May 28th – The Annual Meeting of the Sino-Foreign Cooperative University Union was held in New York University Shanghai. Officially joining the union, Guangdong Technion – Israel Institute of Technology became one of the nine members of the union. Xu Tao, the Director General of Department of International Cooperation and Exchanges of the Ministry of Education, Ding Xiaodong, the Deputy Director of Shanghai Municipal Education Commission, Chancellors and Directors from Sino-Foreign cooperative universities attended the meeting.

It has been 12 years since the first Sino-Foreign cooperative university was established in 2005. At present, 9 established Sino-Foreign cooperative universities have been approved by the Ministry of Education in China. Thanks to the multi-culture atmosphere, Sino-Foreign cooperative universities have provided a different angle in innovative teaching models and faculty management. Creative ideas have been ignited.

With years of development, Sino-Foreign cooperative universities has been an important part of higher education in China, introducing quality educational resources and enriching our teaching models, said Xu Tao, Secretary of Department of International Cooperation and Exchanges of the Ministry of Education. He hoped that Sino-Foreign cooperative universities will be committed to their mission, diversify management and education, and embrace their own cultures and standardize their teaching models, providing experiences to the reforms of our higher education.

During the conference, Chancellors and Directors gave brief introductions of their universities and had an interactive conversation on their experiences. Li Jiange, the prestigious economist and Chancellor of GTIIT, made a speech on the conference. He said, China needed a large pool of international and innovative talents when embracing the world. Corresponding to the demand of China’s opening up to the world, Sino-Foreign cooperative universities were promising.  The Sino-Foreign Cooperative University Union would promote Sino-Foreign cooperative universities to communicate with and learn from each other in a deeper level, said Li. He was looking forward to the Ministry of Education and provincial governments continuing their support to the development of the Sino-Foreign universities by creating advantageous conditions.

The Ministry of Education, Shanghai Municipal Education Commission and members of the Sino-Foreign Cooperative University Union revealed the logo of the union.