Committed to opening-up, the Ocean University of China has been expanding international cooperation based on its strengths and resources.

The university has established partnerships with more than 300 universities and research institutes in some 50 countries and regions.

It co-founded the International Alliance of Marine-related Institutions and the China-Norway Marine University Consortium Alliance and has joined numerous educational cooperative organizations.

Focusing on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations region, OUC set up the Sino-Thai Academic Center on Marine and Fishery Sciences in collaboration with Kasetsart University in 2017.

Following that, the UMT-OUC Joint Academic Centre for Marine Studies was founded in 2019 by OUC and the University Malaysia Terengganu.

Additionally, it is home to an array of international cooperation platforms, which play a vital role in academic research and exchanges. They are the Center for Sino-German Cooperation in Marine Sciences, the Sino-UK Joint Research Center, the Sino-Australian Joint Research Center for Coastal Zone, the OUC-UoP Center for Blue Governance, the Sino-Australian Research Consortium for Coastal Management and the Secretariat for International Cooperation in Multidisciplinary Polar Research.

Talent cultivation

To foster students with an international perspective, OUC continues to improve its education systems and engage in international education programs.

The Asia Fisheries and Marine Environment Leaders Program, jointly launched by OUC, Nagasaki University in Japan, Pukyong National University in the Republic of Korea and the University Malaysia Terengganu, offers students three to 12-month student exchange programs and a dual degree program.

It is designed to nurture more professionals in the fishery resources and marine environment sector and strengthen cooperation among students and faculty members of the three nations, said representatives from the OUC.

The program was inducted into the Collective Action of Mobility Program of University Students in Asia in 2021, which was initiated at the fifth China-Japan-ROK Trilateral Summit in 2012.

OUC has also established Haide College in partnership with the University of Adelaide in Australia, while developing student exchange programs with the University of Western Brittany in France and the University of Bonn in Germany.

Since 2022, the university has been holding the "international study week" annually, inviting renowned scholars from universities like the University of California and the University of London to offer courses. More than 2,700 students have taken part in the study so far.

A specialized center for courses on international marine affairs was established in 2017, with the aim of developing more talents in global ocean governance. The center has so far organized 123 lectures on international marine affairs, attracting more than 20,000 teachers and students, according to OUC.

Academic cooperation

During the past decade, OUC has undertaken some 80 major international cooperative projects.

Of them, the Northwestern Pacific Ocean Circulation and Climate Experiment and the Air-Sea Interaction in the Kuroshio Extension and its Climate Impact are among the first international research projects led by Chinese scientists in the oceanographic sector.

They have established China's leading position in international marine scientific research on the western Pacific, said researchers from OUC.

Another remarkable international project is the Second Collaborative Study of the Kuroshio and its Adjacent Regions, or CSK-2, which involves research institutes of eight countries including OUC, the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, and the Institute of Oceanography in Vietnam.

In June 2022, CSK-2 was approved as a United Nations-led program in the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030).

OUC has also participated in a number of major marine scientific research initiatives including the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme and the World Climate Research Programme.

In 2023, the WCRP set up its International CLIVAR Project Office in OUC. The CLIVAR, or Climate and Ocean: Variability, Predictability and Change, is one of the six core projects of the WCRP. Its mission is to understand the dynamics, interaction and predictability of the climate system with emphasis on ocean-atmosphere interactions.