From 30th May to 7th June, a delegation from GDUFS, led by Vice President of GDUFS LIU Haichun, visited Belgium, Greece, and Italy, aiming to establish close relationships with the local well-known universities and achieve some comprehensive agreements in education cooperation and communication.  

On 30th, May, LIU Haichun visited Brussels Free University, Belgium and initiated a heated discussion with Vice President Jean-Michel DE WAELE on the topic of teacher communication, student exchange and so on. Then, both sides were unanimous in signing an agreement about joint cultivation of a PhD programmeas soon as possible, which can provide opportunities for the doctoral students of GDUFS majoring in European Studies and French Language and Literature to exchange with Free University Brussels with a sponsorship from the China Scholarship Council. In addition, Brussels Free University agreed to give teachers and students from GDUFS opportunities to conduct cooperative studies there.  

Jean-Michel DE WAELE meeting with the delegates from GDUFS    

On 31st, May, LIU Haichun paid a visit to Catholic University of Louvain. In charge of the public relations and foreign exchange affairs of the university, Dr. Bart Hendrickx provided the delegation with a basic introduction of the university: Catholic University of Louvain, founded by Pope Martin V in 1425, is considered as the largest, oldest and most prominent university in Belgium and one of the most prominent universities in Europe. It has flourished for hundreds of years and at present, has become the world’s oldest Catholic university. In 1968, it was split into two distinct universities: Katholieke Universiteit Leuven(Dutch-speaking), and Université Catholique de Louvain (French-speaking). In 2002, Catholic University of Louvain, together with Oxford University, Cambridge University, Edinburgh University, and so on, set up an association of research-intensive universities called The League of European Research Universities (LERU) which is headquartered in Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.  

Following this, LIU Haichun reached a preliminary common intent with the representatives from the Faculty of Liberal Arts on teacher and student mobility and cooperative study programmes after a profound discussion, which meant that GDUFS can recommend excellent students to exchange with Catholic University of Louvain.  

Exchanging gifts with a representative of Catholic University of Louvain  

From 2nd to 3rd May, as the GDUFS delegation arrived at the University of Athens(UoA), the largest and the most distinguished university in Greece, warm receptions were extended by the President of UoA, Meletios-Athanasios C. Dimopoulos; Vice President, Kostas Buraselis; diplomat of Greece’s Ministry of foreign affairs and the former Consul General of Greece in Guangzhou, Constantin Cakioussis, and the Dean of faculty of Philosophy (equal to Faculty of Liberal Arts ) Eleni Karamalengou.  

After negotiating for 2 days, both sides expressed their desire to carry out all-round cooperation and reached intent consensus on some scholarly exchange programmes. In terms of the negotiation, a cooperation framework agreement will be signed in the near future.  

University of Athens promised that they will not only make every endeavor to help GDUFS establish and promote the professional level of the Greek major, but also give an opportunity to Greek learners from GDUFS for a one-year exchange study there and send experts to GDUFS. At the same time, GDUFS will support UoA to launch Sinology study and promote Chinese language and culture in Greece. Furthermore, GDUFS and UoA will make efforts to establish the second Confucius Institute in Greece.  

Meletios-Athanasios C. Dimopoulos taking a group photo with delegates  

University of Pavia is the best university in Italy and one of the oldest universities in the world. Early in 2009, GDUFS had already established a partnership of cooperation with this university.  

Given that currently, seven Italian learners from GDUFS are studying there, on 6th June, after looking around the archaic library, laboratories and some other equipment of the university, LIU Haichun met with those GDUFS’s exchange students, eager to hear about their study and living situations.  

LIU Haichun talking with the exchange students from GDUFS  

At the meeting with Vice President Ilaria and the representatives of the Office of International Cooperation and Exchange, LIU Haichun expressed his great gratitude to the University of Pavia for accepting exchange students from GDUFS and showed his strong wish that teachers and students from the University of Pavia can visit and exchange with GDUFS.  

Interested in Marco Polo project and Turandot programmes, according to which, students from GDUFS who don’t major in Italian can study in any Italian university after a one-year language study in university of Pavia, LIU Haichun hoped that the cooperation agreement about the two programmes can soon be signed.