On Thursday 26 September, Sussex welcomed visitors from Southwest University in Chongqing, China (SWU). SWU is a key strategic university partner for Sussex and the seniority of the visiting delegation illustrated how invested SWU colleagues are in the success of the partnership. The visit followed on from Professor Robin Banerjee and Global Engagement’s visit to SWU in March this year. 

Colleagues from Southwest were warmly welcomed and presented with gifts by Sussex Vice-Chancellor Professor Sasha Roseneil. The visiting delegation were delighted to meet Professor Roseneil, and the meeting demonstrated how much Sussex values the partnership with SWU. Professor Roseneil re-affirmed Sussex’s commitment to developing the relationship between our two universities, which already encompasses joint academic programs and research initiatives.  

The 2+2 pathway in Life Sciences provides SWU students with the opportunity to complete their final two years at Sussex, gaining valuable international experience. This summer, 10 students from SWU participated in a custom summer school programme based on biodiversity, ecology and conservation in the School of Life Sciences at Sussex and one student joined the International Junior Research Assistant (IJRA) scheme; undertaking a supervised research project on climate change mitigation technologies.  

The delegates from Southwest met representatives from the University of Sussex Business School and the School of Life Sciences. Sussex colleagues agreed to work with Southwest to identify further opportunities for the universities to work together, which includedcreating additional custom summer school programmes and short-term study abroad opportunities for Sussex students. Furthermore, they agreed to explore further research collaborations in addition to those that have already taken place in the fields of Genome Technology, Psychology and Education.  

The Global Engagement team looks forward to working more closely with SWU colleagues in the future to enhance the already very successful partnership between our two universities.