High-level collaborations with China unis for Melbourne

C-Campus partnership for education in the cloud

A cloud-based ‘virtual’ campus will be the focus of a new agreement recently signed by two of Australia and China’s leading universities. 

The ‘C-Campus’ agreement between the University of Melbourne and Tsinghua University will deliver joint classes and ‘e-subjects’ for students at both institutions, starting with advanced courses on separation science and technology in chemical engineering.

It will also function as a platform for research collaboration across disciplines including chemical engineering and medicine, with more disciplines being added progressively.

Both universities have committed to establish seed funds to stimulate further joint research and innovation in online learning.

The agreement expands on a 25-year history of collaboration between the two universities and a 2013 agreement that provides for joint PhD degrees, the first time Tsinghua has partnered with an Australian university on a university-wide PhD agreement.

The University of Melbourne’s Vice-Chancellor Professor Glyn Davis says the C-Campus will provide new opportunities for both universities.

“This agreement will act as a platform to support Tsinghua-Melbourne co-operation across research, education and innovation, and support the implementation of new web-based learning tools.

“We’ve been very pleased with the existing work we have done with Tsinghua University, such as that led by Professor Peter Scales and the Australia-China Joint Research Centre on River Basin Management. This new agreement is an exciting next step.” 

This current agreement comes just months after the launch of the Melbourne Asia Research Network.

It is the second C-Campus established by Tsinghua, following an agreement with Sweden’s Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in 2012. 

“To respond to the strong trend of online education, C-Campus is a new attempt to make use of virtual technologies and share the elite courses between Tsinghua and its prestigious partners in the world. We are pleased to make it happen with Melbourne,” says Professor Chen Jining, President of Tsinghua University.

The ‘C’ in C-Campus has multiple connotations, from cloud learning to co-operation, cyber innovation to cross discipline. “It is an advanced model for real-time interactive e-teaching, e-learning, e-seminars, and other web-based activities, which will be of great benefit to international co-operation in a more convenient and effective way,” said Professor Zhang Yi, Vice Provost of Tsinghua.

“Melbourne and Tsinghua have a longstanding strategic relationship which includes research collaborations in multiple disciplines, student exchange programs and summer schools in Melbourne for outstanding Tsinghua undergraduates,” says Professor Davis.

“This is an outstanding opportunity to further expand our relationship with one of China’s most renowned universities.”

Collaboration on mental health

Collaborative research on mental health issues, from schizophrenia to disaster mental health, will be the focus of a new University of Melbourne and Peking University centre launched in Beijing recently.

The University of Melbourne-Peking University Centre for Psychiatric Research and Training will bring together world experts from both institutions to study all aspects of mental health, from biological to epidemiological and psycho-social.

It will also provide co-supervision of PhD students and support post-doctoral exchanges. 

The new centre is the culmination of a 10-year partnership between the two universities on issues of mental health, led by Melbourne’s Department of Psychiatry, Asialink, Asia Australia Mental Health and the Peking University Institute of Mental Health.

Mental disorders make up approximately 13 per cent of the world’s disease burden and are one of the largest contributors to all diseases. It is estimated that 173 million Chinese people suffer from a mental disorder, with 92 per cent having never received any type of treatment before 2004.

Over the past 10 years, the two universities have collaborated closely, particularly in the national roll-out of modern community mental health services across China through the so-called ‘686 Project’. 

“This project is one of the largest mental health reform programs globally, delivering community psychiatric services covering a population of over 900 million people,” says Professor Ian Everall, Head of the Department of Psychiatry at Melbourne.

Professor Everall says the centre is an exciting step forward in the collaboration between the two institutions.

“The partnership has grown from clinical services to knowledge transfer and now, in this new venture, collaborative research. Our aim over the next 10 years is to have 50 PhD students jointly trained between Melbourne and Peking.

“Our students will receive a greater understanding of the key mental health issues in Asia and conversely, students from Peking will have full access to the range of psychiatric research expertise Melbourne has to offer.”

Professor Yu Xin, Executive Director of the new Centre, says the partnership will be of great benefit to both Australia and China.

“Peking University Institute of Mental Health and the University of Melbourne’s Department of Psychiatry have worked together for the past 10 years to support the successful national mental health policy, service delivery, as well as a community-based psychosis management program in China, 

“Building on this achievement, the establishment of the new Centre will respond to the increasing demand for psychiatry research and training in China and globally,” Professor Yu says. “The Centre will enhance academic standing and research outcomes for both universities, and significantly increase the research and training capacity for PhD students from Australia and China.”

Professor Everall says they are keen to expand this work into research. 

“We already have one PhD student coming to Melbourne who will be working on the genomics of schizophrenia, trying to identify the genetic markers to help the diagnosis of the disease.

“We also have a post-doctorate fellow arriving this month who is reviewing the data of 1000 children born to Chinese mothers with schizophrenia.”