Peking University, Dec. 18, 2017: Professor Michael Keith, director of the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS) and co-director of the University of Oxford Future of Cities Programme, and Doctor Samuel Chen from the University of Oxford, visited College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, and Future Cities Research Center, Peking University, on December 14th, 2017. They discussed about the cooperation of PEAK Urban programme with Professor Feng Changchun and Professor Cao Guangzhong from College of Urban and Environmental Sciences. They also communicated with He Canfei, dean of College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, about the future cooperation of research of cities between two universities.
“Building skilled capacity for the future city in developing countries（PEAK）” is a 5-year programme funded by the Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC). It was formally approved in September 2017. Professor Michael Keith from the University of Oxford is in charge of the programme while Professor Feng Changchun is the leader of the research group in Peking University and Professor Cao Guangzhong is a member of the council.
The PEAK Urban programme involves researchers from the University of Oxford, Peking University, University of Cape Town, the Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS), and EAFIT University. It focuses on three key arenas of future city research, i.e., “city morphologies”, “city flux”, “technological change, health and wellbeing”. Through dialogues among different disciplines, like math, medical science, transportation, engineering, anthropology, geography, history, the programme sets up scientific and complete decision-making system, in order to achieve the goal of building inclusive, secure and sustaining future cities. The programme also aims to foster new leaders that draw on different disciplinary perspectives to address the challenges in the 21st-century cities.
Professor Keith gave a detailed introduction of the programme, including its background, main content, objectives, overall plan. Professor Feng Changchun, in turn, delivered a speech on the foundation and the cooperation plan of Future Cities Research Center, Peking University. The two sides had a heated discussion over the programme.
Professor He Canfei extended a warm welcome to Professor Michael Keith and Doctor Samuel Chen and they conducted academic and work exchange with each other. Both sides hoped PEAK Urban would be the chance to strengthen further cooperation between Peking University and the University of Oxford in the field of urban research and promote student cultivation and academic exchange.
Written by: Wu Chaochao
Edited by: Hu Rong
