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Collaborative links between

University of Exeter and Tsinghua University

Leadership

Vice-Chancellor Prof Sir Steve Smith has delivered two lectures in the Tsinghua Global Vision

series. Sir Steve‘s November 2013 lecture was titled “The 21st Century University: your future

in the knowledge economy”. The University of Exeter first signed an institutional Memorandum

of Understanding (MoU) with Tsinghua University in September 2011 to facilitate deeper

research engagement across a large number of academic disciplines.

Vice-Chancellor Prof Sir Steve Smith visited Tsinghua University and was hosted by the

Chairperson of the University Council Dr Chen Xu in November 2016, when the two institutions

renewed an MoU for another three years. Sir Steve returned to Beijing in November 2017 and

met again with Chair of Council Dr Chen Xu. They signed an agreement for a jointly awarded

PhD programme of six awards:

http://www.cess.tsinghua.edu.cn/publish/ess/7760/2017/20171120162831758916455/20171

120162831758916455_.html

Prof Mark Goodwin attended the UK-China Humanities Alliance event in Oxford in

December 2017; the second UK-China Dialogue on the Humanities in Higher Education. He

represented Exeter at the invitation of Dr Chen Xu.

Followed by the meeting between Prof Sir Steve Smith and the Vice-President of Tsinghua

University, Prof Wang Xiqin in November 2017, Prof Shi Zongkai, Vice Chair of the Tsinghua

University Council, made the trip to Exeter with members from the Institute for International

and Area Studies. A Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the College of

Social Sciences and International Studies (SSIS) and Tsinghua University’s Institute of

International and Area Studies (IIAS) on April 5th 2018.

On the 18th April 2019, Vice-Chancellor Prof Sir Steve Smith visited Tsinghua University and

was invited to deliver opening remarks at the inaugural China-UK Higher Education Young

Talent Alliance (HEYTA). A number of Exeter students were in attendance.

On April 24th 2020, Vice-Chancellor Prof Sir Steve Smith was invited to speak at “Special

Dialogue-Online Education in the COVID-19 Response and Beyond”, a visual event co-

convened by Tsinghua University and UNESCO. Prof Sir Steve Smith presented Exeter’s

efforts in online teaching and learning to panelists including university presidents, vice

presidents and professors from 21 universities in 15 countries.

In May 2020, Institute for International and Area Studies (IIAS) and Chenxing Education

Foundation donated five ventilators, 5,250 face masks, 500 protective suits, 500 units of

hand sanitizers and 500 units of disinfectant liquid for the Royal Devon and Exeter NHS

Foundation Trust (RD&E) to help with the fight against the coronavirus (COVID-19).

University of Exeter and RD&E staff worked together with Madame Zhang Jing, Associate

Director of IIAS at Tsinghua University, on the logistics to secure the delivery from Beijing.

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League table positions – and five year trajectory

A. Research Collaboration – Shenzhen

Advanced Materials

Dean of Tsinghua’s Graduate School at Shenzhen Prof Kang Feiyu has co-published with

Exeter’s Prof Yanqiu Zhu, from the College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical

Sciences. They were both researchers at Tsinghua University’s Department of Mechanical

Engineering. Their publications include ‘Enhanced field emission of open-ended, thin-walled

carbon nanotubes filled with ferromagnetic nanowires’, which appeared in the journal Carbon.

Water Engineering

In July 2017, a Joint Workshop on Urban Flooding and Sponge Cities was held in Shenzhen.

The workshop was aimed at sharing research findings in sustainable urban water

management. The workshop was funded by the British Council and the National Natural

Science Foundation of China (NSFC) and organised by Professor Dragan Savić, Professor

Guangtao Fu, and Dr Albert Chen (University of Exeter), and Professor Guan Yuntao and

Professor Jia Haifeng (Tsinghua University).

B. Research Collaboration – Beijing

Climate Science

1. Prof Neil Adger and Prof Peter Cox/Prof Gong Peng and Prof Zhang Qiang

Profs Adger, Cox, Gong and Zhang were commissioned to edit a special edition of The Lancet

on the theme of Climate Change and Health which appeared in June 2015. A sample Chinese

version of the special edition of The Lancet was presented to China’s Premier Li Keqiang by

Prof Gong Peng during Premier Li’s visit to Tsinghua University in April 2016.

2. Prof Stephen Sitch/Dr Sergey Venevsky

Prof Stephen Sitch is Chair in Climate Change (College of Life and Environmental Sciences,

CLES). His research interests involve Climate Change, Earth System Science, Terrestrial

Biogeochemical Cycles and Fire modelling. Dr Sergey Venevsky is Associate Professor in the

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Department of Earth System Science at Tsinghua. Prof Sitch and Dr Venevsky worked

together at the UK Met Office and have more than 20 years of collaboration and co-authored

extensively on terrestrial biogeochemical cycles.

Dr Venevsky visited Exeter with Prof Gong Peng and his PhD student Wu Chao in May 2015

(funded by EU-Dragonstar). Dr Venevsky and Prof Sitch discussed new research plans in

studying vegetation dynamics in Northern Eurasia (including China). Wu Chao is one of six

students to complete a Tsinghua-Exeter Dual Degree/Jointly-Awarded Degree PhD and a joint

viva was held at Tsinghua in May 2019. Dr Wu Chao has subsequently taken up a post as

Post-Doc researcher at Yale University.

3. Prof Gavin Shaddick/Prof Xu Shiming/ Associate Prof Lu Xi/ Associate Prof Bai Yuqi

Prof Gavin Shaddick is Head of Department of Mathematics and Deputy Director of the

Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence at the University of Exeter. Prof.

Shaddick's research interests include the theory and application of Bayesian hierarchical

models and spatio-temporal modelling in a number of fields including epidemiology,

environmental modelling, and disease progression in rheumatology. A major focus is

modelling global air quality by integrating information from multiple sources, including ground

monitoring, remote sensing satellites and chemical transport models. Prof Xu Shiming is an

Associate Professor at the Department of Earth System Science. His major research

interests include numerical model development for geophysical fluid dynamics, sea ice

parameter retrieval, and polar climate change. His recent works involve the development of

physical data synergy methods that utilizes multiple sensor and multiple satellite data for

Arctic sea ice. Prof Xu hosted Prof Gavin Shaddick at the Department of Earth System

Science in September 2018. They also visited the National Supercomputing Centre in Wuxi -

Sunway TaihuLight (NSCC-Wuxi) in March 2019. Prof Xu then visited the University of

Exeter in April 2019. He met a number of climate scientists and gave a seminar on

Estimating Sea Ice Parameters with Satellite Data Synergy.

Prof Lu Xi is a Tenured Associate Professor at School of Environment, Tsinghua University.

His research focus on Energy, Climate and Environmental Complex System Modeling,

Integrative assessment framework on renewable energy, low-carbon development and its

co-benefit to air pollution control, big data analysis of energy storage and variable renewable

sources, emissions inventory on greenhouse gases and air pollutants, energy system for

green, and low-carbon and smart cities. Prof Lu Xi invited Prof Gavin Shaddick to deliver a

presentation at School of Environment for his international students in December 2019. The

two were discussing possible coalition in research and education programmes.

Associate Prof Bai Yuqi is Associate Professor at Department of Earth System Science,

Tsinghua University. He is also a member of China-GEO Science and Technology Advisory

Group, WGCM Infrastructure Panel and an alternative member of GEOSS Infrastructure

Development Task Team. His research interest include Spatiotemporal data model, data

index and data fusion for remotely sensed image and geographic information, big data

organization, management and analytics for remotely sensed image and geographic

information, standard and speciation for data model, processing step, system interoperability

and exchange for Earth science observation, simulation and projection data, and Smart City

and Healthy City. Prof Bai met with Prof Shaddick in December 2017 at Tsinghua, and

discussed co-authoring paper themed climate data access and sharing, data locality and

science monopoly, infrastructure evolution and paradigm shifts and possibility of student

mobility- short term visit (Met Office’s Grand Challenge) and one-year visit to the CDT.

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4. Prof Neil Adger/Prof Liu Zhu

Prof Adger is Professor of Human Geography. His goal is to promote deep social science

analysis of the challenges of global environmental change drawing on a range of social

science theories, such as political economy as well as theories of decision-making and risk.

Prof Liu Zhu is working at the Department of Earth System Science. His research focuses on

global sustainability and the assessment of the human impacts on the earth system in terms

of greenhouse gas emissions. Prof Adger and Prof Liu are jointly supervising the student Lu

Chenxi on The economic dimensions of climate change and co-benefits of de-carbonisation.

5. Dr Jean-Francois Mercure/Prof Zhang Xiliang

Dr Jean-Francois Mercure is a Senior Lecturer in Global Systems Institute. His research is on

modelling innovation, the macroeconomic impacts of low-carbon innovation and

technological change policy, the diffusion of innovations, modelling the global energy-

economy-environment system and climate policy and environmental governance from a

social science viewpoint. Prof Zhang Xiliang is the Director of Tsinghua’s Institute of

Environment, Energy, and Economy. J-F Mercure was granted by BEIS International Climate

Finance for a multi-partner project, namely INSIGHTED. The aim of this project is to take

advantage of the latest developments in economic thinking and techniques, complexity

science and innovation scholarship and apply them to the pressing problems of energy

innovation and system transition with government partners in China (via Energy Resource

Institute, and Tsinghua’s Institute of Environment, Energy, and Economy), India (via TERI

and WRI) and Brazil (via UNICAMP, UFRJ and FGV). UK partners include Cambridge,

Oxford, UCL, Cambridge Econometrics and Climate Strategies. INSIGHTED’s strategic and

co-created engagement with Brazil, China, and India will be delivered via a network including

technical experts and decision-makers from the public and private sectors, implementing

clear and practical complexity-based modelling solutions for informing decision-making and

planning for low-carbon innovation and technological change. Solutions will be delivered

within the context of existing science-policy interfaces in Brazil, China and India, in

cooperation with BEIS. The three-year Project officially commenced in April 2020.

Psychology

6. Prof Huw Williams/Prof Zhou Qing

With Prof Zhou Qing (Department of Automotive Engineering, Tsinghua), Prof Huw Williams

(Exeter’s College of Life and Environmental Sciences - CLES) and Prof Philippe Young

(Exeter’s College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences - CEMPS) are

researching Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), the biggest cause of death and disability worldwide

in young children and adults of working age. They are developing a group at Exeter with

colleagues from local Police forces and Hospitals and Rugby Clubs to provide data for work

with colleagues at Tsinghua, Virginia and Glasgow universities for modelling how the brain

reacts to trauma in car and sports incidents. Such data will be used to determine possible car

and sports safety measures and for early brain trauma management and intervention

strategies. They propose to undertake feasibility and pilot projects leading to submission of a

multi-disciplinary grant.

Biosciences

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7. Dr Ron Yang/Dr Lu Zhi

Dr Ron Yang is a bioinformatician with research interests covering sequence/structure

bioinformatics and systems biology. Dr Lu Zhi is a principal investigator at School of Life

Sciences at Tsinghua University, and his research interests include identification of

epigenetics code and noncoding markers in cancer, Prediction and characterization of novel

noncoding RNAs in model genomes, structure prediction and functional study of protein-RNA

interactions, development of cloud computing algorithms and databases for biological and

medical data, etc. Dr Yang and Dr Lu paid reciprocal visits to each other in 2014-15, supported

by the Tsinghua-Exeter Fellowship Programme. During Prof Lu’s visit in August 2014, they

completed data organisation of high-throughput sequencing data for integrative study of

cancers. During Dr Yang’s visit to Tsinghua in December 2014, he gave a seminar and a

lecture on statistical biology and worked with Prof Lu and his student on the prediction of RNA

secondary structure. A co-authored paper, with the first author being Wu Yang, Prof Lu’s

student, was accepted by Nucleic Acid Research for publication.

8. Dr Kirsty Wan/Prof Pan Junmin

Dr Wan is a Research Fellow at the Living Systems Institute. In her lab, they are studying the

motility and dynamical behaviour of remarkable organelles called cilia and flagella. They work

at the interface of physics, mathematics and biology, seeking to combine and develop novel

interdisciplinary methods to provide new insight into the origins, control, and mutability of life

at the microscale. Prof Pan is Professor in Cell Biology at the School of Life Sciences at

Tsinghua University. Dr Wan spent time in Tsinghua with Prof Pan Junming last Dec,

interacting with students/postdocs, and also other faculty members and continue to

collaborate on a number of fronts - particularly chlamydomonas cilia length regulation, with Dr

Wan analysing mutant strains from Tsinghua in Exeter. Due to the success of the visit Dr Wan

and Prof Pan are currently planning a reciprocal visit to Exeter to work on characterising the

motility phenotypes of these new strains.

Water Engineering

9. Prof Dragan Savic, Prof Fu Guangtao, Dr Albert Chen/Prof Binliang Lin, Prof Chunbo Jiang, Dr Di Zhang

Prof Dragan Savic is the UK’s first Professor of Hydroinformatics, having held this post at the

University of Exeter since 2001. Prof Fu Guangtao is Professor of Water Intelligence and

focusing on developing and applying new computer models, data analytics and artificial

intelligence tools to tackle urban water challenges in water supply resilience, network leakage,

flood risk, urban stormwater and wastewater management. Dr Albert Chen is senior research

fellow in urban flood modelling at the Centre for Water Systems at University of Exeter. Prof

Lin Binliang with the Department of Hydraulic Engineering has a research interest in

hydrodynamics, Sediment transport and environmental hydraulics. Prof Jiang Chunbo’s

research focuses on computational fluid mechanics, Environmental water conservancy and

modern measurement of fluid mechanics.

The team with Prof Savic won an award jointly funded by Royal Society of the UK and National

Natural Science Foundation of China of £12,000 for a project entitled “Hydrodynamic analysis

of urban features with physical and numerical experiments”. The funding supported staff

mobility between March 2015 and 2017 and enabled Dr Zhang Di to spend a month (June/July

2015) at Exeter’s Centre for Water Systems.

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Having made a successful application for a Global Innovation Initiative grant of £150,000 to

fund a project entitled “Flood impact assessment in mega cities under urban sprawl and

climate change”, the team held the preliminary workshop in Exeter in July 2015. The workshop

included participants from Tsinghua including Prof Lin and his colleagues Dr Jian Sun and Dr

Di Zhang. A workshop was held in collaboration with the Department of Hydraulic Engineering,

Tsinghua University in April 2016. More than 30 delegates from ten institutions attended the

workshop.

10. Prof Dragan Savic, Dr Fu Guangtao, Dr Albert Chen/Prof Wu Jianping

Prof Dragan Savic, Dr Fu Guangtao and Dr Albert Chen (Exeter) visited Prof Wu Jianping and Dr Du Yiman at Tsinghua’s Department of Civil Engineering in April 2016. Prof Wu is a distinguished academic in transportation management and was invited by Prof Savic to visit the University of Exeter. Prof Wu delivered an "Inspiring Science" lecture to colleagues at Exeter in June 2016.

11. Prof David Butler/Prof Liu Shuming

Prof David Butler is Professor of Water Engineering and the co-Director of the Centre for Water

Systems. He specialises in urban water management.

Prof Liu Shuming was a Research Fellow at the University of Exeter from 2006-2007 and now

is in the Division of Drinking Water at the School of Environment, Tsinghua University. His

research interests are water distribution system, urban water management and water energy.

Prof Butler gave a lecture at Tsinghua’s School of Environment in April 2016.

12. Prof Fu Guangtao/Prof Dong Xin

Prof Fu Guangtao is Professor of Water Intelligence and focusing on developing and applying

new computer models, data analytics and artificial intelligence tools to tackle urban water

challenges in water supply resilience, network leakage, flood risk, urban stormwater and

wastewater management. Prof Dong is an Associate Professor at the Division of

Environmental Analysis at the School of Environment. Guangtao visited Tsinghua several

times for research collaboration in the last two years invited by Prof Dong. He did several

research seminars and gave a lecture to undergraduate. One student from Prof Dong’s team

visited Exeter for three months. They co-organised a special session in the International

Conference on Urban Drainage and worked on joint research papers.

Mechanical Engineering

13. Dr Khurram Wadee/ Dr Cao Yanping Dr Khurram Wadee is the Programme Lead for Civil Engineering and interested in the

application of the theory of elastic stability to structures. Dr Cao Yanping is in the Institute of

Biomechanics and Medical Engineering, Department of Engineering Mechanics. Dr Wadee

visited Dr Cao in 2012 and they worked on the buckling (wrinkling) of soft materials when

subjected to compression, which is applicable to things like tissue development although Dr

Wadee worked strictly from an engineering and mathematical rather than biological basis.

They have published work together which appeared in 2014

(http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspa.2014.0695).

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14. Dr Liu Yang/Prof Yan Shaoze

Dr Liu Yang is a Lecturer in Engineering. His current research focuses on Nonlinear

Dynamics and Control with the research themes: Self-Propelled Capsule Endoscopy, Drill-

String Dynamics and Control, Control of Engineering Multistability, and Pipeline Inspection

Robot. Prof Yan is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering. He is working on Dynamics of

Mechanical System with Clearance, Impact and Contact, Reliability Analysis of Mechanical

System and Insect Bionics and Intelligent Structure. They currently have a joint journal

publication under review.

Structural Engineering

15. Prof James Brownjohn/Prof Pan Peng

Prof Brownjohn is the program director of the Exeter MSc in Structural Engineering. The

research areas of Prof Pan Peng in the Department of Civil Engineering at Tsinghua University

include Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics, Seismic Design and Analysis of

Building Structures, High performance and Innovative Structural Systems, Experimental

Techniques in Structural Engineering. Prof Brownjohn visited Prof Pan in April 2015 and

delivered talks to students and staff at the Department of Civil Engineering at Tsinghua

University from a selection of talks about his research on vibration serviceability and dynamic

testing.

Renewable Energy

16. Dr Xiaohong Li/Prof Wang Baoguo

Dr Xiaohong Li is currently a lecturer in Renewable Energy Group at the University of Exeter.

Her research interests focus on energy conversion and storage. Prof Wang Baoguo is the

Director of R&D Centre of Flow Battery, Department of Chemical Engineering at Tsinghua

University. Renewable Energy Group and R&D Centre of Flow Battery represent world class

research in the field of electrochemical energy storage and materials sciences. Dr Li visited

Tsinghua in the summer 2016 when she gave a talk about the research strength in Exeter,

talking about PhD students exchange, etc. Dr Li visited Tsinghua from 22-29 October 2016

with the support of Exeter-Tsinghua Fellowship. She delivered a presentation to Tsinghua

students about Membrane-free Redox Flow Batteries on 25th October. Prof Wang visited

Exeter (Penryn Campus) in October 2017 with support from an Exeter-Tsinghua Fellowship.

17. Dr Xiaoyu Yan/Prof Zhang Xiliang, Dr Ou Xunmin

Dr Xiaoyu Yan is a Lecturer in the Renewable Energy Group and the Environment and

Sustainability Institute. Prof Zhang Xiliang is the Director of the Institute of Energy,

Environment and Economy (3E) and Deputy Director of China Automotive Energy Research

Center (CAERC) at Tsinghua University. Dr Ou Xunmin is an Associate Professor in the 3E

Institute and CAERC.

Dr Yan has been working with Prof Zhang Xiliang and Dr Ou Xunmin on China’s transport

energy and emission modelling and energy policy analysis for more than 6 years. This has led

to a number of joint publications. CAERC invited Dr Yan to give a seminar in May 2014 on his

research activities within the Renewable Energy Group and the ESI. Dr Yan was awarded an

Exeter Outward Mobility Fellowship and visited the 3E Institute in April 2015. During that time,

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Dr Yan worked with Prof Zhang and Dr Ou on two draft project proposal ideas aimed at the

“EPSRC-China call on Low Carbon Cities Research” and the “ESRC-China call for

Collaborative Research Urban Transformations in China” at the time. Recently Dr Yan, Prof

Zhang and Dr Ou submitted a joint research proposal to British Academy on “Innovative

governance of the Water-Energy-Food nexus for sustainable growth in China”. Dr Yan and Dr

Ou were successful in a British Council UK-China Joint Research and Innovation Partnership

Fund PhD Placement Programme application. Dr Yan’s PhD student Atta Ajayebi worked at

the 3E Institute from August 2016 to February 2017. Dr Ou is also a project partner on Dr

Yan’s internal EPSRC-GCRF funded project “Unpacking China’s Water-Energy-Food-

Environment (WEFE) nexus”. Dr Ou visited Exeter (Penryn Campus) in August 2017 with

support from an Exeter-Tsinghua Fellowship.

Computer Science

18. Prof Geyong Min/Dr Yulei Wu/Prof Hao Yin

Prof Geyong Min is the Chair and Director of High Performance Computing and Networking

(HPCN) Research Group at the University of Exeter. His main research interests include Next-

Generation Internet, Analytical Modelling, Cloud Computing, and Big Data. Dr. Yulei Wu is a

Lecturer in Computer Science at the University of Exeter. Prof Hao Yin is the Director of Big

Data and Network Engineering Research Centre, Department of Computer Science and

Technology at Tsinghua University. The collaboration between Prof Min and Prof Yin has been

funded by an EU FP7 grant and they have worked jointly on two research projects funded by

National Natural Science Foundation of China. So far, so they have co-authored 22 high-

quality publications, including 10 journal papers, 8 conference papers and 4 book chapters.

Prof Min visited Tsinghua University in 2017 with support from an Exeter-Tsinghua Fellowship.

19. Dr Luo Chunbo/Prof Chen Wei, Prof Shi Yuanchun

Dr Luo is a Lecturer in Computer Science and his research interests are wireless networks,

unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), deep learning and enabling sensor technologies. Prof Chen

is a Professor in the Department of Microelectronics and Nanoelectronics. Prof Shi is from the

Department of Computer Science and Technology and the Director of a new Tsinghua college

called GIX (Global innovation exchange institute) funded by Tsinghua, University of

Washington and Microsoft. She is specializing in Human Computer Interaction, Pervasive

computing and Network Multimedia.

Dr. Luo met with Prof Shi discussing collaboration in pervasive computing in September 2016

and invited her to chair the “International Symposium on Pervasive Systems, Algorithms, and

Networks” in Exeter next June. Dr Luo attended “The China UK Innovation Technology Centre

(CUTIC) initiative workshop in Tsinghua in September 2016. CUTIC is a major platform for

connecting the UK and China’s ICT sector for longterm research collaboration, expertise

exchange and industrial investment. It has received broad interest and participations from

universities such as Tsinghua, Peking, BUPT, Shanghai Jiaotong, Southeast, UEA, Exeter,

Cambridge, UCL, Ulster, Queen Marry, Surrey etc.; agencies including EPSRC, NSFC, FCO,

RCUK China; industry including BT, Asiainfo, Huawei, ChinaTelecom, Inmarsat etc. Exeter is

one of the initial five UK partners for this proposal and Prof Chen Wei from Tsinghua is the

China lead of the CUTIC program.

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Public Administration

20. Prof Dario Castiglione/Prof He Jianyu, Prof Ren Jiantao and Prof Zhu Andong

Prof Castiglione’s main areas of research comprise democratic theory, the interconnection

between state and society, the history of early modern political thought, and democracy and

constitutionalism in the EU. Prof He’s research areas include the theory and practice of

scientific socialism, Chinese government and politics, comparative politics, relationship

between state and society, social organization and social management innovation. Prof

Castiglione met with Prof He Jianyu in April 2015 to discuss their researches and about

establishing a research network on the study of political and philosophical ideas. Prof

Castiglione met with Prof He in October 2016 and April 2018 with support from an Exeter-

Tsinghua Fellowship.

Philosophy

21. Prof Xiao Wei/Prof Christine Hauskeller

Prof Christine Hauskeller works with the Department of Sociology, Philosophy and

Anthropology at the University of Exeter. Her research explores knowledge formation and how

values, technologies and cultural practices shape our technological societies. Prof Xiao Wei,

at the Department of Philosophy at Tsinghua University, focuses her research on ethics,

gender studies and bioethics (Public Health Ethics). They share work in Feminist Philosophy

and Bioethics and in cross-national comparative studies.

Prof Xiao visited Exeter in January 2015. She gave a talk on Confucius Culture and Life Ethics,

and an article about her talk was published in China Women’s News. Prof Xiao also met with

many colleagues in College of Social Sciences and International Studies at Exeter working in

Philosophy and in Sociology and Bioethics. She participated in workshops and seminars,

including Prof Hauskeller’s modules. Both professors shared a lecture in PHL3035 Bioethics

on sex selection and genetic prenatal testing. They have started research collaboration on

feminist bioethics and women’s of mental health in relation to family life, reproduction and

domestic violence, beginning with a joint article comparing Chinese/UK ethical and policy

perspectives.

International Relations

22. Dr Yin (Sam) Zhiguang/ Prof Yan Yilong

Dr Yin (College of Humanities, Exeter) works mainly in the area of Chinese modern intellectual

history, literary history, 19th and 20th century history of international relations, and

contemporary Sino-Middle Eastern relations. Both Assistant Prof Yan Yilong is at Tsinghua

University’s School of Public Policy and Management (SPPM). Prof Yan’s research focuses

on Development Planning, Contemporary China Studies and Public Policy, and he serves in

Center for China Studies, a research think tank affiliated to SPPM. Dr Yin visited Prof Yan in

April 2015. In July 2016, Dr Yin attended a two-day workshop organised by Prof Yan.

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23. Dr David Lewis / Dr Sam Yin / Prof Shi Zhiqin

Dr David Lewis is an Associate Professor in the Department of Politics at the University of

Exeter. He has a broad range of research interests in international relations and peace and

conflict studies, with an additional strand of research focusing on the politics of authoritarian

states. Most of his research has explored post-Soviet politics, notably in Central Asia and the

Caucasus. Prof Shi Zhiqin is the former Dean of the Department of International Relations at

Tsinghua and is the Executive Director of the Institute of The "Belt and Road Initiative" Strategy

Research Institute in Tsinghua University. He is also a resident scholar at the Carnegie-

Tsinghua Center for Global Policy, where he runs the China-EU Relations program and the

China-NATO dialogue series. Prof Shi’s research interests focuses primarily on comparative

politics and international relations, especially concerning European issues and China-EU

relations.

Prof Shi visited Exeter in July 2017 along with other academics from Shanghai. Dr Sam Yin

organised a roundtable discussion about the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) for Exeter’s Global

China Research Centre.

The visit also saw the visiting academics take part in a joint conference with the Royal Institute

of International Affairs (Chatham House) in London on ‘Security and Stability on the New Silk

Road’, alongside counterparts from Russia and Central Asia. Academics attending these

events were considering key questions related to the BRI initiative, such as international and

domestic reactions to the enterprise; the impact BRI will have on Central Asia, and how this

development might affect China’s relations with other global powers.

Area Studies

24. Dr David Blagden/Prof Sun Xuefeng

Dr Blagden is a Senior Lecturer in International Security at the University of Exeter’s

Department of Politics. His research focuses on the following areas: the causes and

consequences of the rise of new great powers, UK foreign and defence policy (particularly in

the context of European geopolitics), the security implications of economic globalization, etc.

Prof Sun is a resident scholar at the Carnegie-Tsinghua Centre for Global Policy. An expert

on the rise of great powers and China's foreign policy. Sun is also an Associate Professor of

International Relations. His current research focuses on the rise of great powers, China’s

foreign policy and international relations in East Asia. Prof Sun was the recipient of a

Tsinghua – Exeter Fellowship to work with Dr Blagden, and visited Exeter from January to

February 2019.

25. Professor Tim Niblock / Madame Zhang Jing

Professor Tim Niblock (Emeritus Professor at the University of Exeter’s Institute of Arab and

Islamic Studies) visited Tsinghua University in November 2015 and met with Professor Li

Qiang (Dean of School of Social Sciences), Professor Zhang Chuanjie (Head of International

Studies Department) and Professor Wang Hui (Director of Institute of Higher Education)

aiming to help them develop a Middle Eastern studies centre. Professor Niblock also gave a

seminar in the School of Social Sciences.

Between 14 and 20 July 2016, Professor Niblock attended the World Peace Forum (WPF)

organized by the Institute of International Relations and delivered two papers. Professor

Niblock has been helping to develop the Institute for International and Area Studies at

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Tsinghua, which is builds upon the Developing Countries Doctoral Programme. Prof Niblock

is an adviser and member in the Academic Committee of IIAS (Institute for International and

Area Studies). He is Visiting Professor at Tsinghua University. He supported the development

of Tsinghua’s Summer Forum in 2019. A joint chair agreement was signed in November 2019

to deepen the collaboration between the two universities.

26. Prof William Gallois and Prof Adam Hanieh

Exeter IAIS and Tsinghua IIAS are to develop a Digital Archive of the Middle East (DAME). It

will see the digitisation of parts of what is probably the largest collection of governmental,

political, state and economic papers from and pertaining to the Arab world from the 1970s to

the present – the Arab World Documentation Unit. Using digital tools to collate, catalogue and

analyse these collections will open up a series of new questions with regard to the modern

history of the Middle East and North Africa region. Using funding from both institutions, the

project will fund three PhDs, along with staff time at both institutions, with the work being

coordinated by Professor Adam Hanieh, the newly appointed joint Chair in the Political

Economy of the MENA Region, who will split his time between Exeter and Tsinghua.

The project will enable a consideration of research questions such as –

To what extent did nationally distinct forms of governance develop across the states of the Gulf Cooperation Council in the 1970s and ‘80s?

Did some of these models of administration owe greater degrees of connection with the UK?

Can the holdings of DAME tell us more about Islamic thought in GCC states?

Was the political economy of the Gulf as hydrocarbon-centred as is always assumed?

Law

27. Dr. Joseph Lee/Prof Zhu Ciyun, Prof Tang Xin and Prof Zhang Chenying

Dr Joseph Lee is a senior lecturer in law at Exeter Law School. He specialises in company

law, securities regulation, commercial law and arbitration and conducts research on FinTech

law, the blockchain impact on capital markets, stock exchanges governance, cross-border

securities transactions, and ADR for securities law disputes. Prof Zhu Ciyun is a Professor of

Commercial Law and Economic Law at Tsinghua Law School and is the Director of the Centre

for Commercial Law. Prof Tang Xin is the Deputy Director of the Centre for Commercial Law.

Dr Joseph Lee (Exeter) visited Beijing for the annual International Commercial Law

Conference organised by the Law School of Tsinghua University at Tsinghua in October

2016,2017 and 2018. Dr Lee is working with Professor Zhu Yunci – Director of Tsinghua’s

Center for Commercial Law. A workshop with a view to examining UK Takeover and Mergers

and Acquisitions law was held at Tsinghua Law School in May 2017. A reciprocal workshop

was held in London in May 2018, which served to discuss the development of Takeover law

in China in order that UK academics and lawyers can learn from Chinese developments.

28. Dr Kyriaki Noussia/Prof Chen Weizuo

Dr. Kyriaki Noussia is a Senior Lecturer / Assistant Professor in Law (E&R). She focuses her

research on Arbitration Law, Maritime Law (especially marine insurance), Insurance &

Reinsurance Law, Artificial Intelligence (AI ) & the Law, etc. Prof Chen is a Professor of Law,

Co-Director of the International Arbitration and Dispute Settlement Program (IADS) and

Director of the Research Centre for Private International Law and Comparative Law,

Tsinghua University School of Law. Private International Law, Comparative Law, German

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Civil Law. Dr Noussia visited Tsinghua University in September 2018 with the support of

Exeter-Tsinghua fellowship. The visit supported the development of a co-publication and

joint research around the 1996 Arbitration Act.

Marketing

29. Prof Philip Stern/Prof Yubo Chen

Prof Philip Stern – Professor of Marketing at the University of Exeter – visited the School of

Economics and Management at Tsinghua University on 26 November 2015. He was hosted

by the School’s Associate Dean, Prof Yubo Chen. Prof Stern delivered seminars on:

A simple model of forecasting new product trial using analogous series

Predicting Innovative Behaviour of Physicians

Prof Stern and Prof Chen are interested in joint research into big data.

Accounting

30. Prof Wang Pengguo / Professor Chen Xiao

Professor Wang Pengguo is a Professor of Finance and Accounting at Exeter Business School.

His research, teaching and consulting interests are at the interface of finance and accounting.

His current research interests are focused on cost of capital, equity risk premium, market

anomalies and fundamental valuation models, with particular reference to the links between

financial statement information, risk and equity returns. Professor Chen Xiao is the Head of

Accounting at Tsinghua SEM. His research interests include Accounting and Capital Market,

Corporate Governance, Taxation, Business Valuation.

Prof Wang visited the Department of Accounting at Tsinghua SEM in October 2017 and gave

a lecture on ‘Revisiting the Ohlson (1995) model and its implications on valuation and

investment’ for about 30 PhD students and faculty members. Prof Xiao Chen and Dr Qiaowan

Wang at Tsinghua have intention to work with Prof Wang on a relevant project on Chinese

dataset.

Economics

31. Prof Brit Grosskopf / Prof Tracy Liu

Professor Grosskopf is the Head of the Economics Department and she has known Prof Liu,

an Associate Professor in School of Economics and Management (SEM) in 2011. As of 2015,

both researchers (together with Professor Ramon Cobo-Reyes and Dr. Graeme Pearce who

are both at Exeter) are collaborating on an experimental, multi-country study on the evolution

of social preferences. Other countries involved are Spain, Morocco and Senegal. Prof Liu

visited Exeter Business School in December 2016 to finalise the working paper draft and get

it ready for submission. Prof Liu also gave a research presentation, meet with other

researchers in the Department of Economics and the BID research cluster and interact with

graduate students. Prof Grosskopf visited Tsinghua SEM in October 2017.

Management and Economics

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32. Dr Boyi Li / Prof Ke Rong

Dr Boyi Li is a Lecturer in Management at Exeter Business School. Professor Ke Rong is in

the Institute of Economics, School of Social Science at Tsinghua University. Before joining

Tsinghua, he was a senior lecturer in the University of Exeter. His research interests focus on

Business/Innovation Ecosystem, Sharing Economy and Platform Economy and Big data

ecosystem. Dr Li and Prof Rong are working together in several topics, such as sharing

economy, business/innovation ecosystem in several technology industries. They have co-

authored some papers. Most recently, Prof Rong recruited a post-doc who obtained a PhD

degree from Exeter. Dr Li visited Tsinghua in November 2017 with support of an Exeter-

Tsinghua Fellowship.

Leadership Studies

33. Prof William Harvey / Prof Yang Baiyin

Prof William Harvey (Associate Dean Global in the University of Exeter Business School) and

Prof Yang Baiyin (Chair of the Department of Leadership and Organization Management) met

in July 2017. They tried to explore medium- and long-term research collaboration between the

Centre for Leadership Studies and the Department of Leadership and Organization

Management at Tsinghua University. Prof Harvey attended the leadership conference,

discussed the research within the Centre for Leadership Studies and explored publication and

grant collaborations as well as executive education opportunities.

Finance

34. Dr Lora Dimitrova/Prof Tian Xuan

Dr Dimitrova is a Senior Lecturer in Finance. She conducts research in corporate finance

with particular emphasis in entrepreneurial finance. She is currently examining acquisitions

of entrepreneurial start-up companies by corporate venture capital investors as a way to

access external innovation. Prof Tian is a Professor of Finance at the PBC School of

Finance. His research interests are Theoretical and empirical corporate finance and

entrepreneurial finance with primary focus on: Venture Capital, Corporate Innovation,

Mergers and Acquisitions, Labor, and Payout Policy. Dr Dimitrova visited the PBC School of

Finance and SEM in April and May 2018. She met a number of scholars from both Schools

and had opportunities to present her current research paper. She started a new project with

one of the faculty members from Tsinghua University. She also met and exchanged ideas

with some of the PhD students and post-doctoral researchers from both schools.

Education

35. Dr Li Li / Prof Meihua Liu, Prof Weimin Zhang

Dr Li Li is the Director of Med in TESOL programme at Exeter. Her research interests include

teacher cognition, thinking skills and creativity, social interaction and new technologies in

language learning. Prof Liu is in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature. The

link has been developed with the support of Exeter-Tsinghua fellowship. Prof Meihua Liu was

involved in a funded project by British Council. This project is on ‘metacognition and successful

L2 learning’.

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Modern Languages

36. Dr Yin (Sam) Zhiguang / Prof Wang Hui

Under the auspices of the China UK Humanities Alliance, Dr Yin (Sam) Zhiguang has been

awarded funding to host a symposium entitled Transnational Cultures: Cultural Exchanges in

the Global South and the Making of the Post-WWII World Order at the University of Exeter.

Prof Wang Hui, Prof of Intellectual History at Tsinghua, has accepted an invitation to offer

the keynote address at this event.

37. Prof Michelle Bolduc/ Prof Yu Shiyi

Prof Michelle Bolduc is a professor in Translation Studies at Exeter, and an internationally

recognized scholar of Translation Studies and Comparative Medieval Literature (French,

Occitan, and Italian). She has published extensively on medieval literature (translation) as

well as on modern rhetoric--the New Rhetoric Project--and its translation. Prof Yu Shiyi is a

professor at the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures at Tsinghua University.

His research focused on Modern and contemporary English poetry and poetics, sinology and

sinological translation, comparative literature. Prof Bolduc met Prof Yu in December 2019 at

Tsinghua University.

Architecture

38. Dr Zhuang Yue/Prof Qing Feng

Prof Qing Feng, at the School of Architecture at Tsinghua University, works on Modern

Architectural History and Theory, Contemporary Architectural Theory, History of Architectural

Theory, Architectural Criticism, etc. Dr Zhuang and Prof Qing have maintained a close

academic friendship for over 10 years. They are currently working on a joint project entitled

“'Sino-British interactions on contemporary architecture and urbanism'”, examining the

complex interrelations between Chinese and British architectural cultures within their social,

cultural, political and economic contexts. This joint project is part of a larger research project

on the interactions between Chinese and Western architectural and landscape cultures, a

social dialogue that can be extended back to the 17th-18th centuries.

Prof Qing visited Exeter in July/August 2014 to work on the joint project and to contribute to a

project workshop. Dr Zhuang was invited by Prof Qing to submit an article entitled 'Death and

regeneration of architectural language: Ruin and strata in John Soane's Crude Hints’ for

publication in Tsinghua’s leading journal World Architecture in 2015. Dr Zhuang and Prof Qing

are currently discussing a joint application to the Chinese government for a grant.

C. Student Mobility

Student Exchange

Tsinghua University and the University of Exeter signed an exchange agreement in February

2013 to exchange two students per year (full-time equivalent).

2018/19 2017/18 2016/17 2015/16 2014/15 2013/14

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Exeter to Tsinghua 3 3 1 2 1 2

Tsinghua to Exeter 6(3fte) 6(3fte) 2(1) 1(0.5) 2(1) 2(1)

The Business School of the University of Exeter and School of Economics and Management

at Tsinghua University signed a student agreement in May 2017 to exchange two

undergraduate students per year (full-time equivalent).

University of Exeter International Summer School

The University of Exeter reserves places on its annual International Summer School

programme for Tsinghua students and awards one full scholarship and seven partial

scholarships in 2015. More than 20 students from Tsinghua University have taken part in

Exeter’s International Summer School since its inception.

Tsinghua Experiencing China Summer Programme

Tsinghua run its first ‘Experiencing China Summer Program’ in August 2016. Exeter was

allocated two to three full scholarships each year. Nine students from Physics, Renewable

Energy, Flexible Combined Honors and law have attended the Programme in 2016, 2017 and

2018.

China-UK Higher Education Young Talent Alliance

Three Exeter students, all 1st and 2nd year Modern Language students studying Chinese attend

ed the Higher Education Youth Summit in Beijing April 2019. The students were fully funded

to participate in the student conference, which is only open to members of the China UK

Humanities Alliance. The theme of the conference is: Exploring Beauty in Humanities and

Innovation, Bridging the Communication between China and the UK.

Tsinghua University Summer Teaching Assistant

Between 2011 and 2014, a total of 71 Exeter students and 11 members of staff received

financial support from Exeter to participate in Tsinghua University’s English Summer Camp,

hosted by the Department of Foreign Language and Literatures.

After the final English Summer Camp in 2014, Exeter negotiated two teaching assistantships

for PhD students on the 2015 summer programme offered by Tsinghua’s Humanities Quality

Education Base.

PBC School of Finance Summer Programme

The Business School of the University of Exeter and PBC School of Finance at Tsinghua

University signed an agreement on student exchange on summer programmes and semester

base. 13 students have attended the PBC School of Finance summer programme at Tsinghua.

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D. Faculty exchange

Tsinghua-Exeter Fellowship Award

A faculty exchange agreement exists between the University of Exeter and Tsinghua

University which was first signed in May 2011 and renewed in 2014 and 2017. Both

universities fund up to three academic staff visits per institution per calendar year to engage

in research collaboration (the Exeter–Tsinghua Mobility Fellowship).

The following faculty members have visited the partner universities since 2012:

From the University of Exeter to Tsinghua University:

Academic at Exeter Counterpart at Tsinghua Visit year

Dr Anke Karl (Psychology) Dr Qian Jing (Psychology) 2013

Dr Li Li (Graduate School of Education)

Prof Zhang Weimin (Department of Foreign Languages and Literature)

2013

Prof Huw Williams (Psychology) Dr Qian Jing (Psychology) 2014

Dr Ron Yang (Biosciences) Dr Lu Zhi (Biosciences) 2014, 2015

Prof Christine Hauskeller (Philosophy)

Prof Xiao Wei (Philosophy) 2015

Dr Zhuang Yue (Modern Languages)

Dr Qing Feng (Architecture) 2015

Prof Stephen Sitch (Geography) Dr Sergey Venevsky (Earth System Centre)

2016

Dr Xiaohong Li (Renewable Energy)

Prof Baoguo Wang (Chemical Engineering)

2016

Prof Geyong Min (Computer Science)

Prof Hao Yin (Computer Science and Technology)

2017

Dr Boyi Li (Management) Prof Rong Ke (Economics) 2017

Dr Yulei Wu (Computer Science) Prof Hao Yin (Computer Science and Technology)

2017

Prof Dario Castiglione (Politics) Prof He Jianyu (Philosophy) 2018

Kyriaki Nousia (Law) Prof Chen Weizuo (Law) 2018

Kisty Wan (Living System) Pan Junmin (Life Sciences) 2018

From Tsinghua University to the University of Exeter:

Academic at Tsinghua Counterpart at Exeter Visit year

Prof Luo Xuanmin (Department of Foreign Languages and Literature)

Prof Regenia Gagnier (English) 2012

Dr Qian Jing (Psychology) Dr Anke Karl (Psychology) 2013

Dr Wei Jinquan (Materials) Prof Zhu Yanqiu (Materials) 2013

Dr Li Yuhong (Office of International Cooperation and Exchange)

Dr John Withrington (International Office)

2013

Dr Qing Feng (Architecture) Dr Zhuang Yue (Modern Languages)

2014

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Dr Lu Zhi (Biosciences) Dr Ron Yang (Biosciences) 2014 2015

Prof Xiao Wei (Philosophy) Prof Christine Hauskeller (Philosophy)

2015

Prof Tian Feng (Earth System Centre)

Prof Isabelle Baraffe (Astrophysics) 2015

Prof Gong Peng (Earth System Centre)

Prof Mike Depledge/Prof Neil Adger/Prof Stephen Sitch

2015

Dr Sergey Venevsky (Earth System Centre)

Prof Stephen Sitch (Geography) 2016

Prof Ou Xunmin (Renewable Energy)

Dr Yan Xiaoyu (Renewable Energy) 2017

Prof Wang Baoguo (Chemical Engineering)

Dr Li Xiaohong (Renewable Energy) 2017

Prof Zhu Ciyun (Law) Dr Joseph Lee (Law) 2018

Prof Sun Xuefeng (IR) Prof David Blagden (IR) 2019

Prof Xiao Wei (Philosophy) Prof Christine Hauskeller (Philosophy)

2019

Prof Yan Shaoze (Mechanical Engineering

Dr Liu Yang (Mechanical Engineering)

2019

Updated May 2021

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Annex 1. Collaboration between the University of Exeter and Tsinghua University 2015

– 2019