The Education Minister Jan O'Sullivan begins the first day of her trade mission in China today, at a major conference in Beijing.
She's travelling with representatives of ten Irish third level colleges, who are hoping to forge new connections and find investors to plug the funding deficit at home.
Over the next six days, Minister O'Sullivan will visit different Chinese universities to sign memorandums of understanding between them and Irish third level institutions.
Among the Dublin colleges represented on the trade mission are UCD, DCU, Trinity College Dublin, Griffith College and the Royal College of Surgeons. The President and vice-presidents from UCC, NUI Galway, NUI Maynooth, UL and and the Waterford Institute of Technology will also attend.
Minister O'Sullivan says deepening our educational links with China will increase the number of Chinese students coming to Ireland, as well as developing academic and research partnerships between our two countries.
