Trinity and Fudan University Sign Strategic Partnership
Posted on: 18 December 2014
Trinity College Dublin signed a strategic partnership with Fudan University, one of China’s top institutions, in the presence of the President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins during the recent State visit to China. Trinity’s Vice President for Global Relations, Professor Juliette Hussey, and Fudan’s Professor Feng Xiaoyuan, Vice President for International Affairs signed a Memorandum of Understanding and Student Exchange Agreement at Fudan University’s historic campus. The signing was referenced by President Higgins in one of his keynote speeches during the trip.
The partnership includes a significant collaboration between the Trinity Long Room Hub Arts and Humanities Institute, and the Fudan Development Institute, as an important mutual strategic step towards the expansion of Humanities research via international collaboration.
Speaking on the occasion of the signing, Vice President for Global Relations, Professor Juliette Hussey said: “This exciting collaboration will cement the already excellent relationship between Trinity and Fudan and will expand it into new areas. It will facilitate meaningful opportunities for student and staff exchanges between both universities, along with nurturing a distinct collaborative focus on world-class Humanities research.”
The partnership marks a key step in a series of recent strategic initiatives between Trinity and China over the past year, including the launch of Trinity’s online presence in China, and the announcement of a new Trinity Global Scholarship for China, along with a new M.Phil in Chinese Studies as part of Trinity’s newly opened Trinity Centre for Asian Studies. The partnership with Fudan reflects Trinity’s commitment to deeper engagement with China, building on the existing links and complementary strengths of the partners, to provide educational programmes and opportunities for students and staff of both institutions.
Professor Xu Ning-sheng, President of Fudan University, also witnessed the signing of the agreements, and said: “Fudan attaches great importance to the strategic partnership relation with Trinity College Dublin and we see a great potential in the cooperation with TCD in arts and humanities research on the platform of FDDI and ICSCC.”
The Director of The Trinity Long Room Hub, Professor Juergen Barkhoff, commented: “This new cooperation between our two research institutes will contribute decisively to better mutual understanding of the rapid transformations that affect our societies and will thus make a very valuable and innovative contribution to our research theme ‘Identities in Transformation’. As a central part of this collaboration, our new Trinity Centre for Asian Studies will work specifically with the Fudan International Centre for Studies of Chinese Civilisation.
Last year President Michael D. Higgins launched the new research theme, ‘Identities in Transformation’, a research priority theme for the Trinity Long Room Hub Arts and Humanities Research Institute. It involves a multi-faceted exploration of the memories and stories that contribute to a sense of identity especially where these are contested memories. The results of this research will be most valuable for the discussions about the future of society.
Over 70 researchers and their postgraduate research students across 10 of the 24 Schools in Trinity are actively involved in this research theme. They represent and bring together fields as varied as History, Classics, Art History, Music, Drama and Film Studies, English and Irish Studies, Literary and Cultural Studies, Linguistics, Philosophy, Health Sciences, Theology, Peace Studies, Gender Studies, Sociology, Psychology and Neuroscience.
Notes to Editor:
Trinity College Dublin’s Links with China
Trinity College Dublin has a longstanding relationship with China which dates to the Mission to the Far East and the establishment of Trinity College Fuzhou. The Dublin University Far Eastern Mission (founded in 1886) established Trinity College Fuzhou in 1907, now the Fuzhou Foreign Language School. Later, Trinity was one of the first universities in the European Union to welcome Chinese students to its campus, with students from Beijing and Nanjing studying in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Today, engagement with China forms a core part of the university’s international strategy, and fourteen partnerships have been formed with key Chinese HEIs in the last number of years, and a Trinity Office in Shanghai has been opened. Numbers of Chinese students coming to Trinity continue to increase, and are encouraged by a diverse and rewarding student experience, which includes the support of a vibrant Chinese Society. Additionally, Trinity academics across a number of disciplines are engaged in academic collaborations with their Chinese counterparts to meet some of the major global challenges of the coming years in terms of healthcare, sustainable provision of food and water, urban planning and technology.
Trinity College Dublin’s Links with Fudan
Links between Trinity and Fudan include academic relationships across disciplines in the Humanities, Social Sciences and Sciences. The Trinity and Fudan Law Schools have had a relationship which resulted in many Fudan students taking Masters level programmes at Trinity. Trinity graduate Dr. Miles Link, is currently a lecturer in English at the College of Foreign Languages and Literatures at Fudan.