On November 16th, 2018, Prof. Rob Ewing in Proteomics and Systems Biology, Director of the Graduate School of Biological Sciences of University of Southampton, visited Basic School of Medicine, Tongji Medical College, HUST and discussed the opportunities to start the international exchange program for graduate research and study between two universities. Director DONG Weiguo of Graduate School and Director CHEN Gong of Foreign Affairs Division, Prof. YU Hongjun of Biochemistry Department, Teacher LUO Xianwen of Anatomy Department, Teacher ZHANG Yingjie and Teacher HAN Aihua met with the guests.

Director Dong extended warm welcome to Prof. Ewing. He introduced that HUST as one of the top universities of China is supported by the national ‘Double First-Class’initiative and HUST places great emphasis on international exchange program for the education of graduate students. “Tongji Medical College annually enrolls about 1500 students and 10% of them participate in program for international study. We are making efforts to boost this to 20% within three years”, said Director Dong. “Tongji Medical College has developed exchange program with University of Manchester and University of Birmingham and this will build basis for future collaboration with University of Southampton”. Prof. Ewing expressed that after this visit, he will push forward the collaboration program between HUST and University of Southampton.  

Director Dong and Prof. Ewing also exchanged their ideas about expectations of this exchange program, including the number of students, participating majors, lab and scholarship. Both sides reached preliminary agreements at the beginning of exchange program. Prof. Yu and Teacher Luo discussed with Prof. Ewing on several scientific topics including Omics approaches, Cell signaling and tumorigenesis.

After the meeting, Prof. Ewing visited the history museum of Tongji Medical College and visited the lab of Prof. SUN Shuguo of Anatomy Department. Prof. Ewing expressed that the lab is well equipped to international level. Exchange students from University of Southampton will have good opportunities to learn and do research here.

As the last part of his visit, Prof. Ewing gave a lecture about student recruitment and answered many question from students, such as requirement and procedures of application, scholarship and living cost for study in UK, etc.

The University of Southampton ranks among world’s top 100 universities and is a founding member of the Russell Group of British universities. The university developed from Hartley Institution established in 1862. It ranks the 11th for research power and 8th for research intensity in the Research Excellence Framework of UK universities. It has 7 campuses, 17000 undergraduate and 7000 postgraduate students, including more than 5000 international students from more than 100 different countries.