Visit of a Delegation from the University of Queensland

A delegation from the University of Queensland (UQ) headed by Professor Max Lu, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research), visited Tianjin University (TJU) on October 28th-29th. Chairman of the University Council Liu Jianping, President Li Jiajun and Executive Vice Party Secretary Yang Xianjin met with the guests respectively. Also in attendance were Vice Party Secretary Li Yidan and the representatives from the School of International Education, the Graduate School, the Office of Science & Technology and the International Cooperation Office.

During the visit of the UQ delegation, Deputy Vice-Chancellor Lu and President Li signed an agreement on a TJU-UQ Joint PhD Program on behalf of the two universities. Deputy Vice-Chancellor Lu also delivered a speech on “Globalization of Higher Education” to TJU faculty and students at Peiyang Lecture, TJU’s most prestigious lecture series.

After extending his warm welcome to the guests, Chairman Liu Jianping indicated that both universities had made great achievements towards their cooperation in terms of research and personnel exchange, and that the jointly-established Confucius Institute was developing smoothly and was successfully promoting their comprehensive collaboration. He then gave an overview of TJU recent developments. In particular, he emphasized the six prizes TJU won recently from the three highest ranked National Science and Technology Award programs (National Natural Science Award, National Technical Invention Award, and National Science and Technology Progress Award). He also gave an introduction regarding the recent economic growth in the city of Tianjin as well as the opportunities TJU enjoys in this rapid development. Deputy Vice-Chancellor Lu expressed his sincere appreciation for TJU’s hospitality and expressed that TJU is a very important partner of UQ. He added that upon their in-depth collaboration in the fields of environment, materials and clean energy, 39 articles had been co-published by UQ and TJU, and the Confucius Institute had made smooth development. He expressed his congratulations on TJU’s achievements in research, which he thought were its just fruits of the 116-year history. He also expressed his hope that UQ could be involved in the development of Tianjin so as to expand and deepen the cooperation between the two universities.

Later at the signing ceremony of TJU-UQ Joint PhD Program Agreement, President Li gave an overview of TJU new campus. After his introduction regarding UQ’s research and development, Deputy Vice-Chancellor Lu pointed out that TJU, as a very important partner of UQ, ranks the fifth in the UQ’s top ten partners in China and will surge ahead on the list with further collaboration between the two universities. Afterwards, Deputy Vice-Chancellor Lu and President Li signed the Agreement.

In his speech at the Peiyang Lecture, Deputy Vice-Chancellor Lu analyzed the trends as well as challenges and opportunities of the globalization of higher education, which was followed by a storm of applause and a flurry of anxious questions by the enthusiastic students.

During their stay, Professor Zou Jin from UQ also gave a presentation on the UQ PhD programs, introducing in details the distinctive disciplines at UQ, its scholarship policy, the steps to applying for the program, and the newly signed TJU-UQ Joint PhD Program. After the presentation, Professor Zou also gave detailed answers and advice to the questions of TJU students.

Founded in 1910, the University of Queensland (UQ) is one of Australia’s largest and most prestigious universities and one of Australia’s top three universities, measured on a combination of research funding and academic standards. It is also a member of the Australia's Group of Eight coalition. The university has the most PhD students in Australia, with 45,455 students, including 11,364 international students from 134 countries. It is internationally renowned for its strength in education and research. UQ was ranked 48th worldwide in the 2011 QS World University Rankings and 86th in the 2011 Shanghai Jiao Tong University Academic Ranking of World Universities.

In October 2009, TJU and UQ signed an Agreement for the Establishment of the Confucius Institute at UQ. Since then, three Board Meetings of the Confucius Institute have been held. The Confucius Institute has set up research funds for the joint research between the two universities. In 2010, three scholars from both sides were funded for their exchanges, two from TJU to UQ for joint research for two months. In November 2011, with funding from the Confucius Institute, one postdoctoral fellow from UQ will visit the School of Chemical Engineering at TJU for joint research. Since 2010, the Confucius Institute has funded 52 UQ students to participate in the Summer Program at TJU for cultural and academic exchange, which was popular among the students in Australia with enthusiastic coordination from the International Cooperation Office and strong support from related departments at TJU. In addition, both universities have developed diversified cooperation programs. Eight students from TJU have been admitted to UQ for PhD degrees through the PhD Program funded by the China Scholarship Council (CSC). In October 2010, the “University of Queensland Day” was held successfully at TJU. In November that year, TJU’s first “Tianjin University Day” overseas was held at UQ with great success. With a wide variety of academic and cultural activities, the Confucius Institute at UQ is constantly promoting the humanistic exchange and academic collaboration in the areas of science and technology, humanities and social science between both universities.