On the morning of March 25, Michael Harkin, Principal of University College Birmingham (UCB) in the UK, and his delegation paid a visit to Chengdu University. Liu Qiang, Secretary of the Party Committee of Chengdu University, met with the guests in Conference Room 112 of Teaching Building 14. Peng Xiaolin, Member of the Standing Committee of the Party Committee and Vice President of Chengdu University, accompanied and received the guests.
At the symposium, the two sides had in-depth exchanges on educational cooperation between the two universities and signed the Memorandum of Agreement between the School of Tourism and Culture Industry of Chengdu University in China and UCB in the UK.
Liu Qiang warmly welcomed Michael Harkin and his delegation and introduced the historical evolution, school-running orientation, discipline and major construction and internationalization strategy promotion of Chengdu University. He pointed out that UCB has a high degree of alignment with Chengdu University in tourism, hotel management, exhibition economy and management and other major fields. He hoped to take this exchange as an opportunity to deepen scientific research cooperation and resource sharing between the two universities, carry out more practical cooperation in cooperative education, joint teaching, student exchanges, teacher visits and other aspects, improve Chengdu University's school-running level and ability to serve local economic and social development, and jointly contribute to achieving the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals and building a community of shared future for mankind.
Principal Michael Harkin thanked Chengdu University for its warm reception and briefly introduced the development history of UCB. He said that UCB attaches great importance to international development and has continuously developed innovative major directions on the basis of maintaining its original major advantages in recent years. He hoped that the two sides will achieve more results in cooperation on education projects and jointly promote the internationalization process of the two universities.
David Paulson, Executive Dean of the Business School of UCB, gave a comprehensive introduction to the overall situation of UCB. He mentioned that most of UCB's undergraduate and postgraduate degree programs are accredited and awarded degrees by the University of Warwick which ranked 67th in the world in QS World University Rankings 2024. He hoped that under the signing of this memorandum of agreement, the two universities will combine their excellent academic advantages to provide students with high-quality educational resources and study environment.
Under the witness of the leaders of both universities, David Paulson and Zhu Dan, Dean of the School of Tourism and Culture Industry of Chengdu University, signed the Memorandum of Agreement between the School of Tourism and Culture Industry of Chengdu University in China and UCB in the UK as representatives of both sides. According to the Memorandum of Agreement, the two universities officially launched the comprehensive cooperation in the fields of academic exchange and international mobility of teachers and students.
After the symposium, the guests visited the IELTS computer test site. Relevant persons in charge of the Office of International Cooperation and Exchanges and the School of Tourism and Culture Industry attended the above-mentioned activities.
