The theme of the presidential forum was "The Role of China and Korea in Ushering in an Asian Age: Innovation and Change". Representatives from China's Ministry of Education, the China Scholarship Council, Ministry of Education of Korea, Department of Science and Technology, and presidents from almost 40 universities discussed the role universities should play in the coming age as well as new approaches to further cooperation and communication. They all agreed that against the backdrop of globalization, universities should shoulder the responsibility of fostering talents with international skills and vision in order to help sharpen their country's competitive edge.

Vice-President Lou delivered a speech on developing a new cooperative approach for universities. He stated that although the presidential forum has been an important high-level platiorm for communication, more stress should be attached to exchanges between scholars as well as administrative staff. Lou suggested that Chinese and Korean professors could establish closer relationships through joint graduate education.

At the closing ceremony, representatives signed a memorandum of understanding regarding views on scientific research, education and the organization of the forum.

During his visits to Kyunghee University and Hanyang University, Lou discussed cooperation in international research and engineering with his counterparts and met with SDU exchange students.

At Hanyang University, a preliminary cooperation agreement was reached between SDU and Hanyang University on energy and material engineering research as well as the transfer of technology to Korean-funded enterprises in Shandong Province. Lou also highly praised the campus at Ansan, known as ERICA (Education-Research-Industry Cluster at Ansan).

Written by: Cao Jing

Photo by: IPO

Source: International Office