The Ministry of Education of China has recently released the approval results of Sino-foreign cooperative education programs for the first half of 2026. The program proposed by our university has been approved.

This newly approved program is an undergraduateStatistics programjointly run by CUEB and the University of Alberta (UA). Adopting the “4+0” dual-degree training model, it is included in the national general higher education enrollment plan with an annual intake of 120 students. Students who complete the curriculum and meet all degree requirements will receive an undergraduate graduation certificate and a bachelor’s degree in Statistics from CUEB, as well as a Bachelor of Science in Statistics from UA.

Cooperation Background

This partnership builds on solid collaborative foundations and long-standing academic ties between the two universities. It represents a commitment from both institutions to deepen strategic cooperation and cultivate personnel in the fields of data and intelligence. In 2015 and 2025, we sent faculty members to the UA under the China Scholarship Council (CSC). While there, visiting faculty established contacts with the University of Alberta’s International and Faculty of Science, paving the way for this joint program. Since July 2024, we have invited Professor Linglong Kong and Associate Professor Bei Jiang from the Department of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences, Faculty of Science, to visit our university for academic exchanges and seminars. In early November 2025, Dr. Cen Huang, then Vice-Provost and Associate Vice-President International, and Professor Christoph Frei, Chair of the Department of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences, visited our university. They conducted comprehensive site visits and negotiated details of the proposed cooperative program.On 4 November 2025, both parties signed a letter of intent for Sino-foreign cooperative education. This milestone laid the groundwork for the dual-degree undergraduate program, marking a major leap from academic visits to deep collaboration. On 19 March this year, Dr. Tian Tang, Vice-Provost, together with Dr. Cen Huang, Senior Special Advisor on China at the UA, visited CUEB to discuss the long-term development of the joint program.

We continue to advance internationalization-driven reform in teaching and learning and to expand the opening-up of education. The new Statistics undergraduate program with the UA is the latest achievement in upgrading the university’s international education. It strongly supports CUEB’s “three-in-one” collaborative international education framework. We are committed to advancing high-quality development of Sino-foreign cooperative education with priorities of standardized governance, risk prevention, quality enhancement, and innovative models. We havealso formulated management regulations for cooperative education, built a risk prevention and control oversight system, and established regular training and exchange mechanisms. These measures help deliver high-quality teaching outcomes and build a distinguished brand for CUEB’s Sino-foreign cooperative programs.

About the University of Alberta, Canada

Founded in 1908, the University of Alberta is a world-leading public research university. It is a founding member of the U15 Group of Canadian Research Universities, a member of the Worldwide Universities Network and the Worldwide Energy University Network. It ranks 94th globally and 4th in Canada in the QS World University Rankings 2026. The university enjoys an international reputation in engineering, medicine, science, business and management, with outstanding strengths in artificial intelligence and machine learning. One of the core developers of AlphaGo is an alumnus of this university. The universityhas a strong track record of partnerships with China. Its Canada Learning Initiative in China (CLIC) program and the Global Academic Leadership Development (GALD) program serve as key platforms for academic exchanges between China and Canada.