The British Council China is delighted to invite UK institutions to join our Health and Life Sciences Roadshow and Media Campaign 2017, each designed to promote the UK’s educational opportunities in health and life sciences.

Introduction

The Chinese government is firmly committed to healthcare development in its current (12th) Five-Year Plan which focuses on five areas: service delivery, identifying essential medicines, public health, insurance, and public hospital reform.  With steady growth in personal disposable income, the booming silver hair market and the government's increasing focus on healthcare, recent years have witnessed rapid development in China's healthcare market. Some research has predicted that the market size could reach GBP 720 billion by 2020. Looking ahead, the key challenges that the sector has to tackle include an aging population, outdated technologies, a lack of professionals and insufficient public spending.

These challenges brings about opportunities for UK universities, whose expertise in healthcare offer an ideal match for China’s national healthcare objectives and the underlying needs of future industrial professionals. The UK is a world-leading country in the healthcare sector, with four UK universities ranked among the world's top ten in health and life sciences. The UK’s strong position as a destination for health and life sciences education with world-class research, cutting edge facilities and strong collaborations across disciplines, can open up a wide range of opportunities with and in China, providing a broad platform for students to make a real impact on today and tomorrow's challenges and thinking in health and life sciences.

The Roadshow

Previous faculty-specific roadshows run by British Council China have been a resounding success. Continuing on this momentum, the Health and Life Sciences Roadshow 2017 is an ideal opportunity for UK universities to showcase their health and life sciences related degree courses and directly engage with prospective students. We therefore invite UK universities to nominate academics to visit host institutions in China to deliver demonstration classes and interact with students to discuss degree opportunities in the UK.  Where possible, we will also arrange face-to-face meetings with local schools/universities to discuss partnership opportunities in the areas of joint teaching and research.*

The focus of these events is to facilitate interaction and create synergies between visiting universities and host institutions.  Interested universities will be invited to join a conference call with British Council staff to discuss opportunities and desired outcomes, in order to tailor the programme to meet UK universities’ needs where possible.

* Programmes and events may vary slightly between host institutions.

Media Campaign

An advertorial on UK's health and life sciences courses will be released on print and digital media platforms. The advertorial will foreground the UK's health and life sciences courses, featuring academic insights and student experiences, as well as soft promotion of participating UK institutions.

NB. This will not be a dedicated promotion for one institution as all UK institutions participating in the media campaign will be featured. Participating institutions may be approached by journalists for information to feature in the advertorial. A discounted fee is applicable for universities also taking part in the Roadshow.

Joining instructions

UK institutions who are interested in these opportunities should complete the application form and send it to Ms Mandy Deng (mandy.deng@britishcouncil.org.cn) as an attachment by

29 September 2017.

For the roadshow, please note that a minimum of two participating institutions at each session are required for the roadshow to be organised, and a maximum of four institutions will be represented per session. The British Council China retains the right to cancel a certain session of the roadshow if the minimum participation number is not met.

For the media campaign, a minimum of three UK institutions are needed to launch the promotion. The British Council China reserves the right to cancel the media promotion if the minimum number is not met.

Places will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.

Requirements

University representatives attending the roadshow are expected to be well prepared in providing an introduction to their institution as well as up-to-date information on the application process and course content.  Depending on the audience profile for each session, event content will be expected to cater to school and/or university students looking for in-depth information on studying health and life sciences in the UK.  Participation is limited to two representatives per UK institution.

UK institutions who sign up for the media campaign are encouraged to provide the below contents to give the advertorial a wider perspective:

·        analysis on the subject

·        course introduction

·        quote from academics

·        quote from alumni or current students

·        copyrighted high resolution photos

Participation fee

For the roadshow, the British Council China will charge a participation fee of £350 (exclusive of VAT) per host institution visited, which will cover programme planning, promotion, coordination and comprehensive briefings for the visiting UK universities, as well as logistical support during the sessions. The participation fee does not cover international or domestic travel, accommodation, subsistence or freight.

For the media campaign, the British Council will charge £2, 500 (exclusive of VAT) per institution, which will include:

• One advertorial on 5 key national media outlets with clipping report
• One tweet on British Council’s Education UK Weibo
• One post on British Council’s Education UK WeChat

A discounted fee of £2, 200 (exclusive of VAT) is applicable for UK institutions who are signing up for the roadshow.

Visa

A visa will be necessary for UK passport holders to participate in the roadshow.  The British Council can provide invitation letters to participants who require a visa, but it is the responsibility of the applicant institution to follow the correct procedures.

Further information regarding visas for China can be found on the website of the Chinese Embassy in the UK (http://www.chinese-embassy.org.uk/eng/visa/).