From March 12 to 13, at the invitation of the University of Vienna in Austria, a delegation led by Li Shouxin, Chairman of Shandong University Council, visited that university and attended the celebration ceremony of its 650th Anniversary.
Prior to the ceremony, Li held a talk with Susanne Weigelin-Schwiedrzik, Vice Rector of the University of Vienna for Research and Career Development, Heinz Faßmann, Vice Rector of the University of Vienna for Human Resources Development and International Relations. The representatives of experts from the University of Vienna also attended the meeting.
At the meeting, Li highlighted the friendly cooperative relationship between the two universities and indicated that he looked forward to more cooperation, including faculty exchanges, student exchanges, and the summer program.
Weigelin-Schwiedrzik and Faßmann also expressed their willingness to work closely with Shandong University, and hoped both sides would firstly cooperate in the fields of archaeology.
The two sides also further exchanged ideas about life science and other disciplinary areas as well as details in the joint research platform.
On March 13, following the 650th Anniversary's opening ceremony, the SDU delegation attended the international conference UVIECON 2015 "Global Universities and their Regional Impact", to exchange ideas with rectors and presidents of renowned universities which also had attended the conference.
During his visit, Li and his delegation also visited the Education Section at the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Austria. He presented an introduction of the relations of exchange and communication between Shandong University and colleges and universities in Austria, and acquired a detailed understanding of information about Austrian students studying in China and related development trend in the future.
He expressed his hope that the Education Section would support Shandong University to carry out further cooperation with the colleges and universities in Austria and attract more students to study in China in the future.
On March 16, the SDU delegation also paid a visit to the University of Valencia in Spain. Guillermo Palao Moreno, Vice-principal for Internationalization and Cooperation of University of Valencia, met with the delegation. The two sides exchanged their ideas in the areas concerning communication among Confucius Institutes, and cooperation in the student summer program.
SDU and the University of Valencia have reached consensus in many areas, including student exchanges; deepening cooperation in the fields of social work, traffic, and nursing; strengthening communication between the Confucius Institutes; and developing the student summer program cooperative projects, as well as other initiatives. Officials of International Affairs Department of SDU participated in this visit.