From December 4th-11th, Wang Honglei, Executive Vice President of GZU, along with his delegation, visited the United States and Canada for inter-university exchanges. Joining this delegation were the directors of the Academic Affairs Office, Office of International Relations, College of Computer Science and Technology, and College of Continuing Education.
The delegation first paid a visit to a world-renowned university, the University of California Riverside, and met with Cynthia Larive, Vice Chancellor and Director of Teaching Affairs; Kelechi Kalu, Deputy Director of Teaching Affairs; Wang Jun, Assistant Vice Chancellor; Wang Yunzeng, Dean of the School of Business; and Marko Princevac, Dean of the College of Engineering.
At the meeting, Wang Honglei introduced the development of GZU, especially the status quo of constructing GZU as a “Double-First Class” university, which, he believed, would be enhanced by cooperation in the areas of faculty development, talent cultivation and disciplinary construction with world-class universities such as UC Riverside.
Wang Jun made a detailed introduction of UC Riverside. It is a world-famous public research university and a founding member of the University Innovation Alliance. It ranked 85th of the Top 100 Universities identified by U.S. NEWS in 2019 and 13th among the top public universities ranked by Washington Weekly in 2017. It has a strong faculty with 2 Nobel Prize winners, more than 100 members of the National Society of Professional Engineers, and 65 Distinguished Young Professor Awardees by the National Science Foundation. The College of Engineering has been named one of the Best Engineering Colleges in the United States.
The visit fostered engaging discussions and participants reached agreements on the training of young and middle-age teachers, programs for young GZU teachers to pursue PhD degrees at UC Riverside, the 3+1+X mode of student development, and programs of international continuing education.
On behalf of GZU, Wang Honglei, signed a cooperation agreement with Cynthia Larive. GZU and UC Riverside will start further substantive cooperation within the framework of this agreement.
The delegation also visited Université du Québec à Chicoutimi (UQAC), Canada, one of GZU’s friendship universities, and met with Alexandre Cloutier, Vice President of UQAC, and Guylaine Boivin, Director of International Relations.
Both groups reviewed the progress of the MPM program. This Sino-foreign educational program was initiated in 2002. Over the past 16 years, the program has enrolled 1097 students, with over 800 graduates and 200 current students. Both sides also discussed a plan for starting a Sino-foreign educational program of Physical Therapy, and it was agreed that a proposal would soon be submitted to the Ministry of Education.
After the meeting, the delegation was shown around UQAC’s teaching facilities, basic science labs, libraries, computer science labs and, significantly, physical therapy labs.
Text: The Office of International Relations
Photography: The Office of International Relations
Chief Editor: Yin Zixi
Senior Editor: Tang Juan
Translator: Zhu Xiaofeng
Proofreading: Zoe Novak, Zhou Jie