The Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV) officially inaugurated this Saturday the Beihang Valencia Polytechnic Institute (BVPI), its first permanent academic center in China, located at the International Campus of Hangzhou and jointly developed with Beihang University.
It is the first center of a Spanish university in China officially recognized by the Spanish Ministry responsible for universities and allows students to take official undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral programs jointly developed by UPV and Beihang University. Classes started on September 7.
The BVPI has begun its academic activity with nearly 400 students, who are enrolled in four undergraduate degrees and six master’s programs, all taught entirely in English. Doctoral programs planned in the project will soon be added to this offer. Among the students who have started this new stage are nearly 80 students from Valencia and the UPV environment, along with Chinese students and others from different origins.
The inauguration ceremony included the participation of the rector of the Polytechnic University of Valencia, José E. Capilla; the rector of Beihang University, Wang Yunpeng; the Minister of Education, Culture and Universities, Carmen Ortí; and the Consul General of Spain in Shanghai, Francisco de Asís Benítez, as well as representatives of the authorities of Zhejiang and Hangzhou and the Generalitat Valenciana, among others, according to the academic institution in a statement.
During his speech, Capilla highlighted the “historic character” of the day for the Polytechnic University of Valencia. “Today is a historic day for our university,” said the rector, who recalled that UPV has a solid international trajectory and has maintained a close academic and scientific relationship with China for decades.
In this regard, Capilla explained that UPV professors and researchers have participated for years in joint projects with Chinese institutions, while the Valencian university has been receiving students from China for more than thirty years and its students have been undertaking academic stays at universities in the Asian country for more than two decades.
The rector also dedicated part of his speech to these first students, reminding them that they are part of a particularly significant moment for the institution.
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The BVPI degrees are linked to strategic fields such as computer science, artificial intelligence, aeronautics, and other technological areas considered fundamental for the future development of societies. But the rector emphasized that the experience will also have an important cultural dimension. In his opinion, BVPI students are called to become “a generation of students who act as a bridge between cultures, between universities, and between different but complementary ways of understanding the world.”
Capilla encouraged students to especially take advantage of the opportunities offered by Hangzhou, a city characterized by its strong presence in the fields of science, technology, and innovation. The rector highlighted that studying in this city allows students to come into contact with a top-level technological and industrial environment and to get to know its companies, research centers, and social reality up close.
The inauguration of the BVPI culminates an intense institutional and business agenda of the Polytechnic University of Valencia delegation in Hangzhou. On the day before the event, the UPV delegation visited Geely, one of the major industrial and technological groups in China, and later held a meeting with Unitree, an internationally recognized robotics company. Geely announced in July an alliance with Ford to manufacture electric vehicles at the American company’s Almussafes plant.
These meetings add to the relationships that UPV already maintains with Chinese technology companies such as Unitree and Huawei and strengthen the connection of the new campus with the powerful industrial and technological ecosystem of Hangzhou.
For her part, Ortí highlighted the Generalitat’s commitment to Valencian universities, not only as talent trainers but also as creators of opportunities: “That is why we support the international vocation of our universities and projects like this one, the first Spanish university campus located outside our territory, allowing the talent and knowledge generated in our Community to reach far beyond our borders.”
