The UK and China have agreed an action plan to strengthen their relationship on education cooperation.
David Willetts and John Hayes along with Michael Gove and Chinese Minister for Education Yuan Guiren took part in the 6th UK-China Education Summit in London on Thursday 27 October.
Ahead of the summit David Willetts and Yuan Guiren opened a higher education roundtable involving 19 UK Vice Chancellors and 12 Chinese University Presidents. The three themes for the roundtable were:
* Joint Programmes
* Research Collaboration
* Student Mobility
The outcome of the day was the signing of a new UK-China Partners in Education action plan. The action plan covers four stands:
* Higher Education: Building Partnerships and Promoting Mobility
* Vocational Education: Developing Vocational Education and Skills Training
* Basic Education: Raising School Standards
* Language Cooperation: Promoting Mandarin Learning in UK and English in China
In addition, 13 agreements were signed between UK and Chinese institutions including Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial, Manchester and Nottingham universities.
Minister for Skills John Hayes talking about the Vocational Education strand of the action plan said:
“This is an exciting opportunity to explore new ways of collaborating between industry and education institutions. We’re looking forward to discovering possible approaches to piloting a UK apprenticeship programme in China during 2012.”
The education summits and programme of work are a key part of the broader cross-government strategic relationship with China which is overseen by annual summits at Head of Government level.