New global ventures

This week the University will launch two exciting global ventures that will help to secure our long-term future in the top 100 universities internationally and signal our commitment to being an outstanding global university.

Later this morning, we will be announcing the opening of our first international branch campus, which will be located in Dubai.  Our campus will open in the autumn of 2017 with the first students starting in September 2018 studying a range of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, including Economics, Teacher Education, Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering and Business.  Our ambition over the next ten years is to grow the University of Birmingham Dubai to around 4,500 students studying on a full range of programmes; and to establish an active programme of research.

Tomorrow, we will launch a teaching collaboration with the University of Jinan in Guangzhou.  The Birmingham-Jinan Joint Institute will initially deliver dual-degree programmes in Mathematics with the first students being taught in September 2017. Plans to establish a much wider engagement between our two universities across both education and research are also being developed.

Already recognised in the top 1% of universities across the globe, these developments mark the latest phase in the University of Birmingham’s global expansion and build on our extensive international research collaborations and well-established international teaching activities in Singapore and China.  They enable us to provide students from across the globe with the opportunity to benefit from our high-quality education and develop skills that are highly sought by international graduate employers, either by studying full-time overseas or as part of our popular study abroad scheme. 

Bold steps like these are more important than ever if we are to remain steadfast in our mission to be an outward facing, international community of research, scholarship, and learning—especially in an increasingly challenging geo-political landscape.  These new global ventures will make our University even more successful, and create exciting opportunities for our students and staff.