The UK’s understanding of China will be greatly enhanced thanks to a £5 million award to a group of universities. Funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), the British Interuniversity China Centre (BICC) will become the premier teaching and research facility on China in the UK.

The cross-institutional Centre is a collaboration between the Centre for East Asian Studies (CEAS) at Bristol and China specialists at Oxford and Manchester. It will focus on all aspects of China, encompassing its language, politics, history and culture, international relations, development, health, environment and social studies. The funding is initially for five years and will support new academic posts at the three partner institutions and a significant number of doctoral studentships.

The Centre will enable students from the partner institutions to study at CEAS and be linked to other relevant departments across the Arts, Social Sciences and Law Faculties at Bristol.   It will also provide study and career opportunities for a new cadre of China experts, ranging from mid-career academics and professionals to postgraduate and undergraduate students.

Professor Robert Bickers, Associate Director of CEAS and Bristol coordinator of the new venture said:  “The Centre will work on a range of cutting-edge research projects on strategic topics while developing a comprehensive network of teaching programmes on modern and classical Chinese language and China studies.”

The new funding support is a powerful endorsement of Bristol`s decision to invest substantial university resources in the Centre for East Asian Studies. Professor Eric Thomas, Bristol University’s Vice Chancellor said: “This national recognition marks an important step forward for our work in this crucial field.”

BICC was one of five new collaborative centres to have won Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) funding as part of a joint £25 million Language Based Area Studies initiative.