Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University


Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University is an international joint university based in Suzhou, Jiangsu, China. Founded in 2006 and resulting from a partnership between the University of Liverpool and Xi'an Jiaotong University, it is the first Sino-British joint venture between research led universities.
The University primarily focuses on science, technology, engineering, architecture and business with a secondary focus in English, recognised by the Chinese Ministry of Education as a "non-profit" educational institution.
Students are rewarded with a University of Liverpool degree as well as a degree from XJTLU. Most of the lessons are taught in English.

History

On September 28, 2004, Xi’an Jiaotong University and the University of Liverpool signed a cooperative agreement to set up XJTLU. Construction on the new university's campus started in August 2005 and the university was officially inaugurated on May 29, 2006.
More than 160 undergraduates enrolled in the first year. This number has increased to a total of 9,000 students on campus and a further 3,000 at the University of Liverpool on "2+2 programmes".
XJTLU’s first batch of students graduated in August 2010 with 97 percent continuing their studies overseas on masters or doctorate programmes, ten percent of whom went to study at universities ranked in the world’s top ten. December 2010 saw XJTLU invest six million RMB in research for academic performance. By January 2011, XJTLU headed the list of Top 10 Sino-Foreign Cooperative universities in China.
In a visit to the University on 25 September 2016 UK Minister of State for Universities, Science, Research and Innovation Jo Johnson MP called XJTLU an "extraordinary achievement".

Funding

The government company Suzhou Education District Investigation has funded much of XJTLU's development and continues to play a large role in its success. SIPEDI has already spent around 130 billion RMB on XJTLU, mainly on funding facilities such as buildings and laboratories.

Context

A number of British universities have set up satellite campuses and joint ventures in China, including the University of Nottingham Ningbo China, an overseas campus of the University of Nottingham situated in the city of Ningbo, and the Surrey International Institute-DUFE, an academic partnership institution between University of Surrey and Dongbei University of Finance and Economics in Dalian.
In 2010-11, China was the third most popular destination for UK TNE students, after Malaysia and Singapore: and there are almost 36,000 UK TNE students in China.
American universities have also sought a presence in China. New York University Shanghai is the third degree-granting campus established by New York University, after New York City and Abu Dhabi, established in 2012 in partnership with East China Normal University of Shanghai.
However, such strategies have proven controversial. A 2007 report, edited by Anna Fazackerley, cautioned British universities that they must acquire a more thorough understanding of Chinese higher education policy if they were to succeed in building successful strategic alliances over the long-term.

Campus

Location

The campus is situated in 111 Renai Road, Suzhou Dushu Lake Science and Education Innovation District in Suzhou Industrial Park, 12 km east of the historic center of Suzhou, and 90 km west of Shanghai. With 2,500 years of rich history and culture, Suzhou has sustained an average annual economic growth-rate of more than 15 per cent since the beginning of China's "reform and opening up" period, its local GDP being ranked as the fourth largest in China, just after Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. Suzhou Industrial Park is the location for more than 2,100 international companies, more than 100 of which are Fortune 500 companies, including Siemens, Samsung and Nokia. Suzhou Industrial Park is home to more than 20,000 expatriate workers. Situated in the heart of the complex, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University forms part of that international community. The new XJTLU campus, to be constructed in the city of Taicang, is proposed that it will open in 2020.

North Campus

Its campus has been developed in two phases. The first phase focused on the North Campus, which was completed in autumn 2013. The overall campus plan was designed by the American architecture firm Perkins+Will. The University's iconic Central Building was inaugurated in autumn 2013 and designed by the British-Asian architecture firm Aedas. It was nominated in the 2014 World Architecture Festival.

South Campus

The second development phase focuses on the South Campus, where building started in summer 2013. The first phase of the South Campus was opened to the public on 26 July 2016, as a major part of the University’s 10th anniversary celebrations. Architecturally it contrasts the North Campus and features modern designs that complement the surrounding area. British architects BDP were responsible for the design of the South Campus.

Taicang Campus

Taicang Campus is located in the Taicang High-Tech Development Zone, north-east of Suzhou.

XJTLU Learning Mall

The XJTLU Learning Mall acts as an innovation and entrepreneurial research and development hub as well as project and partner center. It will promote the concept of lifelong learning for the XJTLU and Greater China extended learning community. It will also work jointly with core XJTLU departments and premier external partners, collaborating on critical innovation projects and initiatives. The XJTLU-LM officially launched on 22nd May 2020, welcoming its first round of new partners: AliCloud, McGraw-Hill, AMT, Skillshare, Talespin, YouYong XinDao, CiWei, Hujiang, and more.
The XJTLU-LM will provide online and onsite space, or “storefronts,” for top global partners to share their learning content with its user audience. It will integrate onsite and online programmes developed by the university, industry and external partners, offering them as learning resources to a wide net of different education consumers. The overarching goal of the XJTLU-LM is to act as an engaging innovation community, allowing its collaborators freedom to develop their resources within its creative hub.
The online XJTLU-LM space will be an online community platform, creating a centralized location for content from XJTLU schools as well as premier global partners, which all users can access.
The onsite XJTLU-LM facility, which is currently under construction, will be one kilometer in length, and occupy space in the core circle which unites the entire XJTLU Entrepreneur College campus and schools. In this space, XJTLU Learning Mall partners can host individual community spaces, leveraging their resources and contributing to a symbiotic ecosystem of learning - online and onsite, campus to community.

Leadership

XJTLU’s Board of Directors oversees the University’s governance and the senior management team leads the strategic direction and day-to-day operations. In August 2008 Professor Xi Youmin, a scholar in management, was appointed as the Executive President of Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University. He is also Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the University of Liverpool.

Academics

XJTLU offers a range of degree programmes including bachelor's degrees, master's degrees and Ph.D, with many of these having achieved accreditation by prestigious international bodies confirming the university's commitment to high level international education.
The Department of Architecture's undergraduate degree programme BEng Architecture is validated by the Royal Institute of British Architects. The Master of Architectural Design MArchDes has received candidate course status for validation at Part 2 level by the Royal Institute of British Architects in 2016. The Department of Biological Sciences' undergraduate BSc Bio Sciences is accredited by the Royal Society of Biology.
The International Business School Suzhou at XJTLU was established in January 2013 by Professor Sarah Dixon, currently has eight undergraduate programmes and eleven postgraduate programmes in the fields of management, economics, finance, accounting, finance and business. IBSS has received accreditation from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business and in June 2018 became the youngest business school to be accredited by EFMD Quality Improvement System. It also has ACCA, CIMA, CPA Australia and ICAEW accreditation and recognition.

Awards

In December 2011, XJTLU was given the title of Most Influential Sino-Foreign Higher Education Institution in China at the Fourth China Education Annual Gala.
Since the foundation of the Department of Architecture at Xi'an Jiaotong Liverpool University in 2011, its students have won a number of important awards, including
a third prize in the prestigious CTBUH Tall Building Student Design Competition. Architecture students were awarded already four times at the IDEERS Earthquake Safe Design Competition in Taiwan, and twice at the National Architectural Education Symposium, at which annually the best design studio works from schools of architecture across China are awarded.

Research

Research centers have been established at XJTLU to support research and development. In cooperation with Suzhou Industrial Park, the local government has funded XJTLU 10 million RMB annually for research.

International students

In 2016, there are around 500 international students at the university. To encourage students from the University of Liverpool to spend time studying at the XJTLU campus, the programme allows undergraduate students to spend one year at XJTLU, following XJTLU's BA China Studies degree classes. XJTLU also has a number of opportunities for from universities around the world.

Noted people