On Tuesday 27 February, Queen Mary University of London President and Principal Professor Colin Bailey CBE visited the Queen Mary School Hainan (QMSH), BUPT to celebrate the first anniversary of Queen Mary’s new Hainan campus. The Principal’s visit marks the beginning of a series of events celebrating 20 years of collaboration between Queen Mary and the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications (BUPT).
Professor Colin Bailey and a Queen Mary delegation were warmly welcomed by BUPT President Professor Xu Kun and more than 240 students, staff members, and guests including Hu Li, Director-General of The Education Department of Hainan Province.
Professor Bailey said: “We established our pioneering partnership with BUPT back in 2004 and it was the first programme of its kind to be approved by China’s Ministry of Education, an achievement we are very proud of. The Queen Mary School Hainan, BUPT is testament to our collaboration being stronger and more forward-thinking than ever – highlighted by the innovative transnational education (TNE) programmes we offer here in Hainan.”
Queen Mary and BUPT currently deliver two TNE programmes at the Hainan campus – the joint undergraduate degrees ‘Information and Computational Science’ and ‘Digital Media Technology’. In September 2024, Queen Mary and BUPT will launch a third joint undergraduate degree in ‘Computational Biomedical Engineering’. With 250 students enrolled in the first-ever intake, the student cohort is expected to reach 1,200 by September 2026.
BUPT President Professor Xu Kun said: “The cooperation between the two universities began in 2004 and, after 20 years, it has not only cultivated a large number of outstanding talent, but has also made remarkable achievements in educational research, smart education and cultural exchanges. Queen Mary School Hainan, BUPT is a new opportunity and I look forward to further deepening our cooperation with Queen Mary and forging a new paradigm of Sino-foreign cooperative education.”
Dr Jesus Requena, Executive Vice Dean and Director of QMSH said: “Over the past 20 years, Queen Mary and BUPT have built a successful model of TNE that goes beyond the classroom, and QMSH demonstrates our unique approach to TNE. In its first anniversary celebration, we have launched the Joint Student Innovation Centre - Hainan, which will give our students additional opportunities for development, and have announced an extraordinary plan of joint pedagogical initiatives and events for 2024. QMSH is without a doubt one of the most ambitious TNE programmes worldwide and it is incredibly exciting to be part of it."
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the pioneering TNE collaboration between Queen Mary and BUPT. Since 2004, around 10,000 alumni - spread across China, the UK and the world - have graduated with a joint degree from both institutions.
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