Tiger Wang receives Honorary Fellowship from RAU

Chinese higher education entrepreneur Xiaoyu (Tiger) Wang MBE, co-founder of innovative Sino Campus International Education, has been honoured with an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Agricultural University (@RoyalAgUni).

Tiger Wang joined the RAU’s annual Graduation ceremony virtually today to be presented with his award by RAU Vice-President Lord Bathurst.

RAU Vice-Chancellor Professor Peter McCaffery said:

“Tiger Wang is a trailblazer in the field of transnational and enterprise education both within, and beyond, China. Tens of thousands of students, teachers, and education leaders have benefitted from Tiger’s passion and commitment.

“A key player in the creation of our very successful teaching partnership with Shandong Agricultural University, and new Joint Institute for Advanced Agri-Technology at Qingdao Agricultural University, Tiger is not only an RAU alumnus but an honoured and true friend who is an outstanding ambassador for UK-China educational co-operation.”

Following undergraduate education at China Agricultural University, and a Masters at Wageningen University, Tiger studied an MBA at the RAU (then the Royal Agricultural College) between 2001 and 2003 and has been an entrepreneur in the higher education sector between the UK and China since then.

Receiving the award, Tiger said: “It is my great pleasure and an honour to receive an Honorary Fellowship from the RAU. When I enrolled on the MBA programme at the Royal Agricultural College I knew that I had made a choice that would change my life forever – for all the right reasons.”

In 2011, Tiger Wang co-founded Sino Campus International Education, one of China’s most innovative education organisations, investing in higher education institutions and dedicated to fostering innovation and research to encourage the next generation of Chinese entrepreneurs.

He also led the formation of National Centre for Entrepreneurship in Education (NCEE) in China as a platform for introducing enterprise education into Chinese colleges and technical universities.

Tiger’s vision for Sino Campus was to raise the profile of internationalization and enterprise within educational institutions in China by fostering local and global partnerships between education providers, and with Government departments and non-Government organisations.

Sino Campus has already developed more than 1,300 such partnerships, working with senior high schools, colleges and universities worldwide, and has a network of nearly 30,000 university and college officials, leaders and consultants.

This includes three successful partnerships with the RAU. The first, which started in 2007, with Shandong Agricultural University (SDAU) was followed by a second partnership, with Qingdao Agricultural University (QAU), in 2020, and a third partnership, with Shenyang University, which was established earlier this year.

Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the RAU, Professor Neil Ravenscroft, who nominated Tiger Wang for the Honorary Fellowship, said:

“Our well-established relationship with Sino Campus, and our partnerships with SDAU and the new Joint Institute for Advanced Agri-Technology at QAU, have already allowed more than 1,000 Chinese students to benefit from teaching by RAU staff.

“RAU and Sino Campus now work side by side at QAU to deliver the four degree programmes with Tiger and his team known colloquially as RAU’s Beijing Office! Other proposals are in the pipeline, all brought about because of Tiger’s networking skills, hard work, and loyalty to RAU.

“The Honorary Fellowship is the highest honour that the RAU can bestow. Tiger embodies the values and attributes that the RAU holds dear – hard work, community, loyalty, duty of service and the importance of valuing tradition and heritage – and the RAU has undoubtedly benefitted from his wise advice and leadership.”

Sino Campus also offers transnational education programmes to over 100 schools, colleges and universities, as well as teacher training programmes and curriculum development in entrepreneurship, and also assists Chinese students with university applications, summer/winter camps, and study abroad programmes.

As General Secretary of the International Centre for Educational Research and Assessment of the Chinese Society of Education (ICERA), Tiger Wang has also been closely involved with Chinese Government policymakers, drawing from his extensive connections with the UK to improve and modernise the Chinese education system.

He was nominated for an MBE in 2019, for services to Sino-UK education, although Covid has so far prevented him from coming to the UK to receive it. In the same year, was made a Freeman of the City of London. He is also the CEO of the NCEE in China and is an elected member of the Board of Regents of Harris Manchester College, University of Oxford.

Tiger added:

“This award is recognition of the hard work and dedication of the many colleagues in our partner universities in China who have worked so effectively with the RAU, of my colleagues at Sino Campus and, of course, to all of the alumni who have graduated from SDAU and are enrolled on the newer programmes at QAU.

“We already have more than 1,000 Chinese graduates with many more to come. This association with the RAU will lead these students on to careers which would have been beyond their dreams.

“This Honorary Fellowship is something which I will treasure for the rest of my life. The RAU and Cirencester will always be in my heart and I could never have imagined the journey we have taken together when I arrived on its doorstep in the Cotswolds 20 years ago. Long may our friendship continue.”