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A high-powered delegation of UWA Deans and Executives took a whirlwind trip to China recently, resulting in fruitful agreements on innovative double-badged degrees.

Iain Watt , Pro Vice-Chancellor (International), said students from specific degree courses at selected universities in China, would be articulating into UWA to complete their degrees. The majority of them will arrive here from 2017 onwards.

"This program  is designed to provide additional support and help to the students, which is very different from them coming to UWA through an agent, when they receive less support," Mr Watt said.

"UWA staff will be teaching into the programs in China and the students will be studying English.

"The students will study for four or five years with two or three years in China and the final two at UWA."

Arrangements have been agreed with Southwest University regarding an automotive engineering degree at Southwest that will feed into an electrical and electronic engineering degree, the Masters of Professional Engineering at UWA (three years in China and two at UWA); a Bachelor of Commerce in accounting and finance (two and two); a Bachelor of Economics; Science degrees in biology, biochemistry and microbiology; and an Arts degree in media and journalism.

The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Paul Johnson , talked to the first cohort of students who started the collaborative degrees in September.  This first group will arrive at UWA in 2017.

The Dean of Science, Professor Tony O'Donnell and the Dean of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics, Professor John Dell , joined Mr Watt at the Chinese Institute of Agricultural Sciences, the Chinese Academy of Science s and the National Astronomical Observatory of China to discuss a different type of co-operation.

"Up to 50 research students from the Observatory will be coming to UWA over the next five years, to work at ICRAR and contribute to the SKA project," Mr Watt said.

Meanwhile, Professor Johnson, Dean of Arts Professor Krishna Sen and Dean of Law Professor Erika Techera , signed agreements in Arts and Law with the Beijing Language and Culture University and Renmin University of China .

Professor Sen, Mr Watt and the Dean of the Business School, Professor Phil Dolan, also talked to their counterparts at Guangdong University of Finance and Economics.

"Just over a hundred students have started this year and will articulate into our Bachelor of Commerce and the Masters of International Journalism in 2016," Mr Watt said.

The group attended alumni gatherings in Shanghai and Hong Kong and took part in a Shanghai Showcase, similar to UWA's Singapore Open Day.

Then Mr Watt went on to another four or five universities to discuss similar articulation agreements and processes.

While in China, the UWA delegation celebrated the 10 ^th anniversary of the University's partnership with Zhejiang University , which includes co-operative agreements with six faculties, the Confucius Institute and three joint degree programs.