BIC signs landmark contract with Chinese Education Group
Bristol International College partners with UniEducation to offer International Foundation Programmes online in Zhejiang Province, China
Studying a university degree abroad is a dream for any student. Every year, hundreds of thousands of Chinese students leave their cities in pursuit of this dream and the UK is one of the destinations that welcomes many of them. With this reality in mind but in the context of the current COVID-affected global situation with many universities announcing that they will be offering online tuition for the forseeable future, Bristol International College, a University of London Recognised Teaching Centre, decided in April to take its International Foundation Programme online and therefore guarantee that students can take and complete this high school level pre-university pathway over an 8-month period of intensive study from August 2020 to April 2021 in order to be ready to start their undergraduate studies on campus in September 2021.
“We've identified huge potential in the Chinese market and a genuine desire among Chinese students to study at university in the UK and we are here with an online version of the highly regarded IFP to help them make that a reality”, commented John Milne, CEO and Co-founder of Bristol International College.
Milne and fellow Co-founder Tony Evans, have been in negotiations with a leading Chinese education provider, Zhejiang Unieducation Education Technology Co., Ltd. for several weeks and today those discussions culminated in the signing of a biilateral agreement between the College and Unieducation.
Attending today’s virtual signing ceremony was Alex Boughton, Head of Business Development for University of London Worldwide who was delighted to support BIC’s endeavours in China, “The University of London welcomes Bristol International College’s collaboration with Zhejiang Unieducation Education Technology Co., Ltd as we look forward to the successful launch of the online International Foundation Programme in August 2020”.
Unieducation was founded in 2011 with the mission of "sharing global high-quality educational resources" and has always been committed to promoting in-depth and multi-directional exchanges to promote Chinese and British education and culture. UniEdu as it is known locally, has provided professional services to more than 7000 Chinese students and teachers and has signed more than 30 sister school agreements with educational institutions in the UK. CEO of Unieducation, Yuanyuan Wu said, “We are very happy and honoured to partner with Bristol International College and to enable students in Zhejiang province to study for the prestigious University of London International Foundation Certificate. We also hope to send students to study at BIC in Bristol as soon as it is safe to do so.”
In response, BIC’s Director of Sales & Marketing, Tony Evans commented, “We are over the moon to be launching these projects, especially in the current climate, and we couldn’t wish for a better partner in Unieducation. We hope that this will be the first of many such initiatives”.