Vice President Li Wei Leads a Delegation to Visit Partner Institutions of DHU in Japan as DHU Japan Alumni Association Holds Re-Election

Date:2023-06-26

On June 21, the Council Meeting of the Sino-Foreign Cooperative Undergraduate Education Program, jointly organized by Donghua University (DHU) and Bunka Gakuen University, was held at Bunka Gakuen University. Vice President Li Wei attended the meeting, accompanied by representatives from the Academic Affairs Office, the International Cooperation Office, and relevant colleges.

Prior to the council meeting, the President of Bunka Gakuen University, Akira Ueda, met with the delegation from DHU. On behalf of the school, Li Wei extended sincere congratulations to Bunka Gakuen University on its centennial celebration and delivered a congratulatory letter from the President of DHU Yu Jianyong. During the meeting, both sides reviewed the student training and the annual cooperation report for the academic year 2022-2023. They also conducted in-depth discussions and reached a consensus on topics of mutual concern, such as changes in the Council members, improvement of talent cultivation, faculty development, and curriculum system enhancement. The delegation also participated in the relevant celebration activities for the centennial of Bunka Gakuen University.

During the trip to Japan, the delegation from our school visited our partner institutions. During the meeting with Vice President Kaeko Kamei of Kyoto Institute of Technology, Li Wei pointed out that Kyoto Institute of Technology was the first university in Japan to establish a partnership with DHU, which to date has lasted 37 years. The research cooperation and student exchange between the two universities have continued for many years with fruitful results. The YKD Symposium jointly organized by the two universities and Yeungnam University of South Korea has been conducted for nearly 20 years. Kaeko Kamei welcomed the visit of our delegation, expressed satisfaction with the current state of cooperation and looked forward to future areas of collaboration between the two schools. The two sides conducted extensive and in-depth discussions on topics such as the development of first-class disciplines, research cooperation, and student exchange. After the meeting, the delegation visited the teaching and research facilities of Kyoto Institute of Technology, including the Design Laboratory, Material’s Properties Control Laboratory, and Innovative Materials Laboratory.

The delegation also visited Chiba University, and Makoto Watanabe, Vice President of the university, attended the exchange forum. The two sides introduced to each other their recent developments and reviewed the past and current cooperation between the two schools. Li Wei praised Chiba University's achievements in industrial design, medicine, and other fields of discipline development and looked forward to further promoting international research cooperation and expanding the scope and breadth of faculty and student exchange between the two universities. Makoto Watanabe hoped that DHU would leverage its advantages in the discipline development of its international campus design and the cooperation between industry, university and research institutes, and that the two universities would jointly build a platform for international cooperation in the field of design based on their influence in their respective countries. Prior to this, the delegation visited Sophia University, holding talks with the heads of the Academic Affairs Department and the Foreign Language Faculty. Sophia University is the most internationalized university in Japan, and over the years, there have been frequent student exchanges between the two universities. In the future, the two universities will further deepen their cooperation in environmental engineering, humanities and social sciences, language and literature, and restart two-way student exchanges and interactions.

On June 22, the Donghua University Japan Alumni Association General Assembly was held. Li Wei, Chen Liping, Counselor of the Education Section of the Chinese Embassy in Japan, and others attended the meeting. Li Wei, on behalf of DHU, expressed her affirmation of the effective work of the alumni association since its establishment and expressed her satisfaction with the alumni's support for the alma mater and patriotism. She sincerely thanked the Embassy for its attention and support to the university, the Donghua University Japan Alumni Association, and the alumni studying in Japan. She introduced the recent developments in the university's education, pointing out that alumni resources are the university's valuable assets, and that the university's progress cannot be achieved without the joint efforts of a large number of alumni at home and abroad. She hoped that the Japanese alumni will continue to care about and support the development of the university, and at the same time, she hoped to expand the depth, breadth, and practical aspects of educational cooperation with Japanese universities with the support of the Embassy. Chen Liping welcomed Li Wei and her delegation, congratulated the alumni association on its successful re-election, and affirmed and praised the fruitful achievements of DHU students and alumni in their respective fields. She expressed the hope for closer connections and in-depth cooperation between the alumni, the university and the Embassy, promoting educational cooperation and cultural exchanges between China and Japan. During the meeting, the members of the second council were elected. The delegation also visited DHU alumni studying and working in Kyoto and Tokyo.