In the morning of March 10^th 2017, Geoffrey Parkes, Associate Dean of Aston Business School and Junying Jia, International Programmes Development Officer of Aston University visited our school and discussed issues such as cooperation in establishing educational programs and institution with leaders and faculty of LUSM led by Dean Wensheng He, Associate Dean Xin He, Associate Dean Jianzu Wu and Associate Dean Xuejun Wang. Officials from International office & Office of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan Affairs, Lanzhou University led by Vice Director Gang Chi have attended the meeting.

Dean He welcomed the guests and expressed sincere desire to cooperate with Aston University. Associate Dean Wang and Associate Dean Parkes introduced programs, course design, research, etc. of each side respectively. The two parties then discussed details of Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools, like model, programs, duration, and reached a preliminary agreement on applying for cooperatively-run schools. The two sides also discussed possibilities of cooperation in professional education, students exchange and joint research.

At present, Lanzhou University has no approved Chinese-foreign cooperatively-run schools by the Ministry of Education. The visit of Aston University plays a key role in promoting cooperation in running schools.

Background Information:

Aston University was founded in 1895 and is a public university located in the city of Birmingham. It is organized into five schools and is very strong in commerce, engineering and education. According to 2016 Times Higher Education, Aston has ranked second in UK for teaching quality, and QS Intelligence Unit have awarded Aston an exceptional five star rating in 2016. The Aston Business School has triple accredited by AACSB, EQUIS and AMBA, which is in the top one per cent of business schools worldwide with triple accreditation.