(iTers News) - SAP AG today announced the cooperation with Beijing Jiaotong University pertaining to the establishment of a University Competence Center (UCC) in China, which will support local universities by offering students access to the SAP software. The announcement was made at China SAPPHIRE, held November 20-21 in Beijing.

The inaugural partnership will bring together SAP and Beijing Jiaotong University, one of the top-ranking universities in China under the direct administration of the Ministry of Education. This cooperation will help ensure that the 7 million students graduating from Chinese universities can have hands-on experience with SAP software.

“Combining our strength as a national key university in China with innovative technology solutions from SAP will help prepare our students for today’s workforce,” said XingChen Zhang, vice chancellor, Beijing Jiaotong University. ”We are committed to ensuring our graduates are at the top of their field with the knowledge and experience they gain through this partnership.”

“Expanding our long-standing SAP University Alliances program to students at Bejing Jiaotong will allow us to further engage with students from around the world,” said Mark Gibbs, president of SAP Greater China. “With hands-on experience using technologies like SAP HANA, our goal is to empower students with the highest level of technology understanding when entering the workforce.”

The partnership also extends the reach of the SAP University Alliances program, which has helped donate SAP licenses to more than 1,450 program member institutions and provided training to university professors. Since 2008, 60 universities have joined the SAP University Alliances program in China and with the establishment of the UCC, SAP hopes to reach 100 member universities in the country by the end of 2014.