After visiting seven cities across four countries in three months, putting on 140 events, and engaging with around 1,500 people, the Global Festival of Learning series has come to a close!
Our last Festival was held in one of the fastest growing economy in the world – China – where I was joined by 45 BU staff and students in taking this week-long celebration of learning, research and practice to the cities of Zhuhai, Guangzhou and Beijing.
Our first stop was with our partner, Beijing Normal University (BNUZ) in the thriving city of Zhuhai, South-East China. We had some fantastic keynote speakers lined up, including senior leaders from both the UK and China regional governments. I was delighted that Bill Cotton, Executive Director for Environment and Economy at Bournemouth Borough Council, joined us for the Festival and discussed his priorities for promoting regional innovation links between China and the UK.
Our second day of the Festival was held in the city of Guangzhou – with a population of 14 million people it is considered by some as the ‘gateway’ to South China. Here, we hosted a UK-China global talent forum which provided a cross-disciplinary and cross-sectoral discussion of current approaches to developing future-ready graduates for China and for the global workforce. We also had the pleasure of hearing from Jamie Sergeant, Director of Crowd – a Dorset-based but truly global digital agency – on the skills and attributes that the workforce of the future should be able to develop and demonstrate.
Next up was the final city on the Festival tour – Beijing. Here we caught up with BU alumni and met again with some of the football coaches that studied with us at BU last summer as part of the British Council China-UK Football Study Programme. With our partner, the Capital University of Physical Education and Sports (CUPES) we hosted a range of interactive sessions and BU staff and their Chinese counterparts discussed strategic collaboration between the UK and China football industries in developing future football talent. On a fun note – colleagues took part in a game of football on one afternoon – not a bad effort in 38 degrees heat!
On the final day of the Festival, we were delighted to be hosted by Tsinghua University – rated as one of the top 50 universities in the world (THE World University Rankings, 2016-17) – where we had an exciting line-up of keynote speakers including Professor Genhong Kong, Executive President at Outlook China. We were also honoured to be joined by Susie Rodgers MBE, Paralympic Gold Medallist, who delivered a fantastic talk on female participation in sport.
Throughout the week, we were also joined by 14 BU students who had been on the Destination China Programme 2017. They put on a wonderful exhibition of their research on the theme of Global Talent in China. To find out more about their experience see our Summer School Storify here. You can also find out more about the full Festival in China in our Storify here.
Whilst the Global Festival of Learning series for 2017 ends, we are now looking forward to sharing the outcomes and impact of this incredible global expedition during the final day of the Festival of Learning in Bournemouth on the 12th July. For more information, see my monthly update here.
So, thank you to all our staff, students and partners who made GFOL China such a success. I now look forward to FOL UK and #GlobalFoL18!