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A delegation from The University of Western Australia aims to strengthen links with leading Chinese universities during a visit to China next week.

The nine-member team led by Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Winthrop Professor Bill Louden will include:

• Nobel Laureate, Clinical Professor Barry Marshall
• ARC Federation Fellow, Professor David Pannell from UWA's Centre for Environment Economics and Policy
• Winthrop Professor George Stewart , Dean of Faculty of Life and Physical Sciences
• Adjunct Associate Professor Neil Coles , Director, State Centre of Excellence for Ecohydrology
• Soil Conservationist David Stanton
• Winthrop Professor Helen Wildy , Dean of the Faculty of Education
• Associate Professor Anas Ghadouani from the School of Environmental Systems Engineering
• Eva Chye , Principal Adviser, International Relations (North and Southeast Asia).

Professor Louden will join the Premier of Western Australia, the Hon. Colin Barnett, in meetings with Zhejiang Party Secretary, Zhao Hongzhu and Zhejiang Vice-Governor, Dr Gong Zheng on Monday to discuss university links and water resource management research.

On Tuesday, members of the party will meet with Sichuan University officials and prospective scholarship students.

A meeting with senior staff of the National Institute of Technology (NIT) in Beijing is scheduled.  NIT is one of five schools in China licensed by the Curriculum Council to offer the WA Certificate of Education (WACE).

On Thursday, meetings are scheduled with the Foreign Experts Bureau, the Ministry of Education and the Institute of Microbiology at the Chinese Academy of Science.

"The University of Western Australia is keen to take advantage of this opportunity to promote its international reputation for excellence in China," said Professor Louden.  "We are already aware of many valuable opportunities for cooperation between universities that will bring great benefits to both China and Western Australia and we are sure to discover more during this visit."

Professor Louden said Chinese universities had shown strong interest in water resource issues, education, biomedicine, bioenergy, environmental microbiology and animal biology.  The University of Western Australia was already encouraging students enrolled at UWA to consider completing appropriate units of their courses in China at Zhejiang University or Guizhou University.

Media references

Winthrop Professor Bill Louden (Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor)  (+61 8)  6488 2802
Janine MacDonald (UWA Public Affairs)  (+61 8)  6488 5563  /  (+61 4) 32 637 716