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St Edmund Hall and Sichuan University in Chengdu, Sichuan, China jointly announced that they had signed a Memorandum of Understanding for further fostering academic links between the two institutions.

The links envisaged include visiting fellowship, visiting studentship, short courses, and distinguished speaker lectureship. These links were formalised at a ceremony in Oxford on Wednesday afternoon, at which the Memorandum was signed by Professor Keith Gull, Principal of St Edmund Hall, and Professor Xie Heping, President of Sichuan University. 

“Both our institutions look forward to many years of future collaboration, and the establishment of ever closer ties,” said Professors Gull and Xie in a joint statement. Professor Gull has been invited by Professor Xie to pay a return visit to Sichuan University next month.

The signing ceremony was attended by Fellows from St Edmund Hall and academics from Sichuan University who are currently attending a two-week Economics and Public Policy Course at the Hall.

Principal Prof. Keith Gull had recently visited Peking University and Tsinghua University in Beijing, Fudan University in Shanghai, and Sichuan University in Chengdu. At Sichuan University, Prof. Gull also delivered a speech on ‘St Edmund Hall, Oxford and China: History, Present and Future’. During his speech, Principal Gull reviewed the historical origin of Oxford and China. He said the first Chinese book in the library of Oxford shown in 1604, the first Chinese scholar visited Oxford in 1687, the first Chinese language teacher was employed by Oxford in 1869, and the first Chinese student went to Oxford to study law in 1927; and currently in Oxford, there are many students from China, especially Sichuan University.

As the founding members of the International Consortium of China Studies (ICCS), the OXCEP hosted its second global conference at St Edmund Hall in the University of Oxford on 6 – 7 August 2015, for institutional members to exchange their research works in the field of China studies. Prof. John Knight, Academic Director of the OXCEP, chaired the Conference. While the above field is multidisciplinary in nature, ICCS focuses on social sciences including economics and international relations.

Professor Heping Xie has been awarded a St Edmund Fellowship, in recognition of his leadership of academic collaborations between St Edmund Hall and Sichuan University, in Chengdu, China. He has contributed widely to the ongoing collaboration which has brought academic benefits to faculty members and students at both institutions.

Since 2014, St Edmund Hall and Sichuan University have forged a successful partnership – including the implementation of visiting student and visiting fellow programmes; a series of distinguished speaker lectures; and summer courses focusing on Academic Medicine and Economics & Public Policy. These activities have facilitated academic contacts between the two institutions and stimulated collaborative research.

Its previous academic courses have focused on economics and public policy, and have successfully trained a total of 227 highly-qualified university academics and professionals from both China and the USA over the past four years.

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The two-week academic medicine course started in 2016, and expand in its third year to accommodate a group of 39 senior clinicians and medical researchers, including 36 from West China Medical School and Hospitals of Sichuan University and 3 from Xiangya Medical School and Hospitals of Central South University. It comprised 26 lecture sessions, 5 academic visits and 2 laboratory observations, as well as various cultural and social activities. So far a total of 118 Chinese medical faculty members have been trained in the Course.

The Hall hosted a two-week OXCEP summer course in Academic Medicine from 7 to 21 July 2019. The course is organised by Professor Trisha Greenhalgh OBE of the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, and codirected by Professor Trisha Greenhalgh and Professor Robert Wilkins, Senior Tutor at the Hall. It draws on the research activity and world-leading expertise of the NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre.

The over-arching theme of the course is translational medicine: linking basic science research with clinical applications and patient benefits. Topics will include inter alia cancer immunotherapy, gene medicine, stem cell research, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, novel drug development, artificial intelligence in medicine, molecular robotics and advances in neuroscience and neuroimaging.

The OXCEP hand-picked a range of the most famous Baijiu for tasting at St Edmund Hall. Baijiu, also called sorghum wine, is China's traditional distilled liquor made from grain, with a high alcohol content between 40%-60%.

* Maotai, is a world-renowned brand that has been produced in the town of Maotai in Guizhou province since Qing Dynasty. It is a popular drink at state functions in China. Henry Kissinger of the United States once told Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping that, ‘if we drink enough Maotai, we can solve any problem’!

* Wuliangye, also known as ‘five-grain drink’, is produced in Yibin city of Sichuan province. It is another popular brand of Baijiu, with unique aroma and taste.

* Luzhou Laojiao, which has a history of more than 400 years, is famous for being brewed in an environment with unique clay to infuse the spirit with a shape aroma. It is clear liquid with a high alcohol-by-volume at over 50%.

* Yanghe Daqu, also has a long history of more than 400 years. It is pure and transparent liquid with a fragrant scent and refreshing flavour, benefited from its use of local spring water. 

* Jiannanchun, regarded as an intangible cultural heritage of China, is one of the most recognised brands and one of the oldest distilled spirits in China. It is produced in the city of Mianzhu in Sichuan province, and is famous for its strong fragrance, pure flavor and long-lasting refreshing taste.

* Langjiu, also from Sichuan Province, is famous for its sauce flavor and pure taste.

* The last but not the least, Kinmen Kaoliang, also known as ‘platinum dragon’, is perfectly transparent with a delicate aroma, smooth taste, and subtle sweet aftertaste. 

The Oxford Chinese Economy Programme (OXCEP) has announced its collaboration with Guangdong Provincial People’s Hospital, regarding the Academic Medicine Course starting 2025, for a group of highly qualified academics, clinicians, and researchers to attend the Programme annually.

The annual two-week Programme comprises lectures and discussions on frontire topics and advanced issues in precision medicine, plus related lab observations and academic visits.

The Oxford Chinese Economy Programme (OXCEP) has announced its collaboration with National Research Institutes in Taiwan (NHRI), regarding the Academic Medicine Course starting 2021, for a group of highly qualified academics, clinicians, and researchers to attend the Programme annually.

The annual two-week Programme comprises lectures and discussions on frontier topics and advanced issues in precision medicine, plus related lab observations and academic visits. 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the OXCEP embarked on a mission to help secure vaccine equity for people in Asia Pacific region. It has helped Taiwan secure its first ten million doses of the desperately needed Covid-19 vaccine at cost from the Oxford/AstraZeneca partnership. The OXCEP is committed to building a better world post pandemic, through better education, innovation, transformation, and collaboration across the globe.

The Hall hosted a two-week OXCEP summer course in Academic Medicine from 3 to 16 July 2022. The course is organised by Professor Christopher Conlon of the Infectious Diseases Unit, and codirected by Professor Robert Wilkins, Senior Tutor at the Hall. 

Topics include inter alia towards personalised medicine using neuroimaging and neuromodulation; new horizons in cellular therapy, Autoantibody mediated diseases of the nervous system; how is Oxford changing the way we discover new medicines for patients; the PRINCIPLE and PANORAMIC adaptive platform trials of treatments for COVID-19 in the community; how genomics has provided insights into the immune response in severe infection due to COVID-19 and more generally the sepsis syndrome and the Road to a Vaccine for COVID-19.