Higher Education Partnerships Now; Whither or Wither?

Sue Welburn is Executive Dean of Zhejiang University – University of Edinburgh Joint Institute (ZJE) at Zhejiang International Campus and founding Director of the Global Health Academy. She is Professor of Medical and Veterinary Molecular Epidemiology at the University of Edinburgh and Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at Zhejiang University. ZJE is the University of Edinburgh’s largest overseas educational and research partnership and will support 600 undergraduates and 550 MSc/PhD students. Sue is Co-Chair of the British Council supported China-UK Joint Institute Alliance which supports the evolution of UK-China Transnational Education. Sue has held several senior management positions at the University of Edinburgh including Vice Principal Global Access. Sue is committed to promoting access to HE, establishing 3 on-line MSc Programmes for which she has been awarded over 150 scholarships from the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission and is co-founder of the World Access to Higher Education Day (WAHED). Sue’s PhD is from the University of Bristol and her research is focused on emerging and neglected infectious diseases and their control in human and domestic and wild animal populations. Sue has published over 250 peer-reviewed articles ranging from ‘grass-roots’ fieldwork to laboratory-based dissection of the problems at the gene level and mentored over 50 PhD students.

Professor Laura Bishop is the Principal of the Sino-British College, a Joint Institution between The University of Shanghai for Science and Technology and nine UK University partners, first licenced by the China Ministry of Education in 2006. SBC has around 1500 Chinese and international students studying for British degrees, dual degrees with USST and NCUK awards. Laura took up that post in 2018 after a long career at Liverpool John Moores University, where she held roles from Senior Lecturer through to Associate Dean, Global Engagement for the Faculty of Science and Professor of Palaeoanthropology. She has conducted fieldwork in Africa and Asia with multidisciplinary international teams resulting in over 60 scientific outputs. Her research led to international education initiatives, including EU-funded Erasmus and Erasmus+ projects with South African researchers and numerous education and training projects. Having been educated in the USA, bachelor’s and PhD from Yale University, as a first-generation university student, then working in US, UK and now China HEIs, her leadership promotes the benefits of internationalism, diversity and equality in education.

John is based in the British Council’s Beijing office and manages the delivery of custom research projects and country briefing reports for UK education institutions, providing them with the insights and market intelligence to succeed globally. Prior to joining the British Council, John ran his own international education consultancy and previously worked as a senior economist with the Economist Intelligence Unit in London. He holds a Master’s degree in Economics from the National University of Ireland, Galway.

苏思女士任职英国驻上海总领事馆国际贸易部教育科技及高等教育业务总监，主要负责协助英国高校及英国教育科技机构寻找中国市场的潜在商业机会及政府合作项目，并为中国投资者及教育机构提供英国投资支持。

在加入英国国际贸易部之前，苏思曾就职于英国大使馆文化教育处，负责对接中英教育交流项目，主要关注于高等教育及K12领域。

Su Si works in the Department for International Trade (DIT) as the Head of Education Technology and Higher Education, based in the British Consulate-General Shanghai. In this role, she supports UK Education Technology companies and Higher Education institutions to explore high-value business opportunities and government collaboration projects. She also works on foreign direct investment (FDI) projects in the education sector, supporting Chinese companies to invest in the UK.

Prior to joining the DIT, Su Si worked in the British Council for UK-China education partnerships and mobility programmes, focusing on higher education and K12 education.

Alastair is the Director of External Engagement for the Sino-British College and based at the Fuxing Rd campus of USST. He was previously an Associate Dean of Faculty at Liverpool John Moores University, with responsibility for the Global Engagement of Liverpool Business School, where he also ran the MBA programmes for many years and taught Operations Management to MBAs. He holds a Bachelors degree in Economics from the University of Hull and a Masters degree in Business Administration from the University of Durham. He has published on internationalisation and virtual exchange and his doctoral research is on postgraduate management education. He is a member of the Education Committee of the British Chamber of Commerce, Shanghai.

The Sino-British College (SBC) is an embedded international university college of the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology (USST), established as a joint institute by USST and nine north of England universities in the NCUK consortium. Being at the centre of a network of ten universities, one Chinese and nine in the UK, the College is in an unrivalled position to provide opportunities for all the students, staff and associated stakeholders in the network.