Strengthened relationship between UL and Peking University Beijing

By Naomi Deevy

This week, Dr Mary Shire, the Vice President of Research at UL flew to Beijing China to visit Peking University (PKU). There, she met with Professor Wang Jie, the Vice President of PKU. The meeting was in relation to mutual collaboration between the two universities on the levels of both research, and student exchange.

Dr Shire also had a meeting with Professor Li, the Assistant Dean in the School of Software and Micro-electronics at the PKU, about potential research collaborations between PKU and Lero (The Irish Software Engineering Research Centre, headquartered at UL).

These potential opportunities to work together strengthen an already well-established relationship, as our university has had much positive contact with the Beijing University in the past.

In 2012, Professor Merritt Bucholz from our School of Architecture gave a talk in PKU entitled ‘The Resilient City of Ireland.’ She was also hosted by the PKU College of Architecture and Landscape this year under the Erasmus Programme.

Also, in April of this year, Professor Elfed Lewis, Director of Optical Fibre Sensors Research Centre at UL, visited Professor Lingyang Song of the School of Electronics Engineering and Computer Science.

Scholarly exchange through the Erasmus Programme has proven to be a strong area of collaboration between our two universities and will continue to benefit both sides of this already very meaningful relationship.

Ties with international universities are hugely beneficial for both students and staff of UL, and are a great way to exchange expertise and knowledge while increasing international understanding and collaboration.

This academic year alone will see the arrival of 2,600 international students to UL, and the number of students leaving UL on Erasmus is thought to be more than 900.