Birmingham's Strategic Alliance with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Our most wide-ranging research links exist with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a globally-elite public research-intensive university. By working together, the University of Birmingham and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have forged a broad and deep partnership through which a number of key research and teaching outcomes have already been achieved.

The “Birmingham-Illinois Partnership for Discovery, Engagement and Education” (BRIDGE) was signed in March 2014 by the University of Birmingham’s Vice Chancellor and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s Chancellor at the University of Illinois. The BRIDGE agreement establishes a framework for creative knowledge exchange across disciplines through frequent, purposeful, face-to-face meetings between faculty, staff and students at both undergraduate and graduate levels. 

The University of Birmingham and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have established over 70 successful faculty-to-faculty links in key academic disciplines.  Research links between the two institutions include such disciplines as Economic and Physical Geography, Railway Engineering, Maths, Psychology, Environmental Genomics, History of Art, American & Canadian Studies, Cultural Heritage and Education.

Exciting educational opportunities have also been established for University of Birmingham and Illinois students through new exchange partnerships, and collaborative teaching arrangements that internationalise the classroom at home.

Further information on the BRIDGE alliance can be found on the BRIDGE website.