University leaders from Northwest University in China have visited the University of Essex to discuss opportunities to work together on education and research.

The delegation included Northwest University President Lihong Guo, Director of the Personnel Office Yuanjun Zhang, Director of the Office of International Affairs Yuming Tang, Dean of the School of Life Sciences Fulin Chen, Dean of the School of Information Science and Technology Jinye Peng and Dean of the School of Economics and Management Baoping Ren.

They met with Essex’s Vice-Chancellor Professor Anthony Forster alongside representatives from the Faculty of Social Science, Faculty of Health and Science and Faculty of Humanities. During tours of the Colchester Campus they had the chance to see some of Essex’s state-of-the-art facilities including the Bloomberg trading floor in the award-winning Essex Business School building, industry standard Translating and Interpreting Lab in the Department of Language and Linguistics and the Network Convergence Lab in the School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering.

The visit builds on a successful visit to Northwest University by Professor Forster in May 2016.

Professor Forster said:“We were delighted to welcome Northwest University’s leadership team to our Colchester Campus. Northwest University shares our commitment to excellence in research and excellence in education so we believe we can develop a strong strategic partnership which will benefit both universities.

"I was delighted to hear President Lihong Guo say he was inspired by our four pillars – our Essex spirit, culture of membership, global outlook and research mindset – and I am pleased he feels our strengths support Northwest’s vision for the future. Our departments, including the School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering, are already working with Northwest on potential educational and research collaborations. I hope we can develop a broad and cooperative relationship between our universities.”