S0906

Building a sustainable

partnership for STEM

student mobility

Welcome to session 9.06

Mezquita, Level 1, Fibes 1 | Friday, 15 Sep 2017 (10:30 - 11:30)

Building a Sustainable Partnership

for STEM Student Mobility

Dr Zhou Zhong, Office of International Collaboration& Exchange, Tsinghua University

Institute of Education, Tsinghua University

Ms Laura Bulmer, International Relations Office, Imperial College London

(Seville, Spain, 15 September 2017)

1

Overview

2

• Key aspects of partnership: alignment of interests and

breadth of activities

• Role of International Office: a flexible hub

• A mosaic of mobility: magnetic effect of key

programmes

• Drivers and challenges of sustainable collaboration

• Q&A

Similar Enough, But Not the Same

Imperial Tsinghua

Mission: to achieve enduring excellence in research and

education in science, engineering, medicine and business

for the benefit of society

Vision: A Global Leading University

Mission: to dedicate to the well-being of Chinese society

and to world development

A community of problem-solvers dedicated to finding

innovative solutions to the world’s biggest challenges Motto: Self-Discipline and Social Commitment

3

29.7%

International

(non-EU)

(%)

56.8%

32.0%

8.1%

International

(%)5.6%

3.0%

3 84 9Europe World Europe World

THEQS

330 525World Asia World Asia

THE QS

QS World University Rankings 2018THE World University Rankings 2017-18

President to President

Dialogue (Annual official visits;

advisor, external examiner,

etc.）

Faculty & Staff

Exchange (Joint teaching &

research;

knowledge transfer)

Student

Exchange(Joint teaching,

learning & research)

Shared “Alumni” (Faculty, student,

alumni community)

UK-China Relations(Major hubs of UK-China academic relations;

state visits)

Global-Local Engagement (e.g. World Economic Forum Global University Leaders Forum (GULF))

Inte

rnatio

nal O

ffice:

Alig

nm

ent o

f Inte

rests

Key aspects of Partnership: A Spectrum

4

Milestones in Imperial-Tsinghua Partnership

2015 China President Xi’s visit to ICLImperial-Tsinghua Partnership Agreement

in 2007, 2012, 2017

Tsinghua delegation

to ICL in 1998

Imperial-Tsinghua

PhD Summer School

first time in Beijing in 2010

20172015201220101998 2007 2009

Imperial-Tsinghua joint-publications by research area

6

Imperial-Tsinghua Joint Research & Publications

Total publication

by institution

CNCI by

institution

Co-authored

publication

CNCI of

co-authored

publication

Imperial 53,889 1.81444 2.69

Tsinghua 49,358 1.31

Note: Category Normalized Citation Impact (CNCI) is an unbiased indicator of impact

irrespective of age, subject focus or document type. It allows comparisons between

entities of different sizes and different subject mixes. An CNCI value of 1 represents

performance at par with world average, values above 1 are considered above average

and values below 1 are considered below average. An CNCI value of two is considered

twice world average. (Source: http://ipscience-help.thomsonreuters.com )

(In-Cites Dataset: 2012-2017.7.1 in Web of Science)

Imperial-Tsinghua joint publications by research area & impact

Imperial-Tsinghua joint-publications: number & impact

Shared Alumni

7

International Office as a “Structure Hole” in a social networkDense clusters of strong connections：

- A pivot node of exclusive joints of networks

- A landmark node of large radius

- A hub node of large degreeInternational Office’s

Flexible approaches:

To Do & Not To Do

Top-down (nurturing)

+

Bottom-up (naturally)

Role of International Office: A Flexible Hub

8

A Mosaic of Learning Mobility

Internationalisa-

tion at HomeStudy Abroad

PhD PhD

UG

Research

Placement

UG

Summer

Schools

Master in

Innovation

Design

Curricular

Summer programme

(curricular)√ √ √

Summer programme

(extracurricular)√ √ √ √

Semester programme

(curricular)√ √ √ √

Research

Joint research √ √ √ √

Conference/Forum/Works

hop√ √ √

Practice

Fieldwork / visit √ √ √ √

Entrepreneurship

Competition√ √ √

Culture Cultural experience √ √ √ √ √

9

Undergraduate Research Opportunities

• Exchange of 5~16 undergraduate students in Engineering each year

• Students spend 8 weeks working in labs to gain crucial research and international skills

• Based on academic to academic links

10

Tsinghua Summer Schools 2017

Jessie Harrison, Faculty of Engineering ICL in

Experiencing China Tsinghua Summer Programme

2017

Tsinghua Experiencing China Summer School

• 6 ICL students

Tsinghua Environment Summer School

• 10 ICL students

• ICL Prof. Cedo Maksimovic of Civil & Environmental Engineering

as a guest speaker

One of the most valuable things I have gained

from this program is the expansion of my global

vision……. I believe it would also be a great

privilege to perhaps one day return to Tsinghua,

to undertake study abroad at this world-class

university and fully integrate within the Chinese

society.

11

Global Innovation Design Master Program

Dyson School of Design Engineering, Imperial

Royal College of Art (RCA)

Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua

• Partner residency

• ICL students in Beijing (Tsinghua)

• Tsinghua students in London (Imperial / ROA)

12

Imperial-Tsinghua Global Fellows Programme

13


14

2017 Students

by research field


15


An ICL observer’s view of 2016 summer programme in Beijing

I really felt a connection to our Chinese counterparts during the summer

school at Tsinghua University, and I hope that these new contacts will

develop into genuine collaborations from which we can all benefit…

I learnt that many of the problems faced by the UK and China are exactly

the same; we are all on the cusp of an unimaginable growth in knowledge

to enable low-carbon living, and working together can help us be more

than the sum of our parts.

Alyssa Gilbert, Head of Policy and Translation, Grantham Institute, joined

Imperial College London students and staff on a trip to China in 2016

16

Michael Johnson Ph.D. student, ICL Department of Computing had

research placement in Tsinghua after joint summer school in 2016

An ICL student feedback from 2016 Research Placement in

Tsinghua

As part of the leading astrodynamics research group in China, it was

great to be working in a vibrant research environment, open and

supportive of new ideas, including jointly adopting techniques developed

during my Ph.D. research on thin-film spacecraft. A very productive four

week placement has resulted in at least one joint publication, several

grant applications in the UK and China, and the beginnings of an

Imperial-Tsinghua joint flight project laboratory.

Anonymous student feedback from 2017 Summer Programme

in London

Every session was designed to convey a concept. I think what I

learned in this programme would really help my PhD research. And

it has been nice working with all these brilliant people from Imperial

and Tsinghua. Such an experience helped me understand how to

work with people from different cultures and disciplines.

The outside activity for adaptation strategy on the third day was

really a surprise, which inspired me to think about how to adapt new

members in a team.

I did learn a lot from the final group presentations about climate

change and different ways this can be considered i.e. not just from

an energy perspective.

The feedback from teammates on the fifth day was a fascinating

experience. These feedback was sincere and precious, and I will

really appreciate it when I look back in the future.

Key aspects of Partnership: A Spectrum

President to President

Dialogue Faculty & Staff

Exchange

Student

Exchange

Alumni

Double “alumni”

UK-China Relations

Global-Local Engagement

Inte

rnatio

nal O

ffice:

Alig

nm

en

t of In

tere

sts

17

Drivers of Collaboration

• Shared goals through academic to academic links

• Frequent visits between and overlap of staff involved in many programmes

• Long-term commitment of faculty & staff

• Opportunities for multiple aims: enriching student experience, expanding academic links, engaging alumni, etc.

• International Offices that can tie together activities and engage with multiple stakeholders including students

• Confidence based on breadth of knowledge about each other to improve, adapt and try new things

• Shared alumni, esp. faculty and students

• New funding opportunities

• More president and student expectations

• Growing citation impact of joint research

• Joint effort beyond home campus and countries

18

Challenges and Opportunities of Collaboration

Challenges Opportunities

Fragmented & rapidly changing collaboration

picture: how to draw on these to build

programmes in most impactful way

Increased focus on cross-disciplinary,

international research to address global

challenges

Restricted programme structures and need to

respect intellectual coherence of programmes

Recognition that STEM students need to

develop global competencies

Funding and resources External funding can be sourced

e.g. PM1 (UK), China Scholarship Council,

Chinese Embassy

19

Q&A

• Key aspects of partnership: alignment of interests

and breadth of activities

• Role of International Office: a flexible hub

• A mosaic of mobility: magnetic effect of key

programmes

• Drivers and challenges of sustainable collaboration

20

Thank You!