- Monash University VP Prof. Sharon Pickering joined top leaders at the 8th Australia-China CEO Roundtable in Beijing, aligning with PM Albanese’s China visit.
- She emphasized universities’ pivotal role in strengthening Australia-China ties through education, research, and innovation.
- Monash proposed an Australia-China Centre of Excellence in Decarbonisation and highlighted long-standing partnerships, including with Southeast University in Suzhou.
Monash University Vice-President and President, Professor Sharon Pickering, has been among business and government chiefs in Beijing to attend the 8th Australia-China CEO Roundtable, coinciding with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's official China visit. The business leaders forum, organized by the Business Council of Australia and China Development Bank, gathers CEOs from major businesses from both nations to promote economic co-operation as well as mutual interests.
Professor Pickering underscored the significant contribution universities make towards maintaining robust bilateral relationships through education, research and innovation.
"Our involvement and active contribution to one of Australia's most meaningful diplomatic initiatives in China is appreciation for the significant contribution universities make towards building connections between our two countries promoting education and research, cultivating collaboration and providing innovation for our mutual prosperity", Professor Pickering said.
Monash’s long-standing engagement with China was a key focus of the Vice-Chancellor’s remarks, highlighting the depth and scale of partnerships, student mobility and alumni networks.
More than 21,000 Monash alumni are currently based in China, with more than 20,000 Chinese students enrolled at Monash campuses globally. In the past decade, nearly 3,000 Monash Australia students have travelled to China for transformative learning and cultural experiences.
"Universities are very human ventures. The people-to-people relationships and connections Monash has built with China over many decades are key to enhancing our understanding of each other, providing two-way benefits tangible and intangible", she said.
The Vice-Chancellor pinpointed three key opportunity areas to further enhance bilateral relations: increased two-way student mobility, advancing education in government-to-government discussions, and the creation of an Australia-China Industrial Centre of Excellence in Decarbonisation.
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The Centre of Excellence in Decarbonisation will make our world-leading abilities in capturing and recycling carbon dioxide emissions from steel, developing the promise of hydrogen for the future of making steel, using the most sophisticated experimental equipment and mathematical modelling, taking our sustainable reaction technologies and accelerating to prototype size quickly, all with the final aim of creating new steel technologies that replaces coal", Professor Pickering said. "A lot of this in collaboration with Chinese universities which we have been working with for many years".
The Monash leadership of collaborative education and research programs was a unifying theme, with Professor Pickering citing the university's long history association with Southeast University in Suzhou. It opened in 2012 as the first Chinese-foreign graduate school to be based in China. There have been over 2,600 graduates since opening, with 1,600 students currently studying.
Monash also has the Monash Suzhou Research Institute in the Suzhou Industrial Park, where researchers work together with industry and other Chinese universities on common issues like sustainability, energy, medical technology and resource recovery.
Monash's global network of campuses, including campuses in Malaysia, Indonesia and Prato in Italy, and a major research academy in India, provides tremendous reach and scale for education and research collaboration.
"As an internationally true university, Monash has unparalleled reach and capacity. In partnership with China, we're excited to continue to build on these solid foundations", Professor Pickering said.
