Peking University to start enrollment for Oxford campus

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The site where the Peking University is to set as their British campus. [Photo: cnr.cn]

Peking University is set to start staff recruitment and student enrollment for its British campus in the city of Oxford in June.

The elite university in Beijing signed with the Open University in February to purchase a 15-acre campus in Oxford for 8.8 million pounds, or 10 million U.S. dollars. The location will serve as an overseas campus for the university’s HSBC Business School.

The school will enroll 100 international students when it opens in August 2018, coinciding with the 120th anniversary of Peking University.

This is the first time that a Chinese university has used its own finances to set up and manage a school in a foreign country.

Yu Changjiang, a scholar in education, described the move as a remarkable step for China’s higher education to go global.

“Previously HSBC Business School has been recruiting teaching staff and introducing resources from abroad, but now it has begun its process of going global, thus forming bilateral exchanges between its foreign counterparts,” said Yu, “this will actually become a major tendency for China’s higher education industry, which will gradually develop its own characteristics and advantages to be shared internationally.”

HSBC Business School’s finance, management and economic courses will feature Chinese business cases to help students become better acquainted with the Chinese economy and reforms.

Students will take the first year course in the Oxford campus and the second year at the schools’ campus in Shenzhen.

Those on the campus in the southern Chinese city will also be allowed to select elective courses on the campus in Oxford.

Recording of the week: the waves of Freshwater Bay

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This week's selection comes from Cheryl Tipp, Curator of Wildlife and Environmental Sounds.

The Isle of Wight is a small island situated in the English Channel whose coastline is peppered with small coves and secluded bays. One such bay can be found in Freshwater, a small village to the west of the island which became popular as a coastal resort in the 19th century. Well known Victorians such as the Poet Laureate Alfred Lord Tennyson and the photographer Julia Margaret Cameron both settled in Freshwater and may well have strolled along the promenade overlooking the bay, listening to the gentle roll of waves as heard in this contemporary recording from 2006. 

Waves at Freshwater Bay, Isle of Wight recorded on 26 March 2006 by Richard Beard

Freshwater BayFreshwater Bay, Isle of Wight (unknown artist after William Daniell). Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection.

More recordings of waves can be found in the Water collection on British Library Sounds.

Follow @CherylTipp and @soundarchive for all the latest news.

Beijing to reward informants on spying

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Beijing citizens who provide useful information on spying are eligible for a cash reward of up to 500,000 yuan (US$72,460), according to a policy that went into effect Monday.

Informants can pass information to authorities through calling a hotline, sending letters or visiting the city’s state security bureau.

After collating the information, the bureau can offer rewards ranging from 10,000 yuan (US$1,448) to 500,000 yuan (US$72,460) based on the reports’ usefulness.

Personal information of informants will not be disclosed without their consent, and informants can also seek protection from security authorities if they or their close relatives are in danger due to informing.

However, informants will be punished if they deliberately slander others, or invent and spread false information.

Syria

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Some of you want to talk about Syria and want to know why I have not written about it. The main purpose of this website is to raise issues I am pursuing for constituents and for the wider nation. The aim is not to mirror the concerns of the media all the time, or to try to repeat what they do. Nor am I going to post items which assert that the main news media have got this story of the missile attack factually wrong.

I aim to present news, not recyle olds in the way so many media journalists do. That is why I have wanted in the last few days to highlight Network Rail’s losses on derivatives and foreign currency borrowing, because you cannot see or read that elsewhere . That is why I have sought to provide background and new analysis to the policy work and exchanges underway over Gibraltar, Brexit and Scotland.

I have not so far sought to intervene in the recent debate about Syria. This is mainly a matter for the USA, the country that decided to take limited military action against the Assad regime. It does not look as if Mr Trump wants ro get involved in a major way in the Syrian civil war, which is probably wise.

As I have pointed out before I do  not back either  Sunni or  Shia. I have no view on who could best govern Syrian and reunite it around a peaceful governing policy that can  bring  people together. I have no love of the barabric attacks on his own people by Assad, but nor do I have any time for one of his main opponents, the terrorist movement ISIL. I am also aware that there are other unpleasant murderous groups at large who also do not deserve our support.  I have heard previous UK ministers in the  Coalition argue we need to help so called moderate  rebels.  So far there is no evidence of a powerful enough group who could both defeat ISIL and Assad simultaneously and then rule a peace loving country thereafter. One of the reasons the West’s interventions have been sporadic and so far unsuccessful is trying to find a side we want to win the war.

Mr Obama threatened Assad  if he used chemical weapons but  failed to enforce his threat. Mr Obama allowed Russia to take a much more prominent role in suppport of Assad, making it  more dangerous and difficult for the west to intervene militarily.

I suspect Mr Trump will not wish to extend his  military involvement, and will hope Assad will now desist from using chemical ordnance. Presumably were Assad to use chemical weapons again there would  be further US attacks.  The aim seems to be to try to get more of the protagonists  into talks. Recent events will clearly disturb efforts for there to be more collaboration between Russia and the USA to fix world problems. Mr Trump hopes that Russia will  now exercise more discipline over Assad, and will see the need to seek a peaceful political solution to Syria’s riven factions in conjunction with others around the negotiating table. Let’s hope that works out.

Remarks at the Ceremonial Welcome at Rashtrapati Bhavan

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PRIME MINISTER:

Our ties are strong and will be stronger because of this visit.

Prime Minister Modi is leading this most remarkable nation on an extraordinary journey of growth and development.

The achievements of India are the admiration of the world.

We in Australia look forward to working even more closely than we have done in the past. 

We are bound together, ties of history, our values but above all of people.

So many people over so many years are familiar with Australians of Indian background.

So our countries are tied together, tied together with a shared destiny and we look forward, Prime Minister and I, to making that even stronger on this visit.

[ends]