On the morning of September 21, 2023, a delegation led by Professor Gerry McCormac, the Principal of the University of Stirling, visited Chengdu University (CDU). Wang Qingyuan, President of CDU, and Peng Xiaolin, Vice President of CDU, extended a warm reception to the esteemed guests at the guest hall of the College of Chinese & ASEAN Arts. During the talk, the two sides reviewed the fruitful achievements they made in Chinese-foreign cooperative educational institutions and engaged in a friendly discussion that covered various topics, including university development and innovation strategies, China-UK talent cultivation models, international research cooperation, and international exchange of faculty and students. Moreover, they talked about comprehensive and expanded cooperation between the two universities in the future.
President Wang extended his cordial welcome to the guests and introduced to the Stirling delegation the historical background, core values, and strategic positioning of CDU. He also presented the university's notable achievements in its efforts to implement the talent strategy, characteristics strategy, internationalization strategy, and digital strategy. As a city university that is emerging and young, CDU has made remarkable progress in international university authoritative rankings, the Nature Index, and highly cited papers, as well as talent cultivation effectiveness, and has become one of the fastest-growing universities in China. He pointed out that the University of Stirling in the UK is one of CDU's important partners. In May 2021, the two universities jointly established the CDU Stirling College, which became the sixth Chinese-foreign cooperative educational institution with non-separate legal personalities in Sichuan Province. Besides, it is the first one of this kind in China that is oriented by the themes of health and sports. He mentioned that the visit of Professor Gerry McCormac's delegation marked the commencement of a new phase in the collaboration between the two universities. Looking ahead, they are to consistently reinforce their strong collaborative foundation, broaden the scope of cooperation, enrich the forms in which they work together, facilitate faculty and student exchanges, and jointly foster the development of high-quality talent.
Professor Gerry McCormac expressed his gratitude for the warm reception at CDU and spoke highly of the university's rapid development. He said that despite having learned about CDU before, he was still amazed by its high-quality development and looked forward to further cooperation with CDU. He highlighted that this was his first visit to China after the pandemic outbreak, and hoped to enhance deeper collaboration and exchanges between the two universities. The University of Stirling and CDU share a common trait of having been ranked among the top 50 young universities worldwide. Their rich teaching resources and diverse learning environments could offer students from across the globe a high-quality learning experience. Professor McCormac also expressed that the excellent teams, strong willingness for cooperation, and solid foundation of collaboration between the two universities have laid a solid foundation for their future cooperation in various fields.
After the meeting, the guests visited the Fitness Center, the CDU Institute for Advanced Study, and the Welcome Center of the FISU Games Village.
Relevant leaders from the Office of International Cooperation and Exchange, Stirling College, and the College of Physical Education attended the meeting.
About University of Stirling:
The University of Stirling, founded in 1967 under the prestigious royal charter, is one of the most innovative and beautiful national universities in the UK, and also one of the top universities in Scotland. It is one of the 16 excellent universities in the UK, with five-star sports facilities and cutting-edge modern features. The University of Stirling is ranked the 431st in the 2024 QS World University Ranking and 44th in the UK universities. The QS World University Rankings 2023 ranked the University of Stirling in the top 10 in the UK for sports science and in the top 25 in the UK for communications and media studies, pedagogy, and philosophy. The University of Stirling's research was also highly rated in the 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF) assessment. 87% of the research was rated as having an outstanding or significant impact on society, and over 80% was rated as world-leading or internationally excellent.
