South China Agricultural University seeks UK Partner to Establish Joint Institute

South China Agricultural University (SCAU) in Guangzhou city of Guangdong Province, is seeking a British University partner to establish a Sino UK Joint Institute to deliver dual bachelor’s degree courses in the following subject areas:

• Food Sciences
• Natural Resources and Environmental studies
• Forestry
• Animal Sciences

The joint institute will be located on SCAU’s existing campus in Guangzhou city center. The existing campus covers an area of over 550 hectares, and the total gross floor area is over 1.37 million square meters. SCAU will be responsible for the building and maintenance of the institute’s infrastructure including teaching facilities, teacher and student accommodation, sporting and recreational facilities.

SCAU will be responsible for the operational, teaching and administrative staff costs of the Joint Institute.

The UK Partner is expected to contribute the following:

• 30 per cent of the teaching staff
• Teaching resources
• Syllabus

It is expected that SCAU and the UK partner university will discuss and decide upon the detailed nature of the partnership, including the finance model, curriculum mapping and design, through face to face communications. 

Timeline

SCAU would like to identify potential partners in April and select their chosen partner by end May 2016 with a view to finalising partnership details and submitting the joint institute application to the Chinese Ministry of Education China by end September 2016.

The enrollment can only start once the joint institute has been approved by the Chinese Ministry of Education, which can take up to 6 months. SCAU expect Guangdong Provincial Education Department to endorse the application of the Joint Institute when it is submitted to the Chinese Ministry of Education.

The refurbished of teaching buildings will be available for a first cohort of students in 2017.

About South China Agricultural University (SCAU) http://english.scau.edu.cn/scauen/index.asp

SCAU is a Project 211 university and is also one of the 7 universities receiving several hundred million RMB in funding from Guangdong provincial government to become a ‘High Level’ university by 2020.

The university is home to more than 42,000 students, including 38,000 undergraduate and 4,000 postgraduate students.

The university is actively involved in a number of international partnerships, for example the United Nation’s Development Programme and Food and Agriculture Organisation established the Asia Pacific Sericulture Training Center and the China International Center for Agricultural Training at SCAU.

The campus is considered by many to be the most beautiful in Guangzhou

About Guangzhou

Guangzhou, also known as Canton, is the capital and largest city of Guangdong province in South China. Located on the Pearl River, about 75 miles north of Hong Kong, Guangzhou serves as an important national transportation hub and trading port. Guangzhou is the third largest Chinese city, after Beijing and Shanghai, and the largest city in South Central China. In 2014 the city's administrative area was estimated to have a population of 13,080,500. From 2013 to 2015, Forbes ranked Guangzhou first among the top 100 best commercial cities on the Chinese mainland.