Jinan University and University of Birmingham set project in motion

Guangzhou-based Jinan University and the University of Birmingham in Britain are set to roll out programs to nurture young talent in the age of artificial intelligence and big data.

Located on Jinan University's Panyu district campus in Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong province, the Jinan University-University of Birmingham Joint Institute officially enrolls students this September. It is taking in 120 freshmen from the provinces of Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Hunan and Sichuan, and Chongqing municipality, who will major in applied mathematics with economics, statistics, computing, or pure mathematics, says Hu Jun, president of Jinan University.

The joint institute will start its first semester in fall and all the courses will be taught in English.

Some courses will be taught by faculty members from the University of Birmingham and students will be able to receive degrees from both universities.

Students will be registered with both universities and have access to online programs of the University of Birmingham. In the four-year program, the students will have the opportunity of studying at other universities in Britain and the United States.

"The highlight of our joint programs is the cross-disciplinary teaching in integrating mathematical knowledge and skills into traditional academic subjects. Our students will develop problem-solving and team-working capabilities, among many other skills," says Jon Frampton, the deputy pro-vice chancellor of the University of Birmingham.

"Their ability to apply mathematics to real-world problems will develop and once they graduate with degrees from each university, we will be proud to see them leave our institute with the skills highly sought after for regional and national economic development."

All teaching projects are being jointly formulated by the two universities. The joint institute will introduce the quality monitoring system of the University of Birmingham. All teaching activities will be evaluated by the Sino-foreign joint program certification system of China's Ministry of Education and Britain's Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education.

The annual tuition fee stands at about 70,000 yuan ($10,100), with scholarships from both Jinan University and the joint institute to be offered. Students of the joint institute will have a wide range of institutions to choose for internship and Tianhe district of Guangzhou is an area where they might be offered.

Established in 1906, Jinan University today has more than 11,800 students from abroad, including international students, overseas Chinese and those from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. Founded in 1900, the University of Birmingham is among leading universities in that country.

The institute aims to cover postgraduate and doctoral programs in the future.