Trinity College Dublin’s School of Engineering has signed a partnership agreement between the top engineering schools in Europe and China.
The new agreement in engineering education will provide opportunities in undergraduate and graduate education, as well as research. It will also promote student exchange between Irish and Chinese students, as well as collaboration with Chinese industry.
“TCD Engineering is currently the only Irish university in the top 100 engineering schools in the world,” the head of School of Engineering, Prof of Civil Engineering, Margaret O’Mahony, said.
“This achievement has opened many doors for us and one of them is this significant collaboration between TCD Engineering and the top Engineering Schools in Europe and China. It offers important opportunities in Europe and China for our students.”
Trinity is the only Irish university which signed the agreement as part of a European consortium, consisting of 12 leading European universities. The consortium signed the agreement with 18 Chinese universities.
In welcoming the agreement, the CEO of Boeing Shanghai, in China, Bernard Hensey and chairman of Trinity’s School of Engineering’s Advisory Board emphasised its international benefits.
“As the leading engineering school in Ireland, Trinity is building an international network of contacts with other universities and multinational companies.
“This agreement with the Chinese universities continues this process and allows Trinity Engineering to engage with today’s dynamic world market. I welcome this agreement and in the current economic environment I would encourage Trinity Engineering to expand its international connections and make sure its teaching and research are relevant for world markets,” Hensey said.
The signing of the partnership agreement in engineering education between the top engineering schools in Europe and in China is timely for TCD Engineering because of the opportunities for collaboration and student exchange it offers.
TCD Engineering is currently extending its four-year programme to a five-year master-level course in line with the professional engineering requirements of Engineers Ireland. The partnership will provide significant opportunities to students for placements across Europe and China during their studies.
Key areas for co-operation will be:
· Climate change, environmental protection and sustainable urban development
· New energy sources
· Civil engineering and green architecture
· Transport and clean-energy vehicles
· Electrical and information engineering
· Mechanical engineering
· Materials science and engineering
· Life science and bioengineering
· Management science and engineering
· Creative design
“This new development will enhance the TCD Engineering programme significantly, it will build confidence and give a broader and deeper engineering education experience to Trinity’s students and enable the development of creative engineering programmes,” said O’Mahony.
The agreement, titled A Memorandum of Understanding for Cooperation in Engineering between the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China, and the CLUSTER (Consortium Linking Universities of Science and Technology for Education and Research), was signed by the following universities:
CLUSTER universities:
Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Aalto University, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Eindhoven University of Technology, K.U. Leuven – Université catholique de Louvain, Trinity College Dublin, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya Barcelona Tech, Instituto Superior Técnico Lisabon, Grenoble Institute of Technology, Politecnico di Torino and Esade Business School, Spain.
Chinese universities:
Tongji University, Harbin Institute of Technology, Tianjin University, Tsinghua University, Xi’an Jiao Tong University, Dalian University of Technology, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Southeast University, Zhejiang University, Shanghai Jiaotong University, South China University of Science and Technology, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing Jiaotong University, China University of Petroleum, China University of Mining and Technology, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, East China University of Science and Technology and Sichuan University.
