It's a big thumbs-up from those at the orientation ceremony at the Shanghai International College of Intellectual Property. [Photo/WeChat account: Shanghai_IPA]

The Shanghai International College of Intellectual Property, or SICIP – based in East China's Shanghai – held its orientation ceremony for new students on Sept 12.

SICIP was established in November 2016 by Shanghai's Tongji University – with the support of World Intellectual Property Organization, or WIPO, the China National Intellectual Property Administration or CNIPA and the Shanghai municipal government – and is based at Tongji's IP Institute.

On Sept 12, the college also held the opening ceremony for the new semester of the WIPO-Tongji Master's Degree Program in Intellectual Property Law and the Chinese Government "Belt and Road" Master's Program in Intellectual Property.

This year, the college admitted its first batch of 10 doctoral students and 45 master's degree students in the interdisciplinary field of IP, as well as 17 international students from countries such as South Africa, Tajikistan, Cambodia and Georgia.

Sheng Li, deputy director of the international cooperation department of CNIPA, told the ceremony that training intellectual property talent in the Belt and Road countries was an important part of IP cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative.

Martha Chikowore, acting head of the Academic Institutions and Executive Program in the WIPO Academy, welcomed the new students and said that the college had excellent teachers and professional courses to help them on their path to acquiring more knowledge.

Yu Chen, deputy director general of the Shanghai Intellectual Property Administration, said that the municipal IP administration was building an internationalized talent training system for IP – and what's more supported the institute to conduct international cooperation and talent training with WIPO and other renowned universities and institutes.