About the Alliance

Mission

The contemporary era of economic globalisation, as another phase of the longue durée of modern world history, has been changing and will continue to change the human geographies of the world across all nations and regions, involving no less than a reproduction of humanity and social life itself on an unprecedented scale in human history. It has often been remarked that we live in a time of superfast, hyper-transformative technological innovation and economic growth, when lived histories and intellectual legacy of human beings have been rendered insignificant. Meanwhile, the deepening sense of uncertainty in social belonging and the ground-gaining of cultural parochialism in various forms have become a world-wide phenomenon, raising questions about the meaning of the economic achievement that have brought dramatic growth of wealth and opportunities to the world. Amidst such sea change, humanities education centred on cross-cultural knowledge production and cultural exchange and fusion has taken on ever greater historical significance. However new the globalised technology becomes, however huge the wealth accumulates, it is the ways in which they are articulated with the formation of the individual human beings, communities, nations and countries of all kinds that ultimately matter, bringing tremendous and long-lasting consequence to the present and future, as it did in world history.

In the spirit of such a recognition, Tsinghua University proposed the initiative of establishing an Association for the Humanities in Higher Education (China-UK), as a cross-institutional mechanism for cross-cultural, transnational, and global dialogues, conversations and collaborations in the humanities and humanities education.

The UK-China Humanities Alliance (UKCHA) is an international grouping for humanities in higher education initiated by Tsinghua University, with a membership of seven Chinese and ten UK leading universities. Members share the common recognition that humanities exchange in international relations has ever-increasing importance in enhancing mutual understanding and trust and in promoting the progress of human civilization, and that universities have the ability to provide high-quality education, lead the humanities exchange, and prepare future leaders with a comprehensive understanding of the complex issues that define this age. 

UKCHA projects have been supported by British Council funding. In 2021, the Alliance successfully obtained an Enabling Grant from the British Council to strengthen UK-China institutional partnerships through academic collaboration. The project, (Re-)connecting Research in China, promotes shared understanding, joint research, and networking opportunities for scholars of UK and Chinese institutions, including through supporting Fellowships for Chinese humanities scholars to undertake research activity with UKCHA partners in the UK, and other forms of research collaboration.