Plymouth University Peninsula School of Dentistry has signed Memoranda of Understanding with three institutes in China, which will see closer working between all the organisations in teaching, research and future cooperation.
The agreements have been signed with the School of Stomatology at Capital Medical University (whose directors visited Plymouth last year); the School of Stomatology, Shandong University, and; the Second Hospital (School of Clinical Medicine), also Shandong University.
All four organisations now have agreement to work together in a number of areas, including: cooperation and coordination in research and teaching, including future developments in these areas; exploring the opportunity of offer Plymouth University’s dental programmes of study to students in China; broadening the experience and increasing cultural understanding for each organisation’s personnel and students, and; building on this to understand and explore future areas of cooperation.
The three Chinese schools were all drawn to working with Plymouth University Peninsula School of Dentistry because of its current high ranking, reputation and impressive research portfolio among UK dental schools. Moves are already afoot for joint research grant applications and visits from Chinese researchers to Plymouth and one postdoctoral researcher has already worked in Plymouth for a year with a Chinese Scholarship Council fellowship. Such activity will shortly be extended to the area of education.
Capital Medical University will immediately send one master’s degree student to Plymouth to be part of a year-long joint research project and it is already collaborating with Plymouth on a research project.
From 2017 there will be a special three-year fellowship towards any researchers from Capital Medical University with MD or PhD degrees to perform postdoctoral research in Plymouth.
A group from the School of Stomatology at Shandong University are applying for high level grants with Plymouth and joint research has also been presented for publication. The School is considering sending a researcher to Plymouth for a short-term research project.
Plymouth has two ongoing joint papers with the Second Hospital (School of Clinical Medicine) at Shandong University and the School is encouraging two students to apply to the Chinese Scholarship Council so they can carry out their PhD studies at Plymouth University Peninsula School of Dentistry.
The agreements have been brokered by internationally-recognised researcher Dr Bing Hu, Associate Professor in Oral and Dental Health Research at Plymouth University Peninsula School of Dentistry. He said:
“Following the visit last year from the directors of the School of Stomatology at Capital Medical University, there was an enthusiasm from both organisations to develop closer ties and a lasting relationship. I am delighted that this has developed into working relationships with three research and teaching-rich organisations in China with the potential for world-class research collaborations and innovations in teaching.”
Professor Christopher Tredwin, Head of Plymouth University Peninsula School of Dentistry, commented:
“This is an immensely exciting collaboration. Having established ourselves as leaders on the UK dental stage we can now work towards creating meaningful international impact.”
Professor Robert Sneyd, Dean of Plymouth University Peninsula Schools of Medicine and Dentistry, added:
“My congratulations go to Bing Hu and my colleagues in dentistry who have worked so hard to broker these agreements. Ours is one of the newer cohort of dental schools and for us to achieve this level of international engagement so early in our history is something to be truly proud of.”