MESSAGE FROM CO-CHAIRS

Co-Chair: Dr. Murali Chandrashekaran

Co-Chair: Hon. Jack Austin

In Place and Promise: the UBC Plan, the University of British Columbia sets the goal of increasing the capacity of its students, faculty, staff, and alumni to engage internationally. Within this objective, UBC identified China as one of its top priority countries in its international plan.

UBC’s relation with China dates back to the university’s founding period. Since then, UBC has been Canada’s leading institute in studying China. It has also participated in China’s historical transformation and played a role in Canada-China relation. The people-to-people connections it builds brings benefits to both Canada and China. Today, UBC has nearly 100 active collaboration agreements with Chinese universities and over 3,000 of international students from China.

China’s rapid growth today has spillover effects worldwide. As Canada’s resource on China, UBC has broad interests in expanding its engagement with China. UBC established the China Council in 2013 as a coordinating and advisory body to strategically utilize our expertise for the deepening of the ties that the university, the province of British Columbia and Canada is building with China. The Council works closely with all the stakeholders, including our university partners domestic and abroad, the community, and government agencies.

We wish that China Council can bring UBC and Canada more opportunities to understand and experience China than ever before.