TJU Delegation Visits Southeast Asian Universities

From October 27 to November 2, 2014, Prof. Liu Jianping, Chairman of the CPC Standing Committee of Tianjin University (TJU), led a delegation to India and Brunei and visited the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT Bombay), Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD).

At IIT Bombay, the delegation was warmly welcomed by H. S. Pandalai, Deputy Director of Finance and External Affairs. Prof. Pandalai gave an overview of the Indian Institute of Technology regarding its management and operation mechanism and its Bombay branch, including its disciplinary layout, schools and departments, degree programs and international cooperation. Chairman Liu talked about TJU’s history, advantageous disciplines, scientific research and internationalization. He also elaborated on the concepts and practices of TJU in promoting university-industry collaboration. Afterwards, further discussions were held on long-term cooperation and the promotion of student exchanges through joint-training programs, and therefore its strong implication for research cooperation between faculties of the two universities in areas of common interest. Meanwhile, they reached a consensus on signing an Agreement on Student Exchanges.

During the visit to JNU, its Rector-II Prasenjit Sen met with the delegation. He briefed on the background of JNU’s establishment, its advantageous disciplines and interdisciplinary development. Chairman Liu pointed out that, young as it was, JNU had made outstanding achievements especially in the fields of international studies and life sciences. He also expressed that, as a comprehensive university with strength in science and engineering, TJU attached great importance to interdisciplinary development and university-industry collaboration, highly complementary with JNU in many fields. In addition, they discussed on how to enhance collaboration in terms of combining fundamental research and engineering application, and hoped to facilitate substantial research cooperation through faculty exchanges. After the discussion, they agreed to sign a Memorandum of Understanding and an Agreement on Student Exchanges.

The delegation also visited the Chinese Embassy in India. Ambassador Le Yucheng briefly introduced recent cooperation and exchange in the fields of economics, culture and education between the two countries. He emphasized the unprecedented opportunity for the cooperation between China and India and expressed the Embassy’s willingness to promote deeper exchanges and cooperation between the universities of the two countries. Chairman Liu gave an update of TJU’s recent development and international cooperation with Indian universities in particular. He expected to establish complementary and long-term partnership with Indian universities based on each other’s characteristics in running. Ambassador Le spoke highly of the practice of TJU and expressed that the Embassy could provide support for cooperation between TJU and Indian universities.

During the visit to UBD, David Koh, Assistant Vice Chancellor of Research and Innovation, met with the delegation. He gave an overview of Brunei’s higher education system and UBD, especially the university’s practice in expanding the overseas experiences of its students. Chairman Liu talked about TJU’s scientific research, disciplinary development, talent training, and international research cooperation. He saw the promising future of collaboration with UBD in petrochemical engineering because of sharing strength in this field. Subsequently, a detailed discussion was held on student joint training and research cooperation in areas of common interest. After the discussion, a school-level Agreement on Student Exchanges was signed between the two parties.