On May 11th 2017, President of King’s College London Ed Byrne, Director of International Affairs Tayyeb Shah and their accompanying team attended a meeting in SUSTech to sign a MOU – Memorandum of Understanding with the university. Vice President of the School of Medicine Zhang Jian and the Graduate School representatives met with the guests.

On the site of the talks

Lu Chun was first to lead the talks as he introduced the characteristics and advantages of SUSTech. Zhang Jian then took over to introduce the development goals and the close partnership already established with Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Byrne followed with an introduction on the history and reputation of the King’s College in London. The College’s medical school ranked third in the world, and is regularly among the world’s top ten top medical school list. It is located in the center of London, and focuses strongly on the basic disciplines and scientific research achievements as well as clinical applications, allowing it to work in close cooperation with a number of first-class hospitals. It has already established links with Peking University, Tsinghua University and other colleges and universities, and the visit to SUSTech will hopefully produce results with even more innovative features of collaboration.

After the exchange, the two sides reached an agreement, and said they hoped to continue to explore a unique relationship, combining traditional cooperation with innovative business and scientific ties. Additionally they confirmed a short-term exchange of undergraduate and doctoral students which will bear mutually beneficial results.

Signing ceremony

Group photo

Background information:

King’s College London is one of the world’s leading research institutes and a member of the Russell University Group. In the 2017QS comprehensive global ranking it was 21^st, and 5^th in the UK; in 2017 US News World University ranked it 45^th in the world and 6^th in the UK, while Thames 2017 ranked it 36^th globally and 2^nd nationally. KCL was founded in 1829, the fourth oldest institution of higher education in England after Oxford, Cambridge and the University of London. The college’s alumni include 12 Nobel Prize winners and 16 heads of government, as well as literary master Thomas Hardy, author Virginia Woolf, Bentley car founder Walter Bentley, and Nobel Prize winner Peter Higgs. King’s College in London has a wide range of courses and has a prominent reputation in the fields of humanities, society, law, medicine and science.

Contribution: Office of Global Engagement

Edited by: Jeremy Welburn