Professor Nigel Weatherill, Vice Chancellor (President) of Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) visited the Sino-British College on 19-20 March 2012. Professor Weatherill was accompanied by Professor Ian Jenkinson, Director of the School of Engineering, Technology and Maritime Operations and Andrew Rennie from the International Office at LJMU.
On behalf of the Sino-British College, Professor Ian Gow OBE, Principal of SBC warmly welcomed the Vice Chancellor and his team for their visit to SBC. He briefly introduced the new development that SBC had achieved in recent years, especially in the area of teaching and learning on Engineering-related subjects and the continuing efforts on improving and upgrading teaching facilities and Engineering laboratories at SBC.
Professor Gow also added that Professor Ian Jenkinson had made a major contribution to the development of the programme here and had supported in many ways including seconding a member of staff Dr Gareth Lewis.
Currently, there are over 150 Years 3 and 4 students studying the LJMU degrees in Manufacturing Systems Engineering and Industrial Electronics and Control Engineering at SBC in Shanghai.
In July 2011, the inaugural students who successfully completed full LJMU Bachelor’s degrees entirely in English in Shanghai graduated with outstanding academic performance. 22, out of the total 50, were awarded First Class honours degrees, a quite remarkable achievement, and over 70% were awarded First Class or 2:1 degrees.
Professor Weatherill met all the Years 3 and 4 students from the SBC School of Engineering on the morning of the 20th. Students were excited about being given the opportunity to have face-to-face dialogues with the President of the University that they are studying with.
Professor Weatherill also had a lunch meeting with all the Engineering staff at SBC after a brief guided campus tour.
Dr Wong Boon Kwei, Director of the School of Engineering said: "I myself and my colleagues are all very pleased to have met with President Weatherill at SBC. LJMU is one of the core British partner universities of SBC, offering full Engineering degrees to students here, so this visit does mean a lot to both students and staff."
Professor Weatherill said that he was impressed with the development of SBC and with all the academic and social success that SBC/LJMU students have achieved. Before he left the campus, Professor Weatherill expressed that he looked forward to coming to SBC again in July for LJMU’s second Graduation Ceremony in Shanghai.
