Queen Mary University of London says its joint transnational education partnership with Beijing’s University of International Business and Economics has begun welcoming its first students on two four-year undergraduate programmes.
The courses are BSc Actuarial Science with AI and BSc Insurance with AI. Queen Mary describes the launch as part of its Faculty of Science and Engineering’s ambition to expand transnational education activity, with the partnership embedded in its School of Mathematical Sciences.
Two four-year programmes
Queen Mary says each of the two programmes will welcome a cohort of 120 students. Students are to study in Beijing throughout the degree, while the university also describes an intended future opportunity to spend one year studying in London. That London element is presented as a planned opportunity rather than a guaranteed feature already in place.
The programmes bring together actuarial science, insurance and artificial intelligence, subject areas Queen Mary links to changes in the financial and risk-related sectors. The university says artificial intelligence is increasingly affecting actuarial science and insurance, and frames the new provision as a way to combine its mathematical sciences expertise with UIBE’s established strengths in finance and economics.
UIBE was founded in 1951 and is a multidisciplinary university in Beijing with a strong reputation in finance and economics. Queen Mary cites rankings placing UIBE among the world’s top 50 universities for finance and third among China’s financial and economic universities.
Launch leadership
Queen Mary says Lei Fang has been appointed Acting Director of the joint programme as the partnership gets under way. The university also says a full three-year director role is expected to be advertised in spring 2027, with expressions of interest to be invited from across its Faculty of Science and Engineering.
The acting-director appointment is one of the new operational details in the latest update. An earlier Queen Mary announcement had said the first students were expected to start in September 2026; the latest update adds the university’s statement that the partnership is already welcoming its first students.
Queen Mary says the launch builds on an existing relationship with UIBE. It points to recent contact between the institutions, including UIBE’s 70th anniversary celebrations, at which a pre-recorded message from Queen Mary President and Principal Professor Colin Bailey was shared.
Approval and wider context
The UIBE–Queen Mary joint programmes were approved by China’s Ministry of Education on 25 May 2026 as part of a wider approval round for transnational education partnerships at undergraduate level and above. That round covered 219 newly approved partnerships, including 50 involving UK universities.
The May approval confirms the regulatory basis for the UIBE–Queen Mary programmes. Queen Mary’s latest update provides the current launch details, including the first students, cohort size, programme names and acting-director appointment.
The broader approval round included a strong presence of applied and technology-related subjects. Computer science, artificial intelligence, data and digital technologies appeared prominently among the UK-linked approvals, while business, finance, economics and management also remained significant areas. The Queen Mary and UIBE programmes sit across these themes by linking AI with actuarial science and insurance.
Queen Mary presents the Beijing launch as an important step in its international education strategy and in the Faculty of Science and Engineering’s plan to build substantial transnational education activity across its schools. The immediate development is the start of the two undergraduate programmes in Beijing, with future leadership arrangements and any London study opportunity still subject to the university’s stated next steps.
