On December 18th, led by S. Tumur-Ochir, President of Mongolia National University, the delegation consisting of 10 Mongolian educational and cultural officials visited Shandong University. Vice-President of SDU Fan Liming met with the guests at SDU’s central campus.

During the meeting, Fan congratulated Prof. M. Chimedtseye, Vice-Dean of Confucius Institute at Mongolia National University，on his 2011 Global Confucius Institutes Individuals Award. She said the honor is not only to Prof. Chimedtseye himself, but also to the two universities also——Shandong University and Mongolia National University. She fully endorsed the achievements obtained by Confucius Institute at Mongolia National University, and said Confucius Institute is not only the platform for the Chinese language teaching, but also the important link that facilitates the academic exchange between the two universities. She hoped that Confucius Institute would further enrich its intensive construction, expand its development from Chinese teaching to academic exchanges, and make greater contributions to promote the cooperation between the two universities. In her speech, Fan emphasized that “2011 Sino-Mongolian Culture Forum” organized by Confucius Institute at Mongolia National University, played a vital role to enhance the cooperation in the field of philosophy and social sciences between the two universities. She also introduced the 110th anniversary of Shandong University to the guests, highlighting recent achievements made in international exchanges，academic research and so on. President Tumur-Ochir said that Mongolia National University and Shandong University has a very good basis for cooperation, including Chinese language teaching and cultural studies. Confucius Institute also effectively promoted cooperation and exchanges between other colleges and subjects. He hoped the Confucius Institute would enhance cooperation in more subjects and in more forms.

Both sides agreed that the “2011 Sino-Mongolian Culture Forum” organized by Confucius Institute is a good beginning for academic exchanges between the two universities, and both sides should take this as a platform to deepen the cooperation in high-end research, student exchange, joint development of cooperation, and so on in the future, and they planned to organize the 2nd Sino-Mongolian Culture Forum at Shandong University in 2012.

President Tumur-Ochir is the former President of Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party and the former Chairman of the State Great Hural of Mongolia. The Delegation members including Vice-President of National Mongolia University, members of Confucius Institute Council, Director of the Mongolian National Culture Palace, President of the National Opera and Ballet Theatre and other Mongolia educational and cultural officials. Important person of International Affairs Office of Shandong University, Office of Confucius Institute, Research Institute of Literature, History and Philosophy, Institute of Philosophy and Social Development and other units also participated in the meeting. During the visit, the delegation visited Shandong University Museum and Chinese Traditional Cultural Research and Experience Base. Before this visit, the delegation also visited Weihai Branch of Shandong University，both sides had an in-depth discussion on exchanging of teachers, students, and other fields, and reached an initially cooperation intention .

Confucius Institute at Mongolia National University is one of the 7 overseas Confucius Institutes established by Shandong University, as well as the only Confucius Institute in Mongolia. Since its establishment, the Confucius Institute at Mongolia National University acquired Excellent Confucius Institutes in 2010，Excellent Individuals in 2009 and 2011, organized nearly 400 participants, and 20 short-term tours to visit and study at Shandong University. In June 2011, the delegation of professors of Institute of Literature, History and Philosophy and Institute of Philosophy and Social Development of Shandong University attended the first Sino-Mongolian Cultural Forum.

Written by: Gao Jie, Hu Nailin

Photo by: Wang Hailan

Edited by: Lawrence Phillips, Jing Zizhao

Source: Office of Confucius Institute,www.view.sdu.edu.cn