British Council selects UCLan for prestigious employability project

University to spearhead UK-China progress in engineering education

THE British Council has selected UCLan to develop engineering education collaborations with China which will help boost the UK’s future competitiveness.

UCLan is one of only three universities in the UK to receive a second, two-year grant from the prestigious Prime Minister’s Initiative for International Education (PMI2), after competing against 41 higher education institutions in the latest round of funding bids for 2010/2011.

The £42,000 funding is part of the British Council’s five-year strategy, launched in April 2006, to strengthen UK relations with overseas universities through mutual collaboration and shared learning.

The grant will enable UCLan to forge a new partnership with China’s Xiamen University of Technology (XMUT). The universities will work together on identifying techniques for using emotional intelligence, innovative problem solving and team working to improve the employability and enterprise of engineering graduates.

UCLan is already involved in a successful two-year enterprise and employability project with the Shanghai Institute of Foreign Trade (SIFT), through a previous round of PMI2 funding secured in December 2007.

David Bagley, UCLan’s head of student employability and enterprise, directed the successful bid and travelled to XMUT last month with UCLan enterprise lecturer and SIFT graduate, Jenny Shi.

David was awarded the honorary title of ‘Tutor for Entrepreneurship and Career Development for College Students’ during his stay. He commented: “The new collaboration will help us share our expertise and learn from one of China’s most dynamic and rapidly expanding universities. It will allow us to build on the success of our existing relations with overseas universities and use the experience to enhance our own curriculum.

“Today’s universities are challenged with developing global citizens with the skills to compete in an international marketplace.

“We’re delighted to have secured British Council funding to partner with Xiamen University and it’s an honour to be involved in strengthening UK relations with China.”

XMUT is a new, specialist engineering university, established less than four years ago in the Xiamen Special Economic Zone in Fujian province, Eastern China. Today it has 14,000 undergraduate students and boasts a graduate employment rate of 90 percent. It offers a wide range of courses, including science, engineering, business, arts and administration degrees.

Project Manager Julie Hardy will lead a team from the University’s ‘futures’ programme, including Jenny Shi, on a formal visit to Fujian province in January 2010 and officially launch the new partnership.

‘futures’, which is part of UCLan’s Knowledge Transfer Service, supports students and graduates with careers and employability advice, enterprise support, and access to work placements, internships and voluntary or part-time employment opportunities.

10 November 2009