SCIENCE & EDUCATION

A newly extended alliance between the Group of Eight coalition of Australian universities and the ‘China 9’ universities is helping to build “globally mobile students”, says Go8 Executive Director Michael Gallagher. But competing with elite universities from the US will remain a challenge, says one China expert, as Chinese students choose universities based on reputation and rankings, writes Charis Palmer for The Conversation.

“If we’re going to compete on elitism we will always lose to the US,” said James Laurenceson, who is president of the Chinese Economics Society Australia and a senior lecturer in economics at the University of Queensland.

The Go8 and China 9 recently reviewed what has been a five-year relationship, and plan to expand on and strengthen the partnership over the next five years. Mutual credit recognition between the institutions, so that students from any of the institutions can complete some of their study at overseas universities, is a critical component of the alliance, Gallagher said.

Source: The Conversation & University World News