On May 21st and 22nd 2019, the President of the University of Warwick Professor Stuart Croft, Vice President Professor Simon Swain, Academic Program Director Professor Qing Wang, Director of International Cooperation Office Ms Alisa Chambers, and Ms Jackee Ma made a special visit to Beijing City University (BCU).

Professor Jia Chunwang, Board Chairman of BCU and former Procurator-General of the Supreme People's Procuratorate of PRC, spoke highly of the University of Warwick for its outstanding development achievements obtained in only 54 years since its establishment. Professor Jia, together with President Croft, reviewed the important contributions made by Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya for the cooperation between BCU and WMG of the University of Warwick, and Professor Jia also expressed the deep memory of the faculty and students of BCU for Lord Bhattacharyya. Before Lord Bhattacharyya leaving us, he entrusted President Croft to further boost the continuous cooperation with BCU, as he believed that BCU is a different, creative and dynamic university, with the similar teaching ideas and entrepreneurial growth path of the University of Warwick at its beginning stages, which is entitled with great development potentials. The strengthened cooperation will benefit both universities and both countries. Chairman Jia, expressed his great thanks to President Croft for his great attention on the cooperation between two universities. And he also pointed out that BCU will further explore how the University of Warwick steers onto the specific entrepreneurship development path, continues to put more stress on service for local government, society and students, further combine the market needs with its development and integrate education with industry. In this way, the development and research capability will improve, making more contributions to the capital city development. Chairman Jia also mentioned that cooperation between the two universities is entitled with great potentials. And BCU will view the visiting of the University of Warwick as a new start and further facilitate cooperation and development, striving to make more contributions to career development of two universities and friendly exchanges between China and the UK.

Mr Sui Zhenjiang, Vice Mayor of the People's Government of Beijing Municipality, met the visiting group. He introduced to the visiting group the new development strategies of Beijing and how the National Science and Technology Center is built, as well as how the UK and Beijing cooperate on science and technology aspect. He welcomed the University of Warwick to carry out practical cooperation with BCU and other colleges as well as with the Zhongguancun high-tech enterprise, to establish new cooperation platform and cooperation area on the aspect of talents building and technology development. In this case, we can achieve mutual benefit and win-win results, boosting the continuous development of college education and science and technology exchange of China and the UK.

President Croft and his team visited the campus, including teaching environment, teaching facilities, experimental and practical training sites, achievement exhibition of students’ entrepreneurship and innovation, and an exhibition of graduates. They also had an enthusiastic interaction with students and teachers, and have in-depth communication with President Liu Lin on the university’s characteristic construction, development direction, and how to boost the cooperation soon.

President Croft said that he was really happy to witness the thriving climate of BCU. He and his colleges really cherish the solid foundation established by Lord Kumar who greatly boosted the cooperation with BCU, and they are looking forward to new cooperation areas and more cooperation program with BCU. President Croft and all the members of the visiting group have a strong belief that the cooperation between the two universities will achieve fruitful results, and wish BCU achieve its development vision in the near future and step toward a more brilliant future.

The University of Warwick, established in 1965, is a top-tier university in the United Kingdom, permanently ranking the top 100 and even the top 50 in the ’World University Rankings’ and ranking 54th in 2019. It is famous for rigorous admission standards, high research level and academic qualities, and also it has an acknowledged reputation for its excellence in the fields of industry commerce, politics and academic fields. The University of Warwick, tied with Oxford, Cambridge, LSE, Imperial College, and UCL, is regarded as one of the six Target School of the world's nine major Bulge Bracket. Warwick Business School is known as one of the best-ranked business schools in the UK. And subjects like media, manufacturing engineering, and information technology are also among the best. Additionally, WMG is one of the most influential engineering science colleges in Europe. In 2012, the University of Warwick signed the cooperation agreement with BCU on joint graduation education, talents training and also technology development. Mr Liu Yandong, former Vice Premier of the State Council, met with Lord Kumar, Dean of WMG of the University of Warwick in Ziguang Pavilion in Zhongnanhai. Mr Liu thinks highly of the cooperation between the University of Warwick and BCU, pioneering substantive cooperation between the world's top 100 universities and Chinese private universities. This project is expected to become a model project of international exchange and cooperation of private schools. In 2017, Lord Kumar received the Friendship Award granted by the Chinese government and was received by Premier Li Keqiang. Lord Bhattacharyya passed away on Friday 1 March 2019, after a short illness. The British official held a grand memorial meeting for him and named the road and the British Automobile Innovation Centre building after his name. Dr Liu Lin, President of Beijing City College and Honorary Professor of the University of Warwick, paid a special visit and sent his deep condolences to Mrs Kumar, and met with President Croft during his visit to the UK.