Imperial College London churns out Chinese entrepreneurial talent

President of Imperial College London Alice Gast has spoken highly of the college’s link to China, and urged more cooperation and collaboration between the Chinese and British institutions.

With less than 17,000 students, just under half of them undergraduates and the rest postgrads, Imperial has proved to be a magnet for Chinese students and researchers.

Imperial punches above its weight when it comes to attracting students from China. It helps that Imperial is No.1 when it comes to collaborations with Chinese universities.

Gast told Xinhua in a recent interview: “We really greatly benefit from a tremendous number of Chinese students, currently 2,600, coming to study here at Imperial. They’re exceedingly bright and clever, and there’s a great opportunity here for them, especially as the world is becoming much more interconnected. We have opportunities to really drive innovation and entrepreneurship.”

Having such an international community at Imperial is a great asset, added Gast, explaining: “I think that our students who come from abroad really benefit from that mixture not only of all the UK and European students, but students from all over the world. You see that in the things that they do and programs they follow.”

Imperial has a large number of entrepreneurs among its alumni, though Gast said what has now changed is the fast pace of technology development and opportunity.

“Our biggest mechanism of technology transfer are the brilliant students that come out of our universities, some of them going to start up and some going to companies, taking up what they’ve learned and their new ideas, to help shape industries and other sectors,” said Gast.

Imperial is able to offer more and more opportunities for students to pursue entrepreneurship through initiatives such as its innovation program for women entrepreneurs. It acts as a major platform for students to learn from one another and also from mentors. “What is so exciting is that if you look at our most successful entrepreneurial ventures, they’re mostly international. There’ll be a Chinese student and a British student and another European student working together. That mixture of cultures and backgrounds and perspectives gives you much more fruitful innovations,” Gast said.

With 7,000 Imperial alumni in China, there are three very active alumni associations and a very strong growing network, with many entrepreneurial alumni in China pursuing their own companies.

Gast said that what the alumni in China can give back is connecting with today’s students both as role models and mentors themselves, as well as providing connections when Imperial students want to go to China. And it’s not only Imperial’s Chinese students who benefit from that network, but all students attracted to China, including those thinking China might be the place where they’d like to launch their start-up or expand into the Chinese market, and so our alumni network is very beneficial.

Gast has visited the lab at Tsinghua University in China, saying some of Imperial’s entrepreneurial students will go over there, and some of Tsinghua’s will come to Imperial. It is a prime example of academic collaboration that Gast encourages.

“We learn the best practices from one another, and sometimes some good ideas come out that we want to execute together,” said Gast.