The University of Melbourne and Tsinghua University have signed an agreement to develop a cloud-based ‘virtual campus’ that will enable joint course delivery and research collaboration.
The ‘C-Campus’ is “an advanced model for real-time interactive e-teaching, e-learning, e-seminars, and other web-based activities, which will be of great benefit to international co-operation in a more convenient and effective way,” Professor Zhang Yi, Vice Provost of Tsinghua, said.
“To respond to the strong trend of online education, C-Campus is a new attempt to make use of virtual technologies and share elite courses”
Developers say the virtual campus’s first initial has multiple connotations “ranging from cloud learning to co-operation, cyber innovation and cross discipline” and will deliver classes for students at both institutions, beginning with advanced courses on separation science and technology in chemical engineering.
It will also be a platform for research collaboration across disciplines including chemical engineering and medicine, with more disciplines being added progressively.
Both universities have committed to establishing seed funds to stimulate further joint research and innovation in online learning.
“To respond to the strong trend of online education, C-Campus is a new attempt to make use of virtual technologies and share elite courses between Tsinghua and its prestigious partners in the world,” Tsinghua University President Chen Jining said. “We are pleased to make it happen with Melbourne.”
The University of Melbourne’s Vice-Chancellor Professor Glyn Davis called the C-Campus agreement an “exciting next step” in the 25-year relationship between the two universities, which includes research collaborations, student exchange programmes and summer schools in Melbourne for Tsinghua undergraduates.
This is Tsinghua’s second C-Campus initiative, following a similar agreement with Sweden’s KTH Royal Institute of Technology in 2012.
