British universities pursue stronger ties with China

BEIJING - British universities are endeavoring to build stronger partnerships with their Chinese counterparts and to enhance the exchange of students and scholars, in order to satisfy rising student interest in each other's country, a senior UK education official said.

"It is an opportunity to learn from each other and try to build a strong relationship between our two countries," Steve Smith, president of Universities UK, said in an interview with China Daily on Wednesday. Smith was part of the delegation that had accompanied British Prime Minister David Cameron on his state visit to China.

The latest figures from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), a central source for the collection and publication of higher education data in the UK, show that 47,035 students from China studied in the UK during the 2008-2009 academic year, a rise of 3.7 percent on the previous year.