Peng Yuyuan, president of Wuhan Textile University (WTU), hosted a meeting in Birmingham Institute of Fashion & Creative Art (BIFCA) with Alison Honour, vice-chancellor of Birmingham City University (BCU). David Boydon, the acting deputy dean of Birmingham Institute of Fashion & Creative Art (BIFCA), as well as executives and working staff of International Office and BIFCA, also attended the meeting.

At the meeting, both sides exchanged their views concerning such issues as the construction of teaching staff and the institute, administrative management, joint-cultivation program of master’s degree and doctor’s degree between two universities, as well as prospect of mutual collaboration. Peng Yuyuan, president of WTU, stated that the nearly past three years had witnessed the progress of BIFCA by integrating modules of design majors in BCU, based on WTU’s platforms of general education curriculum and designing practice. It has been developed into a talent cultivation system for artistic design and creativity by integrating the merits of both universities.

 Ms. Honour fully applauded with the achievements by BIFCA and expressed BCU’s concern on collaborations between two parties and the intention of furthering efforts on BIFCA in such fields as employment of professional teachers, optimization of administrative staffs, as well as construction of teaching facilities. Secondly, as for joint-cultivation program of master’s degree and doctor’s degree between two parties, it is also imperative for both sides to collaboratively elaborate on specific details so as to accelerate the implementation of this project. Thirdly, she also expounded BCU’s intention of supporting BIFCA to establish majors in jewelry design for sake of furthering academic exchanges and interactions.

Peng consented to her statement and stressed on implementing the joint-cultivation program of master’s degree and doctor’s degree with BCU by consolidating current educational achievements, that the step-by-step integrating cultivation mode of arts disciplines throughout bachelor’s degree, master’s degree to doctor’s degree would be conducive for BIFCA to upgrade its level in academic management and operation. Moreover, he also expected that closer interactions between WTU and BCU for sake of academic exchanges and visiting teachers would be of great help to strengthen internationalization of the teaching staff. In the long run, it is imperative for BIFCA to establish a stable team of elite teaching staff and intensify the further training of young teachers, which aims at cultivating a number of academic pioneers with great influence both at home and abroad for the goal of forming and gathering a group of academic innovation teams of international level. Finally, with the introduction of competitive majors from BCU, it would be helpful for WTU to boost the establishment of “first-class disciplines” as well as enriching BIFCA’s educational connotations by employing its brand positioning policy.