Agreement signing ceremony of "University of Sydney Centre in China" was held in Beijing on Wednesday.

University of Sydney Centre in China will begin operations from June 2016 in Suzhou Industrial Park, Jiangsu Province.

For the first time in the University's 165-year history, an offshore site will be established in Suzhou, China. The new center will serve as a research and education hub for the University to increase intellectual exchange and collaboration between China and Australia.

University of Sydney’s Chancellor Belinda Hutchinson said the newly established center would help cement the University’s place as the Australian university with the most extensive, coherent and sustainable relationship with China.

"The University of Sydney is the highest concentration of Chinese expertise in the world outside of China. There are more than 230 academic staff studying China or collaborating with researchers in the country, in a wide range of areas from China's public health system to its economy and cultural history," Ms. Hutchinson said.

"University of Sydney Centre - the first we have established as a major facility outside of Australia - demonstrates how importantly we view our relationship with China."

Dr. Michael Spence, Vice-Chancellor of University of Sydney, said the establishment of the center was a key plank in the University’s China Strategy.

"The University established the China Studies Centre in Sydney in recognition of the depth and breadth of expertise of our people. It is time that we take the next step and open a companion center in China. Having both centers signals our ambition to be the leading University for intellectual engagement with China and the Asia-Pacific region more generally," Dr. Spence said.

The University of Sydney has a long history of engagement with China, and has been Australia’s leading university in this respect. In 1979, it was the first university in Australia to welcome Chinese students after the Cultural Revolution. There are now almost 6000 Chinese students studying at the University of Sydney.

The University of Sydney selected Suzhou as the site of the center due to the educational infrastructure in the Suzhou Industrial Park, which currently houses several universities, both domestic and foreign. Suzhou was also chosen for its close proximity to Shanghai.