The University delegation to China this week has begun to open up exciting new opportunities for co-operation with partner institutions.

A visit to Dalian by the delegation brought new partnership agreements with Liaoning Normal University (LNU) and Dongbei University of Finance and Economics (DUFE). Dongbei is also eager to work with UU in developing e-learning programmes capable of being delivered to students in China.

The UU is spearheading e-learning in the UK through its Campus One initiative, and is a key player in the UK E-University project.

E-learning in China is at the earliest stage of development, according to Joan Reilly, Head of the UU’s International Office, and there is enormous potential for fruitful future collaboration with universities in China in this expanding sector.

In further developments rich with potential, Professor Roy Spence, Pro Chancellor of the University and a distinguished surgeon and Professor Bernie Hannigan, Dean of the Faculty of Life and Health Sciences, paid a visit to China Medical University (CMU), which is located in Shenyang, while Head of the International Office Joan Reilly and Professor Anne Moran, Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences held exploratory meetings with representatives of the China Criminal Police College.

The UU has for many years been an integral part of the training of police officers in Northern Ireland, and that expertise, developed in a time of great turbulence in policing, has much to offer police education and training in China.

On Wednesday, the University hosted a graduation ceremony for MBA and MPA students whose studies at Jordanstown were funded by the Liaoning Provincial Financial Bureau. Fifty students received their degrees in a ceremony in Shenyang attended by friends and family from all over Liaoning province in north-eastern China.

All the students had spent a year away from their families to come to Northern Ireland to further their education, and regarded their time at Jordanstown as invaluable for their future careers.

Before the graduation, the University delegation were received by Professor Zhao Xinliang, Vice-Chairman of Liaoning People’s Political Consultative Conference and by Madam Lu Xin, Deputy Governor for Education and Finance.

Both expressed great satisfaction with the way in which educational links between the University and Liaoning were developing, and paid tribute to the quality of the education their young people received from UU. Both also indicated that new policies from China’s national government aimed at rejuvenating the economy of Liaoning – a province which is facing problems in emerging from overdependence on obsolete heavy industries – would open up more possibilities for future collaborations.

The Vice Chancellor said that the University had been very impressed with the calibre and positive attitudes shown by the students, and was gratified to learn that they were already successfully employing their MBA skills in the service of the people of Liaoning.

And he looked forward to bringing a delegation of business people from Northern Ireland to visit Liaoning in the near future, so that companies from the two regions could begin to form mutually beneficial economic partnerships.

MBA students from Liaoning have been busy. After Wednesday’s graduation ceremony, they threw a party in Shenyang for new graduates and the visiting UU delegation.

At the well-attended event, the graduates sprung a surprise: they’d got together to publish a book which brings together the business analysis projects they undertook as part of their MBA studies.

Called Meeting the Challenge of the MBA, the book (written in English) features articles on marketing and strategy, accounting and finance, public administration, business law and much more.

A gift box of the new volume was presented to the Vice-Chancellor, to be deposited in the UU’s libraries, so that the work of the Liaoning students can be of benefit to others who follow after.

From the bone-chilling minus 11 degrees of Shenyang, the delegation flew south on Thursday to balmy Hong Kong, where a further graduation ceremony will take place on Saturday, this time for students from the Faculty of Life and Health Sciences, and the Faculty of Engineering.

Liaoning province has a population of 42 million (2001) - its capital city, Shenyang, is home to over 6 million people.