President Li Jiajun Visits France and Slovakia

From May 17 to 23, President Li Jiajun with his delegation visited France and Slovakia. In France, President Li visited the Polytech Nice-Sophia and signed a Cooperative Agreement on Engineering Graduate Education. He also paid a visit to Nobel Laureate, an Honorary Professor of Tianjin University (TJU) Luc Montagnier and Corresponding Member of French National Academy of Pharmacy, Professor of the Université Pierre et Marie Curie Zhang Yongmin. In Slovakia, President Li attended the 8^thBoard Meeting of Directors of the Confucius Institute in Bratislava.

During their visit at the Polytech Nice-Sophia, the TJU delegation was warmly received by Director Philippe Gourbesville and the representative of the Office of International Relations. Firstly, Director Gourbesville gave an overview of the Sophia Antipolis, the "Silicon Valley” of Europe where Polytech Nice-Sophia is located, especially its unique management style of creating an international community to improve talent interaction, networking and cross fertilization of ideas among people from different nations, expertise and backgrounds, without the interference from the government. He also indicated that there are no administrative agency, and thus no taxation in this technology park. Then, he elaborated on the teaching, research, student training of Polytech Nice-Sophia and its internationalization practice. He especially mentioned their establishment of English courses and the requirement for all the students to have experience of international exchange and learning before graduation.

President Li talked about TJU history and disciplinary layouts. He then pointed out that the engineering education in France provided a valuable experience for the engineering education reform at TJU. He hoped that the two universities would work together on the students’ international internships and dual masters’ degree programs, and the possibility of jointly exploring a new model of engineering education. Both sides discussed the university-enterprise collaboration of the Polytech Nice-Sophia including the employment of industrial professionals to teach students and the internship requirements for students. They also talked about the characteristics of the engineering education in France with focuses on the training of students’ practical ability and independence as well as their future capacity of employment and career development. Afterwards, President Li and Director Gourbesville signed a Cooperative Agreement on Engineering Graduate Education, aiming at promoting the collaboration on the education of graduate students.

President Li also called on Nobel Laureate Professor Luc Montagnier at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris. Professor Montagnier updated the TJU delegation on the HIV research progress of the World Foundation for AIDS Research and Prevention. President Li briefed him on the research at TJU in the related fields and invited him to visit TJU again to contribute his expertise to the to-be established School of Life Sciences and Technology at TJU.

On May 22, President Li and his delegation visited Slovakia and were warmly welcomed by Chinese ambassador to Slovakia Gu Ziping, Vice Chairperson of Slovak Parliament Jana Lassakova, Chairman of Slovak–Sino Group in Inter-Parliamentary Union Maro? Kondrót, Rector of the Slovak University of Technology Robert Redhammer and Director of the Confucius Institute in Bratislava Peter Paulen. In Slovakia, the TJU delegation attended the 8^thBoard Meeting of Directors of the Confucius Institute in Bratislava. During the meeting, Rector Robert Redhammer and former Rector of the Slovak University of Technology Vladimir Bales were elected as the new Chairmen of the Board of Directors and Supervisory Board respectively. The Full Year 2011 report of the Confucius Institute in Bratislava and the financial report were approved. The plan of activities and budget for 2012 were discussed and the next Board Meeting was proposed to be held at TJU in May 2013. President Li endorsed the achievements made by the Confucius Institute. He hoped that the platform of the Confucius Institute would further contribute to the all-round cooperation between TJU and the Slovak University of Technology, the University of Economics and the Medical University in Bratislava in terms of faculty and student exchange, scientific research, commercialization and application of research findings in the areas of mutual interest.