UK, China embark on education partnership
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China.org.cn, October 31, 2011
The UK and China agreed an action plan on Oct. 27 to strengthen their relationship on education cooperation.
At the Summit, senior representatives from China and the UK’s education sectors developed and agreed a new three year action plan to forge stronger links in higher education, vocational education and skills training, schools and language teaching.
The action plan identified four strands that reflected the priorities of both countries:
• Higher Education: Building Partnerships and Promoting Mobility
• Vocational Education: Developing Further Education and Skills Training
• Basic Education: Raising School Standards
• Language and Culture: Promoting Mandarin learning in UK and English in China
Welcoming this joint cooperation, Minister for Universities and Science David Willetts said:
“As partners of choice in education, this action plan will offer benefits to both countries by ensuring that the UK and China have well educated and trained people who are equipped to meet the opportunities and challenges of a globalised world.
“This new action plan will help us build a range of sustainable partnerships between our nations’ universities.
“This will involve a number of exciting new programmes that aim to increase the mobility of students, teachers and practitioners between our countries, including a work placement pilot and an enhanced ‘Study in China’ programme commencing in 2012.“
Minister for Skills John Hayes talking about the Vocational Education strand of the action plan said:
“This is an exciting opportunity to explore new ways of collaborating between industry and education institutions. We’re looking forward to discovering possible approaches to piloting a UK apprenticeship programme in China during 2012.”
The Summit was chaired by the Secretary of State for Education Michael Gove with the Minister for Universities and Science David Willets opening a Higher Education Roundtable attended by a number of UK University Vice-Chancellors.
The action plan will take forward the education framework agreement signed in November last year by Michael Gove and China’s Minister for Education Yuan Guiren.
In addition to the action plan, a number of universities signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), further strengthening the links with China.
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