China, Australia to expand exchanges of students, academics

By Joseph Xiaojun Zhang. Aligned with what Australian policymakers are now calling the Asian Century, China has become Australia's chief partner in cooperation among students and academics in what is called "knowledge partnership."
A report released last week by Universities Australia, an umbrella organization of Australian universities, said that the country has 39 universities with formal agreements with Chinese partner institutions.
The number of university agreements between the two countries has leapt almost 75 percent in less than 10 ten years, rising from 514 to 885.
Universities Australia chief executive Belinda Robinson told Xinhua that China has become Australia's principal partner in the search for shared knowledge among the peoples of both countries.
"The value of these partnerships to Australia both in terms of productivity, trade, foreign relations and cultural understanding is enormous. What we are talking about here is not selling finite resources, but generating infinite knowledge," Robinson said. Read more...