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Stephen Morgan, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State and Minister for Early Education at the UK Department for Education，Nick Thomas, Director of China at the British Council and Minister of Culture and Education, and Dominic McAllister, Consul General at the British Consulate-General Wuhan, paid a visit to Hubei University and attended the Sino-UK Higher Education Roundtable on May 16. Xie Hongxing, Secretary of the Party Committee of Hubei University, Liu Jianping, Deputy Secretary of the CPC Hubei University Committee and President of Hubei University, and Liu Zhihong, Member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Hubei University Committee and Vice President of Hubei University, were present at relevant activities.

At the welcome ceremony, Xie Hongxing extended a warm welcome to Minister Morgan and his delegation on their visit to Hubei University. He said that Hubei University, as a key comprehensive university jointly administered by Hubei Provincial Government and China's Ministry of Education, a Provincially and Ministerially Co-constructed Key University, has established cooperation with more than 190 universities and colleges around the world over the past 94 years. In particular, “Manchester Metropolitan Joint Institute, Hubei University” co-established with Manchester Metropolitan University has become a model for UK-China education collaboration. In the future, Hubei University will further expand talent cultivation and scientific research cooperation with universities and colleges in the UK, continue to support UK-China educational cooperation, and promote the joint operations among more universities and colleges, contributing educational strength to building a community with a shared future for mankind.

At the UK-China Higher Education Roundtable, representatives from the UK Department for Education, the Department for Business and Trade, the British Embassy and Consulates in China, the British Council, as well as universities including University of Wales Trinity Saint David, Durham University, Newcastle University, University of Exeter, Manchester Metropolitan University, Wuhan University, Central China Normal University, and Hubei University, engaged in in-depth discussions.

The dialogue focused on key topics such as leveraging regional educational resources for mutual benefit, fostering innovative models of international education cooperation, enhancing mechanisms for collaborative research, and expanding channels for academic exchange.

Liu Jianping said that the internationalization of higher education is an inevitable trend of the era, and expressed his hope that this meeting would serve as an opportunity to deepen the pragmatic cooperation between Chinese and British universities and colleges in the fields of digital education, scientific research collaboration and joint talent cultivation, thereby contributing to global innovation in education.

Morgan noted that, as an important driver of UK-China educational cooperation, Manchester Metropolitan University Joint College has trained nearly 1,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students through its joint education programs, making it a model of bilateral educational collaboration. He emphasized that transnational education is a key pathway for global education innovation, and that high-quality joint education programs between Chinese and British universities and colleges, along with the sharing of high-quality educational resources not only strengthens the educational exchanges and cooperation between China and the UK, but also lays a talent foundation to cope with global challenges such as climate change. He expressed his hope to further deepen the cooperation between Chinese and British universities and colleges in the areas of joint scientific research, faculty and student exchanges, and green technology development, so as to build a more inclusive and resilient education ecosystem together.

During the visit, the delegation visited Manchester Metropolitan Joint Institute, Hubei University to learn about the teaching environment and joint cultivation outcomes outcomes of joint talent cultivation, and interacted with teachers and students. The delegation also immersed themselves in traditional Chinese culture, such as Chinese tea art and Chinese calligraphy, and experienced appreciated the unique charm of exchanges and cultural integration between China and the UK cultural exchange between China and the UK.