Double graduation joy for students in Nankai and UESTC

Published: 22 June 2017

An important landmark in the University’s international collaboration will be reached next week with ceremonies for the first cohorts of students graduating with dual and joint degrees at Nankai University in Tianjin and UESTC in Chengdu

An important landmark in the University’s international collaboration will be reached next week with ceremonies for the first cohorts of students graduating with dual and joint degrees at Nankai University in Tianjin and UESTC in Chengdu.

Professor Sir Anton Muscatelli, Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Glasgow, said: “Building long-term, mutually-beneficial partnerships in China is a key part of our internationalisation strategy, and increasing our transnational education provision is an important element of that. These graduation ceremonies mark an important stage in our burgeoning relationship with two of China’s most respected universities.”

Nankai graduation ceremony

On June 26, the University of Glasgow-Nankai University Joint Graduate School - the first postgraduate higher education programme to be set up on a Chinese university campus in partnership with a UK institution – will host the graduation ceremony for the first cohort of postgraduate students to complete dual-degree MSc programmes. Nankai is one of China’s top universities, ranked 10th in China in the QS world rankings and is a long term partner for Glasgow.Nankai Uni 450

The two-year programmes – MSc degrees in International Relations, Environmental Management, and Urban and Regional Planning - began in September 2015. A total of 29 students will graduate in the first cohort.

All programmes follow the Erasmus Mundus International Masters model of 240 credits over two years. Visiting academics from the University of Glasgow have delivered courses over three-week blocks at Nankai.

A new Masters programme – MA Translation Studies – will be launched in September 2017. Nankai University and the University of Glasgow are currently finalising an agreement that would welcome international students, including Glasgow graduates, to the JGS in future, thus enhancing the School’s position as a leading model of TNE (Transnational Education).

In addition to the MSc programmes delivered jointly, Nankai and Glasgow have been engaged in a very important research collaboration on Urban Transformation in China. It received £730,000 from the ESRC in the UK and 2.5 million Yuan from the NSFC (National Natural Science Foundation of China). Other exciting research collaborations are in development.

On June 28 in Chengdu, the University of Glasgow and its partner institution, UESTC (University of Electronic Science and Technology of China) in Chengdu, will each award degrees to 109 students who will be the first to graduate in jointly-delivered engineering degrees. The students will receive two degrees – one from each institution – marking the end of their four-year BEng (Honours) in Electronic and Electrical Engineering.‌

The University of Glasgow and UESTC have had a Joint Education Programme, based at UESTC’s Qingshuihe campus in Chengdu, since 2013. Last year the two institutions established a Joint Education Institute (JEI) in Chengdu, known as the Glasgow College UESTC.UESTC Glasgow College John Marsh 450

In the past four years, student numbers have grown significantly: in 2016-17 the JEP/JEI have 894 students while projected numbers for 2020-21 are 2492. It is expected that numbers for students on the 2+2 programme (studying in Chengdu and Glasgow) will increase to at least 50 by September 2020 and potential MSc students for next year will be 18.

UESTC is renowned as the birthplace of the national electronics industry in China and is one of the institutions chosen by the Chinese Government to be developed as one of the country’s top 100 universities.

The day following the graduation, a UK-China Emerging Technologies workshop will be held featuring experts from the University of Glasgow, UESTC, and other prestigious academic institutions in China.
As part of the graduation ceremonies, replicas of the University of Glasgow’s historic Mace are being handed over to Nankai University and UESTC. They were created and produced by the company Studio Prop Makers for the “Game of Thrones” movies.

In addition to the formal graduation ceremonies, a tripartite sporting event is being held in Tianjin. Teams from each of the three universities will compete against each other in badminton and seven-a-side football. The sporting contest has been enabled by financial support from Hanban, the Chinese Ministry of Education’s Office for Chinese Language, which also supports the Confucius Institute at the University of Glasgow.


Media enquiries: Liz.Buie@glasgow.ac.uk / 0141 330 2702

First published: 22 June 2017

<< June