Established 1995 Website www.nordiccentre.org | Location Shanghai, China Founded 1995 | |
Profiles | ||
The Nordic Centre in Shanghai at Fudan University (复旦大学北欧中心) was officially opened on November 8, 1995 by the Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland and Professor Yang Fujia, President of Fudan University. The Nordic Centre was then a joint project between Fudan University and 14 Nordic universities. Today the Centre has 26 member universities representing the five Nordic countries and one associate member.
Contents
- Vision
- History
- Structure
- Main Areas of Focus
- Academic Activities
- China
- Denmark
- Finland
- Iceland
- Norway
- Sweden
- Associate Member
- References
The Nordic Centre is the only joint Nordic academic institution set up in China.
Vision
The vision of the Nordic Centre is to promote closer ties and understanding between the Nordic countries and China by means of jointly undertaken research projects and educational activities.
History
The Nordic Centre was started as a joint project between Fudan University and 14 universities from Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden in 1995.
The Nordic Centre has been located at Fudan University since its opening and Fudan university has been the main Chinese partner in most projects, courses or other activities. The number of member universities in the Nordic countries has increased from 14 initial universities of the most comprehensive and most internationally focused universities in the countries.
In 2010, the Nordic Centre moved into a new building on Handan Campus. It shares the building with the Foreign Affairs Office of Fudan University.
Structure
The Centre has a Board, a Council and a secretariat/chairmanship. The council consists of representatives from all member universities and is the highest decision-making body of the Centre. The Board represents one member from each member country and the Chairman of the Board is from the University where the secretariat is situated. Currently the University of Aalborg holds the chairmanship after 6 years with University of Tampere as the chair. During the first few years, the Norwegian School of Management, BI, held the chairmanship, followed by Lund University before University of Tampere.
Main Areas of Focus
Academic Activities
Today the Nordic Centre provides courses at BA, MA and PhD level, both for Chinese and Nordic students. The Centre regularly arranges workshops and seminars which are of interest for both Chinese and Nordic scholars and also tries to have regular activities where the Nordic business communities are involved either as participants or as contributors.
To encourage more research collaboration, a Nordic Centre Research Platform was established in 2007. The Nordic Centre Research Platform aims to encourage and support research collaboration between Nordic and Chinese scholars which is of mutual interest for their home institutions.
30 part-time research fellows from various departments of Fudan University regularly advise the Executive Director and the Nordic Centre Programme Manager, and also play an active role in the functions of the Centre.