From October 20 to 24, the inaugural SDU Global Partners Week & Student Mobility Work Seminar, developed under the Double First-Class Initiative, were held on the Central Campus of SDU.More than 40 representatives from more than 20 partner universities in 12 countries and regions gathered at SDU to enhance cooperation. During this period, more than 20 overseas learning experience lectures,10 working symposiumsas well asvarious exchange activities including overseas learning experience exhibition, English-taught class observations and traditional Chinese culture experience programs were carried out.
Fan Liming, President of SDU, met with representatives of partner universities. Han Shenghao, Vice President of SDU, attended the meeting, the opening ceremony and other related activities.
On October 21,the opening ceremony of the week was held. According to Vice President Han,implementing SDU's internationalization strategy is of vital importance to accelerating the construction of a world first-class university. He hopes that the exchange week will enable partners to know SDU better by functioning as a platform for all of the participants to share and discuss such topics as their international strategic plans and their experiences and practices of carrying out student exchange, so as to enrich students' overseas learning experience, boost mutual friendship and jointly promote international cooperation.
Akihide Tada, Vice President of International Exchange at Nagasaki University, took the "Asian Campus" Project as an example. He shared with the audience the successful experience of promoting scientific research cooperation and scholar exchanges between these two universities, all of which was propelled by the joint training project of top engineers and talents.
Wang Gaocheng, Vice President of Tamkang University in Taiwan, remarked that the exchanges and cooperation between the two universities have a long history.Thanks to the two-way academic cooperation and cultural exchanges,they have enhanced their mutual understanding and delivered many benefits to the two universities as well as to the faculties and students on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
Matt Greenberg, Head of Student Programs at the University of Wisconsin at Madison in the United States, also expressed his heartfelt thanks to SDU for its active efforts and great contribution in promoting international education, which is consistent with the mission of the University of Wisconsin. He also hoped to explore more opportunities for students to study abroad and jointly facilitate the development of international education through this exchangeweek.
At the opening ceremony, Shandong University signed cooperation and exchange agreements with the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Nagasaki University of Japan and Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. These agreements aim to promote talent training, cooperative scientific research, and communication between faculty members and students.
In the keynote speech and round-table forum, the representatives of foreign guests met with faculty representatives from different departments, international cooperation liaison professors and international students at Shandong University to share their own experiences and discuss the two topics,"Promoting the Implementation of Internationalization Strategy" and "Experience and Practice of Launching Overseas Experience Projects for Students". Representatives from SDU delivered speeches on topics including talent training, international programs characterized by“Studying Abroad at Shandong University” and the internationalization strategy of SDU. All of these aim to comprehensively display the features of SDU in its talent training and internationalization development.
During this period, representatives from each university also participated in the Shandong University Overseas Learning Experience Project Exhibition, held a meeting for students to discuss the overseas learning experience project, and also dialogued with leaders from relevant departments and schools. They experienced the course of traditional Chinese culture and observed an English-language course in the School of Economics and a Chinese-language course in the College of International Education.
Translated by: Zhang Hao
Edited by: Sun Yangyang,Che Huiqing