I. University of Sheffield Hallam, UK 

Sheffield Hallam University, founded in 1843, has enjoyed a reputation for nearly a century since the industrial revolution. It has now developed into the sixth largest comprehensive university in the UK. It is on the first list of British universities accredited by the Ministry of Education of China according to the Sino-British Academic Degree Mutual Recognition Agreement. Sheffield Hallam University boasts a high reputation in Britain as a modern university with positive innovation and diversification. The university comprises of four major academic departments: the Faculty of Science, Technology and Arts, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Faculty of Health and Wellbeing, and Sheffield Business School. There are more than 30 research centers offering over 700 courses with more than 3,000 faculty and staff members and 28,000 students, among which 3,000 overseas students come from over 80 countries and regions around the world. The overseas students account for 12% of the total number of students, 1% of which are staying in China. The university has two main campuses: City Campus in the city center and Collegiate Campus, about 20 minutes travel from the city center.

In recent years, this university has been accessed as "excellent" by the quality Assurance Agency (QAA) of the British Higher Education Quality Assurance Commission (HEQA) and in 2006, it ranked first in the UK. In 2002, he won the first place in the Access Elite Award. This national prize is awarded to British universities that provide the best general education in the undergraduate stage through a comprehensive investigation and evaluation of factors such as teaching, research, student retention and enrollment of students from different backgrounds. The Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) is an authoritative assessment of the scientific research level of various disciplines in British institutions of higher education, once every five years. In the RAE evaluation in 2001, many research centers of this university obtained the highest five-star rating of RAE, and the total score was tied for the first place in modern universities. University career development projects and lifelong education projects have a good reputation, and the graduates have excellent employment records.

The Faculty of Health and Wellbeing is one of the four major departments in the university. It is the largest training base for registered nursing professionals with more than 600 teachers and nearly 8000 students. Its’ Nursing program ranks the seventh largest among universities in UK. It features the followings: first, it associates closely with the market and provides the students with high-quality pre-registration training program in response to the social needs; second, it develops an interdisciplinary training framework, in which nurses will be trained together with social workers, physiotherapists, functional therapists, medical diagnostic radiologists, paramedics, biomedical experts and sports experts.

II. Cooperation and Exchange between the Two Parties 

Since 2012, the two sides have formally established friendly relationship for cooperation and exchanges.

In May 2012, a delegation from Sheffield Hallam University visited our college. In a friendly atmosphere, the two sides had a thorough exchange and discussion on teacher training for nursing and rehabilitation specialties, students distribution, curriculum setting, practice teaching (in-class practice, special training, clinical practice, etc.), specialty construction, graduation internship and employment. Both expressed their good intentions and expected to cooperate as soon as possible in the exchange of teachers and students.

In October 2012, Vice President Wu Lirong, who is in charge of foreign affairs and teaching, paid a return visit to Sheffield Hallam University. She mainly visited nursing and midwifery specialty and rehabilitation specialty, communicated with teachers and students from the Department of Nursing, visited the comprehensive simulation laboratories of nursing and rehabilitation, observed nursing experiment courses. She was deeply impressed by the participation of computer technicians in teaching, the development of experimental teaching software and the adoption of situational teaching methods. At the same time, the two sides reached a consensus on future teacher-student exchanges, teacher training, curriculum reform and scientific research.

In March 2013, Sheffield Hallam University again sent a delegation to our college. After friendly negotiations, the two sides reached consensus on teacher training, student exchange projects and nursing, rehabilitation and biotechnology professional upgrading projects. A "memorandum of cooperation" was signed, which opened up a good channel for the follow-up international cooperation and exchanges between the two sides. 

In October 2013, a delegation of our college went to Sheffield Hallam University for academic exchange. It mainly inspected the current situation of nursing, rehabilitation and medical imaging vocational education in Britain, participated in the practical training of allied medical specialties such as nursing, rehabilitation, medical imaging etc. and teaching informationization in universities, explored effective ways to strengthen cooperation between the two sides in order to promote the education reform in our college. This visit achieved good results.

Since January 2014, our college and Sheffield Hallam University have begun to engage in curriculum transition of nursing and rehabilitation. Preliminary consultations have been conducted on personnel training, curriculum setting and linking, teaching materials introduction and development, and mutual recognition of credits. In March 2015, our college was officially approved to join Jiangsu Overseas Undergraduate Training Project Alliance and successfully set up the "3+1"joint-training project, which links the domestic and international nursing specialty and rehabilitation specialty at the undergraduate level, explores a new mode of medical personnel training. This program starts enrollment in September. 

The project was approved to join Jiangsu Province Overseas Undergraduate Training Project Alliance in March 2015. It formally enrolled students in September 2015, and currently about 160 students are involved in this project. 

In March 2018, the project received on-site evaluation from the British side. It was unanimously praised by the panel in terms of policy support, staff construction, professional construction, teaching management and personnel training, and passed the evaluation smoothly. Up to July 2019, about 30 students majoring in nursing and rehabilitation had gone to Britain to study further.