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The University of Manchester China Centre Celebrates 10 years’ anniversary in China
Sino-UK creative economy business forum and alumni gala dinner held in Shanghai

日期:2018-10-12 浏览:3254作者:曼大中国中心

The University of Manchester  China Centre Celebrates 10 years’ anniversary in China this year. The highlight was on 26th September when the Sino-UK creative economy business forum and alumni gala dinner was successfully held in Shanghai.

The university of Manchester’s President and Vice-Chancellor, Dame Professor Nancy Rothwell, Mr. Richard Cotton, Director of Student Recruitment & International Development, the University of Manchester, Professor Elaine Ferneley, Director of University of Manchester Worldwide, Professor Peter Gries, Director of Manchester China Institute, the University of Manchester, Dr. Deljana Iossifova, Director of Confucius Institute, the University of Manchester, Mr. Simon Phillips, Head of Philanthropy (Asia), the University of Manchester, Dr. Stephen Brookes, Senior fellow in public policy and management (IHL), the University of Manchester, Dr Xiaojun Zeng, Senior Lecturer,director of internationlisation, School of Computer Science presented, Ms Yang Di, China recruitment and partnership manager, joined the celebration with over 400 alumni and friends from China and overseas.

The celebration was opened by Dame professor Nancy Rothwell for the Sino-UK business forum, which was focus on creative economy in the fields of healthcare, education, and arts. Professor Rothwell delivered a keynote speech on ‘creativity without boundaries’, addressing the university’s research strength and its global influence as a creativity and innovation space, both for the city of Manchester and worldwide.

“Manchester has long been a birthplace of creativity. The first computer was born in Manchester and more recently so was graphene. The University this year launches Creative Manchester – a £3.3 million investment along with collaborative partnerships to support creative industry sector. Cultural institutes including the Whitworth and Manchester Museum, the John Rylands Research Institute, the Centre for New Writing, the Institute for Cultural Practices, Multilingual Manchester and Digital Humanities demonstrate a long history of investment in the area.” said professor Rothwell.

Ms Sherry Fu, China Centre director moderated the panel discussion at the forum, leading a discussion on creative economy with distinguished panelists: Mr. Yuehua Chen, Cousel of Shanghai municipal government, commission of economy and information, Deputy Director of the the leading group office of cultural and creative industries. Mr. Fan Ping, UoM Alumnus, Chairman of Board of Directors at the Shanghai Concord Bilingual School, CEO at Langsheng Investment, Committee member of All China Youth Federation ;Mr. Ian Crawford, UoM Alumnus, Ex-executive director of the British Chamber of Commerce, ex-Senior Executive BP China ; Professor Peter Mao, President of SORSA UK Chapter, Vice President of Shanghai Applied Technology University ; Mr. Chen Wu, Managing Director of The Economist Global Business Review, and Dr. Kathy Shi, founder and CEO, Sino-United healthcare clinic.

With Shanghai being developed to an international creative and innovative hub, the role of China Centre will continue to bring together the best of the UK and China’s creative power and contribute to the government initiatives.

The evening alumni gala dinner started with a juvenile choir of 2nd generation of Manchester China Centre MBA graduates. The children were dressed up as symbolic Manchester bees and proudly sang a song ‘you are my sunshine’ with their mums. Following the performance, Ms. Sherry Fu, China Centre Director delivered a welcome speech ‘from setting up in Shanghai, to taking off in China’, reflecting up an overview of the Centre’s milestones and developments in the past decade.  Sherry said“ we’ll bring more transnational courses to China, transforming the Centre to be a leader of digital learning revolution, to extend the university’s academic and research strength to a much wider audience in China”.

Professor Nancy Rothwell delivered a keynote speech afterwards. “Currently there are 17,583 alumni in mainland China and 4,237 alumni in Hong Kong SAR. The University has reached its highest-ever position in the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) this year and is listed as the 34th best institution in the world. We are also ranked as the 8th best university in the Europe, and 6th in the UK.” Said Dame Professor Nancy Rothwell. In addition to continuously supporting Chinese students on campus and having established China Centre for a decade, the University’s engagement to China has also been in a form for joint research and development initiatives with leading universities across China. The launch of the China Institute and the partnerships with Chinese universities successfully illustrated the University of Manchester's long-term commitment to China along with its privilege, responsibility and ability in effectively bridging China and Britain in the field of education.

The night continued with a charitable event.  All the proceeds of souvenir sale would contribute to the Centre’s CSR funds, to assist children of under-privileged background.

Towards the end of the dinner, Dame Nancy delivered closing remarks and welcome all alumni come back to visit the campus and wish the Centre the next decade of success.