In May 2005, the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and the National Centre for Education Development and Research (NCEDR) of the Ministry of Education (MOE) signed an agreement to set up a 3-year programme to study China-UK National Policy on Higher Education Management. With the support from British Council, the project achieved great success.

The Programme brought together higher education experts and researchers from both countries to study and compare higher education management and governance in both countries. The success of the Programme culminated in a book titled National Policy on Higher Education Management: Collective Works under Sino-UK Collective Research Project. The book was published in Chinese by the Higher Education Press in April 2009. The English version is provided in this link.

According to the development needs of higher education on both sides and following the suggestions made by education experts, the British Council and NCEDR have agreed to set up another 3-year Programme (2009-2011) of co-operation on Higher Education Policy for Regional Development. This programme will help to achieve the aims of the 2007 Memorandum of Understanding on Sino-UK Strategic Collaboration in Higher Education and the higher education section of the 2008 UK-China Framework Agreement on Educational Co-operation Partnership.