Slovak Delegation Visited Tianjin University

From Nov.21 to 22, a Slovak delegation headed by Prof. Vladimir Bales, Chairman of Board of Directors of Confucius Institute in Bratislava（CIB）and Rector of Slovak University of Technology, visited Tianjin University. Prof. Jianping LIU, Chairman of Administrative Council of TU, and Prof. Ke GONG, President of TU, met the guests respectively. During the meeting, Prof. LIU showed his warm welcome to their visit to Tianjin University and expressed his sincere appreciation to the Slovak colleagues for their efforts on the establishment of CIB. Prof. Liu pointed out that the establishment of CIB is helpful to build an effective system and platform in the areas of faculty and students exchange, teaching and scientific research between two universities. He hopes that both sides could attach great importance to quality teaching so as to build a model Confucius Institute, which in turn will promote comprehensive cooperation, covering education, scientific technology and cultural exchanges between two universities and two countries on the large. In the morning of Nov.22, the second meeting of Board of Directors of CIB was held in No.1 meeting room of the conference building. It was co-chaired by President Bales, Chairman of Board of Directors, and President Gong, Vice-Chairman of Board of Directors. Other attendees included Prof. Rudolf Sivak, Vice-Chairman of CIB, Rector of Slovak University of Economy in Bratislava; Mr. Peter Paulen, Director of CIB; Prof. Frantisek Janicek, Chairman of Supervisory Board of CIB, Vice-Rector of Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava; Mr. Junshu ZHANG, Board member, Dean of School of International Education of TU; Prof. Fuling YANG, Director of International Cooperation Office of TU; and Mr. Jinhe CHEN, Supervisory Board member, Deputy Dean of School of International Education of TU. First of all, President GONG extended his warm welcome to the guests and expressed his gratitude to the Slovak colleagues for their efforts in the establishment of CIB and the preparation for the Board meeting. Secondly, the board members discussed and approved the Agreement between Slovak University of Technology and Tianjin University for the Establishment of the CIB. Next, Prof. Shude DING (School of Social Science and Foreign Language, Tianjin University) was appointed as the Deputy Dean of CIB. Moreover, both sides discussed Bylaws of CIB, the work plan and draft budget of 2008. Then, the both sides agreed that the third Board meeting will take place in Bratislava in April, 2008. At the end of the meeting, President Ke GONG and President Vladimir Bales, on behalf each university signed the Agreement. During the stay in our university, the Slovak delegation also visited laboratories in the School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, and the School of Electronic and Information Technology. In addition, the delegation visited the School of Management and discussed with Prof. Ershi QI, Dean of the school, to explore cooperative opportunities. Founded by both Tianjin University and Slovak University of Technology, the Confucius Institute in Bratislava was formally open on May 17, 2007. Under the instruction of Hanban, the Confucius Institute was established after rounds of consultation. It is the first and the sole Confucius Institute in Slovak Republic up to now.