperation over the past years, but also provided an opportunity to open a new chapter of comprehensive and pragmatic cooperation for the next stage.
Colin Bailey, President and Principal of Queen Mary, spoke highly of the prosperous development of HUST in recent years and outcomes of pragmatic cooperation between the two universities. He recalled the cooperation and mutual assistance between the two universities in response to the COVID-19. Looking ahead, it was expected to further expand and strengthen joint talent training and scientific research under the framework of the Agreement, join hands to strive for excellence, and set an example for sincere cooperation between Chinese and British universities.
In the strategic dialogue, Wan Tian from the Office of International Affairs of HUST briefly reviewed highlights of collaboration and interactions between the two universities and came up with suggestions and proposals for expanding the cooperation based on the “Key Partnership Agreement”.
In the discussion, Professor Yang Zhi introduced that SOM is an international business school accredited by AACSB and AMBA, the two disciplines of Management Science and Engineering and Business Administration both ranked A level in 2021 THE World University Rankings’ China Subject Rating. SOM has always attached great importance to the Internationalization Strategy. It is hoped that this “Key Partnership Agreement” will effectively promote the cooperation and exchanges in scientific research, teaching and social services on management disciplines between the two universities.
At the end of the meeting, President Li Yuanyuan and Colin Bailey, President and Principal of Queen Mary signed the “Key Partnership Agreement” together online, marking the formal establishment of key partnership between the two universities.
Founded in 1785, the Queen Mary University of London is a member of the Russell Group in the UK, with worldwide recognition of its academic and research competence in the fields of medicine, engineering, science and business. By now, Queen Mary has been the cradle of nine Nobel Prize winners. HUST and Queen Mary formally established partnership in 2019, with a number of cooperative agreements on student exchanges and joint talent training in place. Scholars of the two universities have delivered a good deal of outcomes through academic and research cooperation in the fields of materials engineering, bio-medicine, industrial design, and so on.
