News archive 2007

Chinese award for College

29 Nov 2007, PR 192/07

Graduate students from King's and representatives from King's College London Students' Union (KCLSU) have returned from a visit to Nankai University, Tianjin, China, where they attended the 10th Challenge Cup competition. They were awarded a shield for their contribution to international co-operation which was presented at the closing ceremony at Tianjin Olympic Stadium.

A team of five students including KCLSU President, Adam Farley and Jo Williams, Vice-President (Representation) were accompanied by Professor Mainwood, Deputy Director of the Graduate School. The students presented four projects based on their PhD work and the work of KCLSU.

The 10th Challenge Cup National Competition of Chinese College Students' Extracurricular Academic and Scientific Achievements takes place every other year. This time there were more than 1,000 entries for the 2007 competition, from which about 300 were selected to be presented. Around 5,000 students attended the final round in Nankai.

The graduate students, all studying for their PhDs at King's, presented their work. Simon Gosling (Geography) presented his work on heat induced mortality in cities due to global warming; Maria-Cristina Ovejero-Boglione (Neuroscience Research) presented on brain-injury research and Qichang Ye (Management) on the Chinese banking system.

Adam Farley and Jo Williams gave a presentation on the forward-thinking governance structure changes recently implemented by KCLSU. This has been recognised by Third Sector, (the UK's leading publication for the not-for-profit sector) who awarded them ‘Most improved trustee board' category in their 2007 awards.

Adam Farley explains: ‘King's was one of less than ten teams from outside China which were judged separately from the main Challenge Cup. All the projects were presented in displays, which were visited by the judges who questioned the students. The international students also gave short oral presentations to the judges. Many thousands of the Chinese attendees also visited our display and talked to us.'

Media interviews

The King's delegation also gave interviews to local and national radio, television and newspapers.

Professor Mainwood comments: ‘Nankai University made us very welcome and were superb hosts. They arranged many events for us including a two-day sightseeing tour of Beijing at the end of the competition. We took part in all the activities set up for the Chinese students, including singing a song in Chinese in the final concert!'

King's and Nankai University are working to establish strong links between the two universities, leading to exchange and joint graduate programmes.

Caption: From left to right: Maria Cristina Ovejero-Boglione, Jo Williams, Simon Gosling, Professor Alison Mainwood and Adam Farley.



Notes to editors

Graduate School
The Graduate School was established in 2005 to enhance the experience of graduate students at King's and ensure that they fulfil their full potential. The School provides training so that graduates can complete excellent theses and assignments, as well as offering skills development opportunities.

KCLSU
KCLSU were awarded the Investors in People standard in 2005 and Fairtrade University status in 2006. In June of this year, they become only the second students' union in the country to achieve the Investing in Volunteers Quality Standard.

King's College London
King's College London is the fourth oldest university in England with more than 13,700 undergraduates and nearly 6,200 graduate students in nine schools of study based at five London campuses. It is a member of the Russell Group: a coalition of the UK's major research-based universities. The College has had 24 of its subject-areas awarded the highest rating of 5* and 5 for research quality, demonstrating excellence at an international level, and it has recently received an excellent result in its audit by the Quality Assurance Agency.

King's has a particularly distinguished reputation in the humanities, law, international relations, medicine, nursing and the sciences, and has played major role in many of the advances that have shaped modern life, such as the discovery of the structure of DNA. It is the largest centre for the education of health care professionals in Europe and is home to five Medical Research Council Centres – more than any other university.

King's is in the top group of UK universities for research earnings, with income from grants and contracts of more than £114 million, and has anannual income of more than £369 million.

 

Figures released in October 2007 by the Higher Education Funding Council for England show that King's College London is the most successful university in the country in terms of PhD completion rates (home and EU).



Further information
Melanie Gardner, Public Relations Department, King's College London, Tel: 020 7848 3073 Email: melanie.gardner@kcl.ac.uk




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This information is provided by the Public Relations Department
Tel: 020-7848 3202  Fax: 020-7848 3739  Email: pr@kcl.ac.uk