Peking University, Sep. 13, 2013: In the summer of 2013, the Beijing-Copenhagen Urban Challenge (BCUC), organized partly by College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Peking University (PKU), was unveiled.

A pioneering program in academic exchange, the BCUC, with strong support from the embassies of Denmark and China, is based in Copenhagen and Beijing. All the students involved in the program are selected from top universities of the two sister cities.

Copenhagen Business School and Technical University of Denmark, apart from PKU, contributed to the program as well.

The BCUC is a one-month program, with each city taking host for two weeks. One student from Copenhagen and one from Beijing formed a pair, and they showed each other around when their cities’ turns arrived. The focus was on trans-disciplinary and trans-cultural communication, as well as the global issues pertaining to sustainable development.

Faculty members and students from the program

In Denmark, a course was offered, concentrated on the reduction of carbon dioxide and adaptation to climate change, as well as sustainable development in the city. It was organized in a compact and enriched way. The students were invited to participate in the enterprise practice under the guidance of relevant experts, and did researches according to their interests on sustainable development.

The course in Beijing started off from the actual environmental problems in Beijing. The students tried to find out the underlying problems of management and technologies, before bringing out their suggestions for solving those problems.

Group presentations were given at the end of the program, showing the students’ views out of investigation on environmental technologies, strategies for environmental management, green goods or services, etc.

The BCUC will be held at the pace of one or two times per year till 2014. More students will participate in the program, learn from the experts, and accumulate field practice experience about the environment. Sustainable urbanization will thus be promoted in the most effective way.

Written by: Chen Runxi

Edited by: Zhao Ning

Source: PKU News (Chinese)