University establishes new offices in China

Operating as Project Manager in Shanghai is Ms Bess Ying, formerly Acting Education Manager at the British Council in Shanghai, and Ms Limin Dai, formerly Business Development Director of 21st Century English Educational Media, part of the China Daily Group, is her counterpart in Beijing.

A key feature of both roles is that neither will be required to assist with the recruitment of students from China to the University of Exeter.

Professor Neil Armstrong (Deputy Vice Chancellor, Internationalisation) explains, “The University has seen a 49% rise in applications from China this year over the same time last year. Applications for a master’s degree are up 53%, and this does not take into account the fact that some of our programmes closed earlier this year because they were full. However a priority for us in China is to build upon the partnerships we have, to develop research links and support our alumni and, critically, for us to do what we can to assist returning Chinese students find employment in their home country. China remains at the core of our Internationalisation Strategy, and at the moment we have over 20 students from Exeter at a summer school at the China University of Political Science and Law in Beijing, and a number of students from both CUPL and Tsinghua at our own summer School here at Exeter. These are the sorts of initiative that we are looking to build on.”

Bess and Limin recently visited the University and met with both senior staff and colleagues that they will be working with, albeit from afar, on a daily basis.