A Memorandum of Understanding on Sino-UK Strategic Collaboration in Higher Education was signed by John Denham UK Secretary of State for Innovation Universities and Skills and Chinese Minister of Education Zhou Ji at the 3rd Sino-UK Education Summit in Beijing on 29 October 2007.

The MoU provides a strategic framework for higher education activity including national policy, scholarships, research links and student mobility.

2 significant new areas of co-operation are:

• Employability and entrepreneurship;

• Quality assurance and enhancement of collaborative programmes and courses.

The Sino-UK Higher Education Collaboration Programme began in December 1996 and a Memorandum of Understanding was signed in 1997 between the Ministry of Education and the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). The aim of the programme is to contribute to the development of HE in the UK and China by learning from one another’s experience, and to strengthen links and strategic collaboration. British Council and HEFCE have jointly-funded a post in Beijing to manage the programme.

Activity over the 10 years has included collaboration through high-level policy dialogues, workshops, sharing of information and experience, study visits, collaborative projects and pilot projects and a regular Forum of UK Vice Chancellors and Chinese Presidents. These have covered a variety of topics such as: quality assessment of research and postgraduate education; leadership development; national policy on HE management; strategic and operational planning; links with business; management and development; e-collaboration/e-learning (the eChina-UK e-learning programme) and science park collaboration.