2025 UK-Guangdong Education Exchange and Cooperation Forum: Education for the Future
The 2025 UK-Guangdong Education Exchange and Cooperation Forum was held on September 26 at the Foshan Campus of South China Normal University. Co-hosted by the Department of Education of Guangdong Province and the British Consulate-General in Guangzhou, the forum brought together nearly 150 representatives from 55 institutions across China and the UK, covering basic education, vocational education, and higher education.
The forum, centered on “Education for the Future”, served as a platform for in-depth dialogues on UK-Guangdong collaborative innovation. The forum’s agenda featured cultural exchanges, thematic sharing sessions within basic and higher education, a roundtable discussion on industry-education integration, and site visits to local institutions.
Xu Shimin, Deputy Director General of Department of Education of Guangdong Province, highlighted the department’s active response to nation’s call for enhancing China-Europe cultural and people-to-people exchanges. He noted that several education cooperation memorandums signed with the British Consulate-General in Guangzhou, have yielded fruitful results in cooperative education programs, faculty-student exchanges, and joint scientific research. “Guangdong is committed to advancing high-level opening-up in education,” Xu stated, “from accelerating the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area International Education Demonstration Zone to fostering robust and diverse university partnerships with the UK.”
Nick Duvivier, Acting Consul-General of the British Consulate-General in Guangzhou, emphasized the long-standing cooperation in education between the UK and Guangdong. “Increasingly frequent interactions in recent years have elevated our partnership to a new level,” he said. “Following the success of the 2024 UK-Guangdong Higher Education Partnership Forum, this year’s delegation of over 30 UK institutions is well-positioned to explore broader cooperation, creating fresh opportunities for academic exchanges and resource sharing.”
Wang Chunchao, Vice President of South China Normal University, outlined the university’s strong foundation for international cooperation, citing its stable partnerships with 16 UK institutions and the strategic role of Foshan Campus as an open gateway for global engagement. “Hosting the forum here today underscores our commitment to supporting the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area’s development as an International Education Demonstration Zone and to enhancing our role in global education,” he added.
Thematic sessions showcased best practices in cross-cultural understanding and educational innovation from leading institutions such as North Halifax Grammar School, Oxford Tutorial College, and Guangya High School. Representatives from the University of Birmingham, Guangdong AIB Polytechnic, and SCNU shared insights on joint programs, curriculum development, and talent cultivation.
A roundtable discussion with experts from Edinburgh College, UK Accreditation Service, Guangzhou Vocational and Technical University, and Guangdong Teachers College of Foreign Language and Arts focused on industry-education integration. They agreed that deepening university-enterprise and cross-regional collaboration is essential for nurturing skilled talent and supporting industrial upgrading.
The forum included site visits to Shenzhen Polytechnic University, Shenzhen University of Advanced Science, Great Bay University, and Shunde Polytechnic University, paving the way for future cooperation and charting a course for mutual success in UK-Guangdong education ties.
