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News — The University of Pretoria (UP) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with China’s Central South University (CSU), formalising an existing collaboration between the two institutions. This agreement aims to strengthen cooperation in areas such as staff and student exchanges, joint education programmes, scientific research and other mutual interests.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, UP’s Deputy Vice-Principal: Academic and Acting Vice-Chancellor and Principal, Professor Loretta Feris, said, “I am particularly pleased to highlight the successful collaboration between the University’s Department of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering (EECE) and CSU’s School of Automation.

“We hope that, through this collaboration and planned future collaborations, we can expand on research, faculty and student exchanges, as well as technological advancements that will benefit both countries.”

CSU was established through the merger of the former Hunan Medical University, Changsha Railway University, and Central South University of Technology on 29 April 2000. The university’s programmes are ranked among the top 1% in the world in disciplines such as Computer Science, Mathematics, and Physics.

In 2019, a delegation from CSU, led by Prof Chunhua Yang, Dean of CSU’s School of Automation, visited UP. Staff members from UP’s EECE Department and CSU’s School of Automation published four papers together, including one of the most highly cited papers in the Journal of Process Control.

“The reason we chose to partner with UP is because in the past we have nurtured and maintained great collaboration and partnership,” said Professor Yi Hong, Secretary of CSU’s Communist Party of China(CPC) Committee. “We are also well aware that UP is a world-renowned university both in Africa, as well as internationally.

“For our students’ joint cultivation, we can start from exchanging programmes from postgraduate level, where students will work in laboratories between the different institutions.”

Prof Feris and Prof Yi celebrated that this collaboration has already produced high-impact joint publications, saying that this is a clear sign of synergy between the institutions’ researchers. The two institutions also hope to foster collaboration between UP’s Faculty of Health Sciences and CSU’s School of Nursing (CSU).

Prof Sunil Maharaj, Vice-Principal: Research, Innovation and Postgraduate Education; Prof Wynand Steyn, Dean: Faculty of Engineering, Built Environment and Information Technology (EBIT); Prof James Maina, Deputy Dean: Research and Postgraduate Studies, EBIT Faculty; Mr Danny Bokaba, Acting Deputy Director, Department of Internationalisation and Strategic Partnerships; and Ms June-Rose Ngcobo, Manager: International Partnerships and Projects were among the UP representatives present.