Recently, the Supervision Information Platform for Chinese-Foreign Cooperation in Running Schools of the Ministry of Education (MOE) announced the list of Chinese-foreign cooperatively-run educational institutions and programmes approved by the MOE in the second half of 2025. The CJLU-ARU Joint Institute, China Jiliang University (CJLU) — a Chinese-foreign cooperatively-run educational institution without independent legal person status jointly established by CJLU and Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) of the UK — has been officially approved (Approval No.: MOE33UKA02DNR20252570N). This is CJLU’s first Chinese-foreign cooperatively-run educational institution to receive national approval, following the approval of its fourth Chinese-foreign cooperatively-run educational programme in the first half of 2025, marking a historic breakthrough in the university’s international education development.

With a history dating back to 1858 and located in Cambridge, UK, ARU is a renowned public comprehensive university in England. It operates five campuses in Cambridge, Chelmsford, Writtle, Peterborough and London, and comprises four faculties: the Faculty of Science and Engineering, the Faculty of Business and Law, the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Social Care, and the Faculty of Arts, Humanities, Education and Social Sciences. It offers over 170 undergraduate programmes, more than 100 postgraduate taught programmes, and over 40 research programmes and doctoral programmes. As a modern university featuring distinctive strengths, teaching excellence and cutting-edge research, ARU ranks 301–350 in the 2023 Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings. It was named University of the Year in the 2023 THE Awards and awarded Gold in the 2023 UK Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF). In the 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF) assessment, 9 of its subject areas were rated as having world-leading research quality. In 2024, it received the Outstanding Entrepreneurial University Award from the National Centre for Entrepreneurship in Education (NCEE), becoming the first higher education institution in the UK to receive this honour.

Cooperation between CJLU and ARU began in 2014. The undergraduate educational programme in Financial Engineering operated under the framework of Chinese-Foreign Cooperation in Running Schools by the two sides has enrolled students for 11 consecutive years since September 2015, with a total of nearly 1,100 students enrolled and seven cohorts of graduates produced. In recent years, there have been frequent interactions between the leadership of the two universities. In June 2024, Xu Jiangrong, Party Secretary of China Jiliang University and then Vice Chancellor, led a delegation to visit ARU to discuss the establishment of the Chinese-foreign cooperatively-run educational institution. In April 2025, Mark Norrish, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Anglia Ruskin University, paid a special visit to CJLU to discuss the detailed implementation plan for the institute and inspect teaching and campus premises on site. After more than 10 rounds of consultations to finalise core documents including the institute’s constitution, cooperation agreement, programme and curriculum setup, and talent cultivation plans, the application was submitted to the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Education in October, successfully completed the provincial review and defence hearing, underwent expert review by the Ministry of Education in November, and received official approval in December.

The CJLU-ARU Joint Institute will precisely align with the national intelligent manufacturing strategy and the development needs of Zhejiang’s "415X" advanced manufacturing clusters. It will offer three undergraduate degree education programmes, namely Artificial Intelligence, Mechatronics and Robotics Engineering and Mechanical Engineering (with an annual intake of 100 students per programme), as well as the Artificial Intelligence Master’s Program (foreign master’s degree education, with an annual intake of 40 students). The institute will advance the cultivation of interdisciplinary emerging engineering talents through the integration of mechanical engineering, control science and artificial intelligence, support the development of new quality productive forces and the building of a manufacturing powerhouse, and strive to become a demonstration base for China-UK international cooperation in engineering education.The establishment of the Joint Institute is an important achievement and milestone in the internationalisation of both universities. It will provide high-quality international education resources and exchange platforms for faculty and students of both sides, and play a positive role in advancing relevant discipline development, expanding talent cultivation pathways, and improving education quality and enhancing international influence. The approval of the Joint Institute will further optimise the structure of CJLU’s international education provision, deepen international cooperation in teaching and research, and boost the high-quality development of the university.