The XJTLU partnership

Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU) is an international university formed in partnership between the University of Liverpool and Xi’an Jiaotong University (XJTU) in China.

Two prestigious parents

The University of Liverpool is one of the UK's leading research-intensive universities and a founding member of the UK Russell Group. Our association with nine Nobel Prize winners, including the first awarded in the UK in 1902, demonstrates our long and prestigious history.

Today, we're in the top 165 in global rankings (160 in the Times Higher Education World University Ranking 2025 and 165 in the QS World University Rankings 2025) with ambitious plans to climb further.

In the UK, we're rated Gold for our excellence in both student experience and outcomes in the Teaching Excellence Framework. We're proud to be one of just seven Russell Group universities to hold this accolade.

Our ambitious global outlook led us to seek an opportunity to work in partnership in China to deliver University of Liverpool degrees and we found the perfect partner in Xi’an Jiaotong University (XJTU).

XJTU is a first-tier research-intensive university and one of the Chinese government’s nine “Project 211” universities. Collaboration between the University of Liverpool and XJTU started as far back as 1980. The partnership of strength between our two world-class universities has created a modern and innovative university in China - XJTLU.

Quality, innovation and success

XJTLU was licensed to recruit Tier 1 students from the Chinese Gaokao examination from the outset of the partnership. With high quality students and pioneering leadership, the University has grown and developed to become a highly respected university in China and has growing international and postgraduate student populations. At undergraduate level, students study for dual awards (degrees from the University of Liverpool and XJTLU) and at postgraduate level, students earn master's and PhD degrees from the University of Liverpool.

XJTLU has become a thought leader in innovative education models in China and in 2022 opened the doors to a new XJTLU Entrepreneur College in Taicang. With a new model of “syntegrative” education, embedding industry placements in the final year, a model of mobility was required and the new Taicang 2+1+1 programme where students spend their third year in Liverpool, will be launched for two subject areas in 2024.

XJTLU: A university with student mobility at its heart

Through XJTLU, University of Liverpool degrees have been delivered transnationally since 2006. And right from the start, articulation routes to Liverpool through a 2+2 programme were established.

Since then, over 15,000 2+2 students have graduated and enjoyed phenomenal academic success and progressing on to master's degrees at the world’s most elite universities (including Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard and MIT) and securing successful careers in China and across the globe.

Liverpool Year in China

Students in Liverpool also have an option to study at XJTLU through a flagship “Year in China” programme as part of their Liverpool degree. From 2024, a new pathway will allow students to focus on enterprise by studying at the Taicang Entrepreneur College, complementing the pathway in Chinese language and culture at the main campus in Suzhou.