RISE May-June 2009 - University of Salford

RISE! Research Innovation and Internationalisation News
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
CHINA-UK COLLABORATIVE PARTNERSHIPS
The University of Salford is one of seven universities in the UK
to have been granted a prestigious Prime Minister’s Initiative 2
China-UK Collaborative Partnerships Award for Employability
and Entrepreneurship. The funding, administered by The British
Council is to provide pump-prime funding for UK HE institutions
to develop partnerships with Chinese institutions in the areas of
employability and entrepreneurship. The collaboration is with
three top universities in China: East China Normal University
and Shanghai Jiao Tong University, both in Shanghai; and
Harbin Institute of Technology in the North of China.
The project has been running since May 2008, and together work has
been undertaken to ensure that the terms “employability” and
“entrepreneurship” mean equivalent things to all partners. This has been
a very interesting journey, and the team have gained informative and
valuable insights in differences between the drivers and response
approaches both within the UK and China. The partners have also
exchanged examples of institutional initiatives which have been used
to support students such as resources, tools and case studies.
The final aspect of year one of this project has been to explore the
relationships between universities and employers both in the UK and in
China. At the end of last year, employer steering groups were held in both
Salford and Shanghai.
Fifteen major companies attended the steering group hosted in Shanghai.
Not only was such an approach in China considered to be extremely
innovative and different, but it was also felt that attendance and
participation was reflective of the Chinese culture and also the
different demographics of companies in China. These steering group
meetings produced a list of skills and attributes which are considered to be
the most important when seeking graduates.
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