On September 24, 2026, Liu Weidong, Vice President of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, met with a delegation led by Tom Rodden, Vice President of the University of Nottingham, UK, at the Minhang Campus. Xu Fang, Party Secretary of the School of Agriculture and Biology, attended the meeting and presented on the current status of the Chongming Campus construction and the School's vision for cooperation with the University of Nottingham.

Vice President Liu Weidong reviewed the solid foundation of cooperation between the two universities in life sciences, agricultural ecology, and other fields. He noted that the construction of the Chongming Campus provides new space and a new vehicle for collaboration, and expressed his expectation to jointly explore more flexible and diversified cooperation models. Vice President Tom Rodden introduced recent developments at the University of Nottingham and the University of Nottingham Ningbo China, stating his willingness to further deepen cooperation on the existing basis and to fully leverage the platform role of the University of Nottingham Ningbo China to provide strong support for the implementation of cooperative projects and personnel exchanges.

Xu Fang first introduced the progress of the Chongming Campus construction. As a strategic project jointly built by the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission, the Chongming District Government, and Shanghai Jiao Tong University, the first phase of the Chongming Campus is planned to cover 350 mu. At present, teaching and living support facilities, including the Student Affairs Center, the Library, and the Lecture Hall, have been basically completed, and the campus will be equipped with the teaching and living conditions for Sino-foreign cooperative education. He pointed out that the Chongming Campus is not merely a physical expansion but a core vehicle for the School of Agriculture and Biology to advance its "Integrating new agricultural sciences, ecology, and internationalization" strategy. Regarding international cooperation, Xu Fang presented the School's vision for deepening cooperation with the University of Nottingham, proposing to focus on agricultural environment and sustainable development as the main theme, and to carry out cooperative education and joint research in disciplines including horticulture, ecology, food science and engineering, and veterinary medicine, combined with directions such as artificial intelligence.

The School of Agriculture and Biology will take this meeting as an opportunity to translate consensus into concrete cooperation models and enrollment plans, advance cooperation with the University of Nottingham to a deeper level, and contribute to the university's "Double First-Class" construction and the development of Chongming as a world-class ecological island.

The University of Nottingham was founded in 1881 and is a member of the Russell Group and a founding member of the Universitas 21 network.