Calendar 2012–13

16 Part 1 • General Information Part 1 Liaison with the World of Learning The University has since its inception in 1963 striven to cross-fertilize Chinese and Western academic and cultural traditions. To this end, the University has over the years established and maintained partnerships with a large number of institutions around the world, including universities, research institutes, centres of learning, governmental agencies and regional and international associations of higher learning. The University is a member of a number of associations and networks which serves as a platform for forming partnerships, exchanging ideas and knowledge for teaching and research, and promoting cultural exchange. These include the Asia-Pacific Association for International Education, the Association of University Presidents of China, the Association of Commonwealth Universities, and the Association of Southeast Asian Institutions of Higher Learning. ACommittee on Academic Links formulates policies for academic linkages to ensure the University’s academic priorities are supported through the linkage partnerships and programmes. Academic linkages and programmes at the University are managed by two offices: the Office of Academic Links and the Office of Academic Links (China). The Office of Academic Links is responsible for the coordination of student exchange programmes and for the University’s academic linkages on the international front. The Office of Academic Links (China) is responsible for academic linkages on the mainland and in Taiwan. n n Student Exchanges The University’s first student exchange programme was launched in 1965 with the University of California system. Since then student exchange programmes have been established with over 200 institutions. Besides the University of California system, exchange partners include the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Pennsylvania in the USA, University of British Columbia and the University of Toronto in Canada, University College London and University of Sheffield in the UK, the University of Tokyo and Waseda University in Japan, the Australian National University and University of Sydney in Australia, and Tsinghua University and Peking University in China. There are also exchange agreements with universities in Austria, Belgium, Chile, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Korea, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, and Thailand. During the academic year 2011–12 some 870 CUHK students participated in student exchange programmes for one term or one academic year. In addition to this, around 3,000 students undertook short-term study, research or internship opportunities outside Hong Kong. CUHK welcomes many international students on exchange each year. The campus is internationalized as local and international students study, live and engage in activities together. Over 1,000 international students came to study at CUHK during 2011–12.