BEIJING -- The University of Pennsylvania and Tsinghua University today announced an agreement to expand and enhance their ongoing academic and research collaborations, including developing a conference on undergraduate education to discuss best practices and skills development and identifying a major research collaboration spearheaded by Penn’s School of Engineering and Applied Science.

“It is an honor to be here today with Tsinghua University President Gu Binglin as we agree to enhance the longstanding and important academic relationship between our two great institutions,” Penn President Amy Gutmann said. “For many years, Penn and Tsinghua University have collaborated on several exciting projects, and I am delighted to extend this important partnership into new areas of academic and research endeavor.”

In addition to the Penn Engineering proposal, the agreement signed today by the two presidents includes:

• Developing a conference on undergraduate education to discuss best practices and development of skills such as leadership.

• Exploring opportunities for renewed collaborations between Tsinghua and Penn’s Wharton School and Law School.

Previous collaborations include the Penn-Tsinghua T.C. Chan Center, a successful partnership between the Penn School of Design and Tsinghua focused on creating healthier, productive, energy efficient strategies that will lead to high performance buildings and sustainable environments; student exchanges between the Penn Law School and Tsinghua; and faculty and student initiatives between Penn Engineering and Tsinghua.

Tsinghua University was founded in 1911 and is widely regarded as one of China’s top universities. It has 13 schools and 55 departments, with more than 25,900 undergraduate and graduate students studying in such fields as science, engineering, humanities, law, medicine, history, philosophy, economics, management, education and art.

The University of Pennsylvania is an Ivy League institution with a distinctive past. Founded in the 18th century by Benjamin Franklin, Penn has a longstanding reputation for excellence in graduate and professional education, with a number of its 12 schools ranked at or near the top in their fields. The University is located in Philadelphia on an attractive urban campus that serves a diverse, 20,000-member student body from around the nation and the world.