Project details for National Research University Moscow Power Engineering Institute’s Chinese campus come two weeks after President Xi Jinping’s trip to Russia.
The Chinese campus of Russia’s MPEI is expected to complete construction by June 2025. Photo: CABR
One ofRussia’s largest technical universities will start building a campus later this year in the southern Chinese island of Hainan – home to the country’s fourth space station.
The new National Research University Moscow Power Engineering Institute (MPEI) campus will specialise in “aviation and aerospace teaching and research”, according to Chinese digital daily The Paper.
Work on the main building will begin in September, the report said, as project details were firmed up following Chinese President Xi Jinping’strip to Russia.
Construction of the 55-hectare (137-acre) campus in coastal Wenchang county – which hosts theWenchang Satellite Launch Centre– is expected to be complete by June 2025, with undergraduate and postgraduate classes offered from that September.
This comes two weeks after Xi wrapped up a three-day state visit to Moscow, where he and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putinvowed to deepentheir “comprehensive strategic partnership”, in a joint statement that also pledged to deepen science, technology and educational ties.
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Details of the plannedMPEI campusfollow close on the heels of an unprecedented agreement between the Hainan provincial government and Germany’s Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences (FH Bielefeld).
The FH Bielefeld campus in Hainan’s Yangpu economic development zone would be the first foreign-run college to operate independently on Chinese soil, according to an official statement on thedeal signedin December.
FH Bielefeld, which focuses on business and engineering, would work with the province to aid “the development of advanced manufacturing, hi-tech industries, and industry specialisation”, the statement said.
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Allowing foreign educational institutes to operate without a local joint venture is seen as a rare move in China. ButHainanis an exception, as a free-trade port and special economic zone that offers preferential tax policies.
Beijing also aims to make the popular resort island a hub for renowned international schools by 2025.
The province will focus on building an “international education and innovation hub”, Cao Xiankun, the Communist Party secretary for the provincial education department, told the Hainan Daily last month.
Apart from allowing independently run schools, the department is also co-running programmes with six domestic and international institutions, like that between the University of Electric Science and Technology of China and the University of Glasgow.
Cao said creating a “studying abroad experience” in Hainan would encourage the return of overseas “expenditure on education” and also attract international students from Southeast Asia.
