Israel, China Inaugurate Guangdong Technion University

December 19, 2017 | Israel and China inaugurated this week the Guangdong Technion-Israel Institute of Technology (GTIIT) near Shantou University in the Chinese city of Shantou, Guangdong province.

The new campus of the private research university covers 100,000 square meters and includes “13 buildings, 29 classrooms, 14 teaching laboratories, and 55 research laboratories,” according to a Technion press release.

The university hopes to teach about 3,000 students in the first decade of operations including 300 postgraduates. It currently offers undergraduate degrees in Chemical Engineering, Biotechnology and Food Engineering, and Materials Engineering and graduate programs in Chemical Engineering, Materials Engineering, Food Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, and Biology.

PhD programs will include engineering and the sciences, “according to the fields of specialization of the GTIIT faculty,” the Technion said. The Guangdong Technion was established in 2015 with financial backing from the private foundation of Hong Kong business giant Li Ka-Shing who provided a grant of $130 million, and the Guangdong and Shantou municipal governments which allocated over $140 million for the project.

The inauguration ceremony on Monday was attended by Li Ka-Shing, Technion President Professor Peretz Lavie, Shantou Mayor Zheng Jiange, Israeli Consul General to Guangzhou Nadav Cohen, Israeli Consul General to Hong Kong Ahuva Spieler, Israeli and Chinese government representatives, and Nobel Laureate in Chemistry and Technion Distinguished Professor Aaron Ciechanover who will be Israel’s representative at the GTIIT.

Ciechanover said at the ceremony that “the opening of the Technion campus in China is a testament to the excellent relations between China and Israel and, no less important, to the great appreciation of the Chinese giant for Israel’s scientific and engineering achievements and to the education leading to them.”

The university’s new chancellor, Li Jiange, said in the ceremony that “China offers Technion a broad platform to realize its academic excellence. We in turn must learn from Technion and Israel as to what innovative thinking is.”