The Sino-UK HE Leadership Development Programme (LDP) is an exchange scheme for senior leaders (Chinese Vice Presidents and Executive Assistants, UK Pro Vice Chancellors/Vice Principals) to learn about each other’s practices and develop their leadership skills. Participants visit their partner for between one and two weeks and in turn host a visit from their partner. Joint workshops are held in the UK and China for all participants. Each participant is expected to select a study topic relating to strategic issues in university leadership or university systems and produce a report that could be disseminated to other institutions in their country. Each phase involves up to 15 participants from leading universities in each country.

The programme began in 2004 and has run over three annual phases. It has provided opportunities for 35 UK Pro Vice-Chancellors and Vice Principals and 35 Chinese Vice-Presidents to learn about each other’s practices and develop their leadership skills. This takes place through structured workshops, exchange visits to partner HE institutions and self-directed research of a study topic.  It has opened up further opportunities for networking and collaboration between the two countries.

This project has been delivered by British Council, the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education)andChina Education Association for International Exchange, and supported by HEFCE in partnership with UK and Chinese universities.