Tsinghua University signed strategic academic cooperation agreements with five top international universities on Thursday; a move aimed at further exploring innovative research and education collaborations across borders.

The partnership program, which officially started in 2016, has included 48 projects in the fields of quantum computing, advanced manufacturing, smart city, biomedicine, new energy, international laws, etc.

Both Tsinghua and its international partner school of each project provide seed grants for their projects. Joint lecturers are available to their students and academic papers are also co-written.

Last year, about 36 joint papers were published and eight co-developed patents were issued in the first 29 projects.

Participants include Imperial College of London, Peter the Great Saint-Petersburg Polytechnic University, University of Hong Kong, University of Alberta and University of New South Wales.

In addition, University of Tokyo and Tohoku University in Japan, as well as Monash University in Australia, are expected to join next year.

"How to better adapt to the fast-changing trend caused by new technologies, changing global economic and political environment, and new multi-lateral partnerships has become a key challenge to all the universities worldwide," said Yang Bin, vice-president and provost of Tsinghua University.

He said the goal of the program is to focus their internal resources and group the scattered collaborations into a more organized format, to promote broader and in-depth exchanges and collaborations among faculty and students.

He made the remarks at the first Global Strategic Academic Partnership Symposium in Shenzhen held by the top education institute in China.

"The symposium helps creating a sharing environment for all the participants," he said.