From 7 to 9 October, the Times Higher Education (THE) World Academic Summit was held at the University of Manchester. Present at the event were Chen Jie, Director of the HUST Office of International Affairs (OIA), and Wan Tian, Division Manager at HUST OIA. The delegation made a comprehensive introduction of HUST and exchanged cooperation proposals with partner institutions. After the summit, Chen and Wan were invited to the University of Manchester’s Global Partnership Day to discuss the opportunities and challenges facing global development of higher education.

During the summit, Chen was invited to the sub-forum titled “Case study: The ascent of Chinese universities: Lessons from their rising global reputation and influence” as a guest speaker. She joined Simone Dilena, President of ACPC at Times Higher Education, Wang Chuanyi, Director of the Division of Education Policy and Management at the Institute of Education at Tsinghua University, Song Kai, Director of the Discipline Development Office at Harbin Institute of Technology, and Li Zhongshan, Deputy Director of the Office of International Exchange and Cooperation at Beijing Normal University in an in-depth discussion. The representatives shared the university’s practice on the development of scientific research platform, the enhancement of innovation, talents recruitment and team building, university-enterprises cooperation, as well as the goals and strategies of international development.

After the summit, HUST was invited to the University of Manchester's Global Partnership Day. As a representative of universities from the Chinese mainland, HUST gathered with other key global partners of the University of Manchester, such as the University of Toronto, the University of New South Wales, KTH Royal Institute of Technology and the Chinese University of Hong Kong, etc. The event, while strengthening the friendship, allowed participants to share experience and thoughts on building partnership, extending collaborative resources, and augmenting global influence.

The year 2024 marks the 200th bicentenary of the University of Manchester. During this visit, on behalf of HUST, Chen presented a commemorative gift to Professor Stefen Flint, Vice President for International Affairs at the University of Manchester, and presented a congratulatory letter from President You to Duncan Ivison, the President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Manchester.

As one of the most influential academic events in global higher education, the THE World Academic Summit 2024 gathered 550+ university leaders and education experts from over 50 top universities all over the world to exchange on reform and evolution of higher education.

Written by: She Chen

Edited by: Zhou Enlin, Chang Wen, Peng Yumeng