On November 12, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen organized its first International Partners Day, inviting representatives from 18 partner universities around the world to bring more study abroad programs to its students.

Representatives from universities, including University College London, University of Sussex, University of Southampton, KU Leuven, University of British Columbia, Boston University, University of California, Berkeley, Johns Hopkins University, Bocconi University, University of Hong Kong and University of Queensland, Singapore Management University provided information sessions and on-site consultations to introduce the collaborative programs they have inked with CUHK-Shenzhen for the students.

"International Partners Day is an opportunity for our students to have face-to-face communication with representatives from our partner universities to learn more about available study abroad programs, and we believe it can also help to develop more projects in the future," said Ke Changqing, director of CUHK-Shenzhen's Academic Link Office. The director explained that the university currently has collaborative projects with 77 universities around the globe.

"Our university aims at providing a nurturing global education environment for students and we are proud to say that over 60 percent of our current students have participated in overseas programs to gain credit points, which is a very high rate among Chinese universities," said the director.

Brendon Lutwyche, representing University of Queensland (UQ) as the director of international services, told the Shenzhen Daily it was his second visit to CUHK-Shenzhen campus. His first visit was this March when the two universities inked an agreement on study abroad programs.

"We have a general agreement and partnership with CUHK-Shenzhen and students can come to our university for one semester or one year. They can also join our summer program in July," said the director.

According to Lutwyche, UQ has a new partnership with CUHK-Shenzhen that allows students to spend one year on their undergraduate program before joining a master's in global management program.

For this master's program, students will study at UQ for one year and spend the second year at one of UQ's partner universities in Italy, Norway, Finland, France or Canada. Students will earn two degrees from the two overseas universities by completing this master's program.

"It's very important in today's society to have experiences of different cultures by living abroad, so as to get better understanding of people from different parts of the world," said Lutwyche. The director said UQ is expecting that more students from CUHK-Shenzhen will join the exchange programs.

Besides staff members from the partner universities, some students who are currently exchanging at CUHK-Shenzhen were also representing their home universities for the event. Nicola Manera from Bocconi University in Italy were helping at the site.

'We are talking with students from CUHK-Shenzhen who are interested in master's programs or summer programs at our university, because Bocconi University has a strong partnership with CUHK-Shenzhen," said Manera. The master's exchange student thinks that CUHK-Shenzhen is a competitive university in China due to its strong faculty, which includes some Nobel Prize winners.

The director of the Academic Link Office said the event would last two days. The representatives introduced their programs and communicated with students face-to-face on Nov 11 and will visit several places in Shenzhen, including museums and Huawei's headquarters, to learn more about the city.

Edited based on source from Shenzhen Daily