As a result of a long standing collaboration on doctoral training and research in lifelong learning, the Rectors of East China Normal University (ECNU) and RUC signed an agreement to establish a joint Centre for Research in Work and Learning in November 2010.  

From RUC’s side, Rector Ib Poulsen has in principle confirmed the intent to join such a collaboration, and Henning Salling Olesen has participated in discussions with ECNU about the mission, academic program and organisation of such a centre. At the present state, a document forming the basis for decisions in ECNU and discussions with us exists only in Chinese. The international offices of both universities are preparing the documents for discussion between the two Rectors.

History   

Since 2001, there has been a collaboration on doctoral training and research between the Graduate School of Lifelong Learning at RUC and the Institute of Vocational and Adult Education (IVAE) at ECNU.  Henning Salling Olesen has since 2002 been advisory professor for the doctoral training at ECNU. Many Chinese Ph.D. students and young researchers have studied in short or long periods of time at the Graduate School of Lifelong learning, RUC.  

A number of scholars from RUC and ECNU have joined in research seminars and other forms of staff exchange, lately facilitated by a grant from the Danish Ministry of Science, for a network which also includes Zhejiang University. An experiment is running with project organized studies in the master’s programmes at IVAE, inspired by RUC and supported by PAES.  

The collaboration, which had been institutionalized by agreements between PAES at RUC and School of Education at ECNU, extended to a broader agreement between the Rectors, also including the envisioning of collaboration in environmental sciences, as elements in RUC’s overall strategy for developing collaboration with Chinese universities.

The reasons for the original investment in this collaboration were, beside concrete academic contacts, the fact that ECNU together with Beijing Normal University is a leading research institution on the national level in the field of education, and particularly in adult- and vocational education probably the best one in the country, with a good outreach in business and work life. IVAE is by now supported by the ”985”-program, which is the Chinese national excellence-program.

A strategic research goal   

The invitation is a recognition of the leading academic position of RUC in Europe in this research area. Adult and vocational education and training, lifelong learning and human resource developments are prioritized areas in China. Historically, the academic inspiration has been coming from North America, typically Chinese scholars have acquired their Ph.D. in USA or Canada, and the traditional adult education domain has been supplemented with a HR-research in North American key. Recently the interest in European contacts, both in academia and among business leaders, HR-people and government officials, has been increasingly strong. The establishment of the centre can be seen as a sign of this development. The centre will seek to be a hub for absorbing international knowledge and networks, organizing the interests of Chinese researchers in the field as well as knowledge dissemination and policy consultancy. The invitation to RUC to a partnership offers RUC a key role in connecting Chinese and Danish/Nordic research and learning policy development. By now an efficient communication and a great many personal and academic relations have been built up, and it has been possible to run a number of activities at a relatively low level of specific funding, and with a high degree of synergy.  

The general formula for the research of the centre is an interdisciplinary research with an international vision and a local or native sensitivity, building on adult education, vocational education, HRD, talents study, psychology (Talents is a somewhat all-embracing term covering work competences as well as general personal development, and with a view to the combat of inequalities). Methodology development and the encounter between the Chinese and international research are highly appreciated. Both parties have worked out priorities for research collaboration and listed researchers who can be organizing them on. They include:

• professions and professional talent development 
• gender and female talent development 
• young talent and youth employment and career guidance 
• HRD policy and institutional support in a learning society  

Future plan   

The next step in elaborating the academic agenda took place at a research seminar in June 2011 at RUC with great success. The meeting is like previous ones funded by a special grant from the Ministry of Science (FI), and it will be followed by a similar meeting in Shanghai later this year, in conjunction with the 7th Researching Work and Learning conference, which this year will be hosted by ECNU.  

President Yu of ECNU will visit RUC later this year and discuss the framework of the centre with the Rectorate of RUC.  

RUC is, with other Danish Universities, partner in the Sino Danish Centre for Education and Research (SDC), in collaboration with Chinese Academy of Science. RUC has announced its interest in coordinating an activity theme under SDC, in the area of Learning research and innovative education. There are obvious overlaps in the academic and organisational basis for these engagements, and the way is being paved to secure synergy between the two activities.