Development of research links with Chinese universities
In the last week of March, Vice Chancellor Prof Don Nutbeam led a delegation of senior academics to visit Nanjing University and Xiamen University in China.
In both places, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the institutions, and Southampton staff gave a series of seminars to showcase Southampton research and promote existing and future research links.
Nanjing University dates from 1902 and is a key comprehensive university with over 40,000 students and three campuses, in one of the historic capitals of China. Xiamen University dates from 1921 and is also a comprehensive, and research-intensive, “211” and “985” institution (equivalent to Russell Group). Xiamen also has 3 campuses, with over 38,000 students.
The Faculty of Humanities was represented on these visits by Prof Ros Mitchell (Modern Languages), who gave talks on the international profile of the Faculty, and also on current linguistics research (“Second Language Learning Theories”, “Social Networking and Residence Abroad”). A student exchange with Nanjing is already in place for Southampton students who are learners of Chinese, and a parallel exchange with Xiamen is currently being developed.
