On the afternoon of Oct.16, a delegation with 17 members from Upper Austria, Austria, led by Vice-Governor Christine Haberlander, visited our university. Xing Shunfeng, Chief Educational Inspector of Shandong Provincial Education Department, Jiang Yu, Director of International Office of Shandong Provincial Education Department, and personnel from Foreign affairs office of Shandong Provincial People's Government participated in the meeting. President Zhao Zhongxiu delivered a welcome speech.
Zhao Zhongxiu first extended gratitude to the delegation for their visit to SDUFE on their participation in the Shandong International Sister-city Relationships Cooperation Development Conference. Then he introduced the Shandong’s economic development, splendid culture, and long history, and he believes that under the current historical circumstances, Shandong province and Upper Austria enjoys a broad space for cooperation. Meanwhile, SDUFE also shares the responsibility to promote Shandong’s regional economic cooperation and the mission of opening to the outside world. He pointed out that SDUFE and the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria have good relations of collaboration, and the two sides jointly hosted the Humboldt Forum-Qilu Forum 2019 with the in-depth discussion of 14 entrepreneurs from both countries. President Zhao hopes that based on these efforts, SDUFE will expand collaboration with the universities from Upper Austria in the aspect of joint research, teacher exchanges, and joint program. President Zhao, who was appointed as the City Ambassador of Steil, Austria in September 2019 and elected as a member of the European Academy of Arts and Sciences four years ago, said he would actively promote collaboration with Austria and hoped that Governor Christine Haberlander would give strong support to the cooperation between the universities of two sides.
Christine Haberlander expressed her sincere thanks to SDUFE for the warm reception and said that during her meeting with Provincial Governor Gong Zheng, she learned about the new and old kinetic Energy Conversion of Shandong province and believes that Upper Austria and Shandong could seize the opportunity to share the experience and resources in terms of energy conversion, tourism, and other fields. Christine Haberlander said that Upper Austria always believes that education plays a significant role in the economic development and express her wishes to witness the cooperation between the universities of two sides which will promote the education development of two countries.
Wang Jianbo, the director of the International Office, made a special report under the theme of the international strategy of SDUFE over recent years. In her report, she noted that the University had expanded cooperation channels seeking higher-level partners with the joining of international platforms, including BRICS Think Tank Member Units, China-Russia Economic Universities Alliance, and Asia Pacific School of Management. She also introduced the cooperation between SDUFE and the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria, and the fruitful results yielded from the students and faculty exchanges. She expects the two sides will further links in the following four fields: sharing high-quality educational resources, communication between teachers and students, hosting high-level international forums, and cultural exchanges.
The two sides enhanced mutual understanding through exchanges on setting up continuing education in universities, promoting women's education and equality in employment.
Xin Shunfeng signed an MOU on educational cooperation with Christine Haberlander. After the meeting, President Zhao Zhongxiu received the interview by the press from Upper Austria and answered the questions regarding the following collaboration between two sides’ universities.
