Monday 19 December 2016 9:30am
Dr Liu Jinghui, Secretary-General, China Scholarship Council, signs a MOU with University of Otago Vice-Chancellor Professor Harlene Hayne
The University of Otago is entering an agreement that will see up to five PhD students from China take up scholarships at Otago each year.
University of Otago Vice-Chancellor Professor Harlene Hayne signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the China Scholarship Council (CSC) on Monday, December 19.
This will allow the CSC and the University to jointly sponsor up to five selected Chinese students. There is also the option for a further five students who are studying in Chinese universities to spend up to 24 months of their degree working with researchers at Otago.
In both cases these will be top students.
The University hosted a delegation from China for the Memorandum signing, which included Dr Liu Jinghui, Secretary-General of China Scholarship Council and Li Meng, Deputy Director, Division of American and Oceanian Affairs, China Scholarship Council.
Professor Helen Nicholson
Professor Helen Nicholson, University Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Division of External Engagement, said that the MOU is another exciting opportunity for Otago to bring new students in to study and support postgraduate programmes in Health Sciences, Sciences, Humanities and Commerce.
“The visit of the China Scholarship Council is a significant opportunity and it is a pleasure to host Madam Liu and Li Meng at Otago.”
“We have a growing number of PhD students from China, now 52 compared to 34 in 2014, and this arrangement will facilitate the growth of Chinese students with strong academic backgrounds at Otago. We also look forward to building on the MOU to develop further research collaborations and exchanges between the University and China,” she said.
The costs of the scholarship will be shared between the two organisations.
The students are not expected to arrive until later in 2017.
The CSC is a non-profit institution, affiliated with the Ministry of Education in China, which provides financial assistance to Chinese citizens studying abroad and to foreign citizens wishing to study in China.
The aim of the CSC is to develop the educational, scientific and technological, and cultural exchanges and economic and trade cooperation between China and other countries, to strengthen the friendship and understanding between Chinese people and other countries, and to promote world peace and the socialist modernisation drive in China.
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