The second annual meeting of the International Consortium for China Studies (ICCS) will be held at St Edmund Hall on 6-7 August 2015.

OXCEP, in conjunction with St Edmund Hall, will sponsor the ICCS conference this year. ICCS was formed in 2014 on the initiative of the National School of Development (NSD) at Peking University, and it held its first conference at the NSD last year. It comprises about two dozen top institutes, schools or centres for social science research in China Studies, spread throughout the world. The ICCS secretariat is based at NSD. ICCS is self-funding and independent of governments.

As a founder member of ICCS, OXCEP brings the Conference to the Hall this year. The theme chosen by OXCEP for this years' conference is "Challenges facing China". Thus, the Oxford meeting will provide some top social science researchers on China with opportunities to debate important issues which should also be of interest to policy-makers. Oxford social scientists will be invited to attend and join the debates.

Some 22 papers will be presented (representing almost as many member institutions), and grouped under various sub-themes including: Governance; The Reform Process: drivers and brakes; Inequalities; Environmental Issues; Technology and Innovation; and Economic Efficiency.