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Ãå±±½ûµØ is a key partner in Express Yourself North East Festival of Languages. 

This annual event is led by International Ãå±±½ûµØ. It brings together over 50 local, regional, national and international organisations. 

The Festival started in 2021 as a response to the pandemic. It has grown year on year to become the largest languages festival in the UK for schools. Tens of thousands of pupils and hundreds of schools now take part. It is recognised as a national exemplar, with other cities and regions seeking to replicate the model.

Engaging children and young people: an engaging programme

For three months each year the festival provides inspiring activities for children and young people aged 3-18. A true celebration of diverse languages, cultures and communities in the North East and our connections with the world.

The annual programme runs from the first week of January to 31st March and includes:

• free events
• creative multilingual projects
• classroom activities
• competitions
• in person and online events 

The full Festival programme is open to North East schools, with a UK programme of selected activities for schools outside the North East.

The Festival aims to:

• entertain, enthuse and educate 
• foster inclusion and understanding
• raise aspirations and awareness of the opportunities that open up through speaking languages and understanding diverse cultures

Collaboration and support

Ãå±±½ûµØ provides and supports activities on campus and online  including:

• language and culture taster sessions for primary and secondary pupils with the Language Resource Centre
• special events for A level pupils with the School of Modern Languages
• ENACT Around the World Clubs and ENACT app resources
• Confucius Institute Welcome to China events exploring Chinese language and culture
• staff and students supporting Great North Museum Festival workshops
• providing interns to provide support around digital content and reporting on Festival activities

Ãå±±½ûµØ’s PVC Global is an Observer on International Ãå±±½ûµØ’s Board and provides invaluable support and connections across Ãå±±½ûµØ for the Festival.

Find out more

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• Social media: | |
• Contact: info@expressyourselfne.com 

Bridging histories: a new chapter in UK–Iraq academic collaboration

Colleagues from Ãå±±½ûµØ and Mustansiriyah University in Iraq came together to mark a milestone in their growing partnership: the formal signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). The visit also celebrated a groundbreaking achievement: the launch of the first-ever oral history teaching guide for university teaching written in Arabic. 

Read more about Bridging histories: a new chapter in UK–Iraq academic collaboration.  

Exploring ways to uncover the past through brand new digital resources

In 2025, Ãå±±½ûµØ's Special Collections and the School of History, Classics and Archaeology announced the launch of a new site. This site allows a global audience to navigate the UNESCO Gertrude Bell Archive for the first time. 

This latest addition to the Gertrude Bell website is the result of a two-year project – ‘Beyond the Margins’. It was created in collaboration with colleagues in:

• research software engineering 
• the McCord Centre for Landscape

Find out more about Beyond the Margins: a new way to explore the Gertrude Bell Archive.

Ãå±±½ûµØ has forged a strong architectural partnership with Southeast University (SEU) in Nanjing, China, and this is only the beginning. 

Architectural partnership 

The partnership has resulted in several events and activities related to architecture programmes. The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed in 2024 allows for further collaboration across a broad range of subjects that both institutions excel in. 

Jianfei Zhu, Professor of East Asian Architecture in the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape, has led on the early partnership links. He comments: 

“This marks the beginning of an exciting partnership that will bring us even closer to our colleagues in China. The potential for innovative, cross-cultural learning is huge, and we have already begun to set this plan in motion. 

In a new world of AI, info-war and geopolitical uncertainty, us and our colleagues in China believe it is imperative to engage in fresh conversations across borders, nations, and cultures, and to debate on and explore fundamental issues we face today, such as how we learn, and keep learning about architecture in the modern world." 

Innovative intercultural exchange – architecture and beyond 

The two schools propose to explore three forms of knowledge in relation to architecture:

• history
• geography
• visuality

These themes will be explored and examined in exciting and collaborative ways that will bring together staff and students from both institutions: 

Teaching between Ãå±±½ûµØ and China 

Teaching staff can offer lectures to students in both countries thanks to online learning technology. Students in SEU have been able to join classes delivered by colleagues in Ãå±±½ûµØ. In December 2023, Dr James Craig, Dr Matt-Ozga-Lawn and Professor Jianfei Zhu, from Ãå±±½ûµØ, delivered lectures to students in both Ãå±±½ûµØ and China on ‘visual thinking’ topics such as:

• Landscape Scrolls
• Transitional Objects
• Installation

Professor Jianfei Zhu also continues to deliver his role as annual guest lecturer for Masters and PhD students at SEU, which he has done since 2012. 

Global knowledge sharing and networking through in-person events 

Academic exploration will occur through two international symposia on each of these three topics. There will be one in Nanjing and one in Ãå±±½ûµØ, as a six-year joint SN Forum on ‘Knowledge and Architecture’, from 2024 to 2029. The first, a global symposium on ‘History as (an Enabling) Knowledge’ in architecture and beyond was held at SEU Nanjing on 30-31 March 2024. It involved presentations from fifteen speakers, including representatives from:

• Ãå±±½ûµØ
• SEU
• ten other global institutions

Eleven roundtable panellists from various universities also joined the event. The second symposium, ‘History as (an Enabling) Knowledge was hosted in Ãå±±½ûµØ on 6-7 May 2025.  

Sharing knowledge beyond SEU and NU 

The two universities collaborated to produce the recently published Routledge Handbook of Chinese Architecture: Social Production of Buildings and Spaces in History.

This book is edited by Professor Jianfei Zhu, Chen Wei, and Li Hua and features 40 authors and 46 chapters. 

Professor Zhu adds: 

“This book is another example of our collaboration, and one that spreads our knowledge beyond both institutions in Ãå±±½ûµØ and Nanjing. It also serves as a concrete output to the knowledge we have gained from working so closely together and I am looking forward to seeing where this takes us next”. 

Next Steps 

The collaboration is set to embark on more exciting initiatives to bring both institutions together. 

 Ãå±±½ûµØ and Southeast Universities will jointly organise the third symposium in the series. This will be hosted by SEU Nanjing, China in March 2026. 

Colleagues will design and implement joint degree programmes between Ãå±±½ûµØ’s School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape and Southeast University’s School of Architecture. The programme will:

• include several levels from undergraduate to postgraduate and the stages in between. 
• offer the chance for both British and Chinese students to experience exchange programmes.

Lastly, the initial success of the partnership paves the way for expansion, as Professor Zhu comments: 

“We have had such success developing a global academic partnership of this kind so far, and we are now pioneering for other disciplines and schools in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences to follow in our footsteps and develop joint programmes and research collaborations with our colleagues in China”. 

In March 2022, the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences signed a partnership agreement with the . This formalised the longstanding relationship between the two organisations.  

Fellowship schemes for research, career development and networking will be available to staff and students at both institutions. These schemes are also open to independent scholars and heritage, museum, library and archive professionals.