On the afternoon of January 8th, Professor Andrew Schofield, Vice President of University of Birmingham and Director of the Department of Physics and Engineering, visited Soochow University. Zhang Xiaohong, Vice President of Soochow University, met with the delegation led by Andrew Schofield and they signed off an agreement for the2+2 Joint Bachelor’s and Master’s Programs of University of Birmingham and Soochow University. Undergraduate Academic Affairs Office, Office of International Cooperation and Exchange, School of Physical Science and Technology, School of Computer Science and Technology, School of Electronic and Information Engineering, and other relevant functional departments, school (department) leaders attended the signing ceremony.

First, Zhang Xiaohong welcomed Vice President Andrew Schofield and his delegation, and gave a detailed introduction to history and development of Soochow University. He said that Soochow University had been vigorously promoting the internationalization strategy and had established exchanges and cooperation relationships with many famous universities and scientific research institutions around the world recently. University of Birmingham was a high-level university in the world, which had had good cooperative relations with Soochow University for many years. The signing of this agreement would further strengthen cooperation between two sides in joint cultivation of students, and jointly promote wider and deeper cooperation in the aspects of discipline construction and scientific research.

According to Andrew Schofield, University of Birmingham was founded in 1900, which had a long history and a full range of disciplines. The major of physics ranked among the best in the UK. In the past few years, it had worked productively with Soochow University in terms of cultivation of students majored in physics. The joint undergraduate and postgraduate cultivation program of students majored in physics would not only bring more development opportunities to students, but also promote cooperation in teacher exchange and scientific research. It was believed that two universities would be bound to carry out deep cooperation in more fields in the future.

It was understood that University of Birmingham ranked among the top 100 universities in the QS World University Rankings, whose physics and astronomy ranked the top three among universities in the UK. By the end of 2018, University of Birmingham had cultivated 11 Nobel Prize winners. Professor John Michael Kosterlitz, Honorary Dean of Institute for Advanced Study of Soochow University, winner of the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics, had worked for a long time in University of Birmingham. The signing of two parties would help Soochow University accelerate promotion of international talent cultivation and first-class discipline construction.