As the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology (USST) marks its 120th anniversary and the Sino-British College (SBC) reaches its 20th year, the symposium “Integrating Chinese and Western Wisdom to Nurture Future Global Talents” marking the College’s 20th anniversary was held on the afternoon of 25 October in the Auditorium on the Jungong Road Campus. Experts and scholars in Chinese-foreign cooperative education from home and abroad, representatives of partner universities, faculty, students and alumni gathered to reflect on the College’s educational journey and exchange views on international education. CHEN Qi, Director of the International Affairs Office of USST, hosted the opening session.
Sino-British College Celebrates 20th Anniversary
The symposium was attended by ZHAO Yanzhi, Chair of the Chinese-foreign Joint Education Committee (CJEC) and President of Shenyang University; Robert Anthony Cryan, Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive of the University of Huddersfield; Paul Townsend, Pro-Vice Chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU); Julia WANG, Associate Pro-Vice-Chancellor for International Relations of Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU); Panos Vlachopoulos, Vice Provost for Education and Student Experience of the University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC); Malcolm Butler, Global Academic Ambassador of the Northern Consortium United Kingdom and former Vice-President (International) of the University of Sheffield; CAI Yonglian, Vice President of USST and Dean of SBC; ZHANG Hua, Vice President of USST; and CHEN Bin, former Vice President of USST and former Dean of SBC. Also present were representatives from the CJEC, UK partner universities, Chinese-foreign cooperative education institutions, the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) and the British Chamber of Commerce Shanghai; heads of relevant USST departments and sister colleges; SBC Management Council members; former and current SBC leaders; and representatives of SBC faculty, students and alumni.
Honouring the Past, Embracing the New: Two Decades of the One-to-N Consortium Model
CAI Yonglian delivered welcome remarks on behalf of USST. She thanked all sectors of society, alumni at home and abroad, and faculty and students for their longstanding support, and welcomed the guests present. Noting that Shanghai offers fertile ground for deep people-to-people and cultural exchange between China and other countries and is a pioneer in China’s educational opening-up, she said USST has carried the hallmark of “combining Chinese and Western strengths” since its founding and has continued to advance international cooperation and exchange. She recalled that over the past two decades, SBC has remained committed to fostering virtue through education, rooted itself in China while integrating Chinese and international resources, and built on strengths in engineering, business, and language and culture. Aligned with national and Shanghai development needs, the College has cultivated interdisciplinary talents with cross-cultural competence and become a flagship for Shanghai’s educational opening-up. She hoped that SBC will build on its 20th anniversary to meet the demands of a new era of higher education, continue to seek breakthroughs in talent cultivation, international exchange and cultural inheritance, focus on nurturing a new generation for the times, and continue to advance educational opening-up, contributing to China’s goal of becoming a leading country in education.
CAI Yonglian delivers welcome remarks
ZHAO Yanzhi, on behalf of the CJEC and fellow Chinese-foreign cooperative education institutions, offered warm congratulations on the fruitful achievements of SBC over its 20 years. He noted that SBC is one of the founding members of the CJEC and has long supported its work, hosting major events such as the CJEC’s Fourth General Assembly, the Third Training Conference of the High-quality Development of Sino-foreign Cooperative Education, and the Fourth Meeting of the Expert Committee. Over two decades, the College has forged a distinctive path of high-quality international development, playing an exemplary role in international accreditation, faculty development and talent cultivation, and has received the CJEC’s Outstanding Contribution Award and the title of 2025 Outstanding Sino-Foreign Cooperative Education Institution. He expressed the hope that SBC will give full play to the bridging role of Chinese-foreign cooperative education in cultivating internationalised talent, jointly advance the internationalisation of higher education, and together bring Chinese-foreign cooperative education to a higher level.
ZHAO Yanzhi delivers an address
In his address, Robert Anthony Cryan reviewed the two universities’ 20-year partnership and its fruitful outcomes. The two sides have worked closely in Chinese-foreign cooperative education, complementing each other’s strengths to cultivate outstanding business talents with a broad international outlook and solid professional grounding, on a strong foundation with notable results. He noted that amid profound changes in higher education worldwide, the two universities should stand side by side, embrace an open and inclusive approach to pool quality educational resources, and strengthen the foundations of people-to-people exchange. He expressed the hope that both sides will continue to leverage their strengths in international education, expand the breadth and depth of cooperation, write a new chapter in their partnership, and contribute more to higher education exchange and mutual learning between China and the UK.
Robert Anthony Cryan delivers an address
CHEN Qi hosts the opening session
Charting a Path to High-Quality International Education
Under the moderation of ZHANG Zheng, Vice Dean of SBC, Chinese and international education experts held in-depth discussions on the challenges and opportunities facing Chinese-foreign cooperative education, sharing cutting-edge thinking and practical experience.
Laura C. Bishop, Executive Dean of SBC, delivered a theme presentation titled “The past, present, and future contributions of SBC-USST to Sino-British cooperative education.” She stated that the College will continue to uphold its three overarching themes of Responsible Leadership, Enterprise and Innovation, and Cultural Empathy, remain rooted in China while integrating Chinese and international resources, continuously enhance the effectiveness of international talent cultivation, comprehensively raise the level of international education, and serve as a bridge for high-level international cooperation and student exchange between Chinese and UK institutions.
Laura C. Bishop delivers a theme presentation
MENG Tao, Secretary-General of the CJEC and Dean of the Surrey International Institute of Dongbei University of Finance and Economics, delivered a keynote speech titled “Chinese-Foreign Cooperative Education in the New Era: Challenges and Strategies for High-Quality Development.” He noted that Chinese-foreign cooperative education is moving from scale expansion to quality enhancement. To navigate this critical stage, it is essential to keep quality at the core, build on distinctive strengths, raise educational standards and strengthen competitiveness, and better support China’s goal of becoming a leading country in education.
MENG Tao delivers a keynote speech
Panos Vlachopoulos delivered a keynote speech titled “Cultivating Talent Between the Global and the Local.” He highlighted how Chinese-foreign cooperative education uniquely blends Chinese and international approaches to nurturing talent, and expressed the hope that colleagues in the field will work together, learn from each other, and explore ways to cultivate talent that bridges the local and the global, helping nurture a new generation with global competence.
Panos Vlachopoulos delivers a keynote speech
Malcolm Butler delivered a keynote speech titled “The best of both worlds – how we educate each other.” He said the University of Sheffield has long supported SBC’s development and expressed the hope that more Chinese and international universities will join hands, using cooperative education to build a solid bridge between Chinese and UK education and further strengthen international education.
Malcolm Butler delivers a keynote speech
ZHANG Zheng hosts the keynote session
Joining Forces for the Next Chapter in International Education
The event included a warm “Congratulatory Speech” segment, bringing the 20th anniversary celebration to a heartfelt close. Paul Townsend, Pro-Vice Chancellor of LJMU; Sue Welburn, Executive Dean of the Zhejiang University-University of Edinburgh Institute (ZJE); and John Skåtun, Executive Dean of the Faculty of Business, Law and Social Sciences of the University of Aberdeen (UoA), spoke in turn, recalling long-standing partnerships, affirming SBC’s work in talent cultivation and mutual learning among civilisations, and voicing hope that all parties will continue to deepen collaboration and improve the quality of Chinese-foreign cooperative education.
Congratulatory Speech
A special 20th anniversary video was shown, with 20 stories tracing the SBC’s two-decade development and the journeys of its community members. The video conveyed heartfelt wishes from faculty, students, alumni, former leaders and partner universities, reflecting the College’s commitment to its three overarching themes of Responsible Leadership, Enterprise and Innovation, and Cultural Empathy.
20th anniversary commemorative video
Throughout the symposium, student volunteers supported the event both inside and outside the venue, handling registration and guidance, logistics, guest reception and material distribution. Their enthusiasm and attentive service helped the event run smoothly and brought warmth to the College’s 20th anniversary celebrations. From venue setup and programme coordination to guest guidance and on-site support, the volunteers demonstrated SBC students’ sense of responsibility and cross-cultural communication skills to Chinese and international guests, reflecting the College’s educational mission at this international gathering.
Student volunteers
As SBC marks its 20th anniversary and USST its 120th, SBC will remain committed to fostering virtue through education, stay rooted in China while integrating Chinese and international educational resources, continue to strengthen its internal development, and steadily advance educational opening-up and China-UK people-to-people exchange, writing a new chapter in international education.
