From October 8 to October 16, the Fudan delegation led by Qiu Xin, chair of the Fudan University Council, traveled to Italy, Austria and Luxembourg to meet with leaders of partnering universities in person, in an effort to deepen inter-university cooperation and to renew partnership agreements.
In Italy, the delegation met with Francesco Billari, rector of Bocconi University, Andrea Sironi, president of Bocconi University, Tiziana Lippiello, rector of Ca' Foscari University of Venice, and Cristina Basso, vice rector of University of Padua. During the meetings, Fudan signed a supplemental agreement to the existing MoU with Venice University, and an MoU with Padua University.
Fudan University and its Italian partners will speed up collaborations in each other’s strong disciplines while expanding collaborations to more disciplines, said Qiu.
In Austria, Qiu met with Manuela Baccarini, vice rector of University of Vienna. He said, many collaborative activities had been held online since the strategic partnership agreement. Now that most travel restrictions having been lifted, Qiu expressed the hope that the two universities can further strengthen the strategic partnership and create more opportunities for faculty and student exchanges.
During the stay in Austria, the delegation also paid a visit to the headquarter of OeAD, Austria’s Agency for Education and Internationalisation, and Eurasia-Pacific Uninet, an educational network for Austrian universities and tertiary education institutions to support the development of cooperation in Central Asia, East Asia and the Pacific region.
In Luxembourg, the delegates met with Jens Kreisel, rector of University of Luxembourg, and Marie-Helene Jobin, vice rector of University of Luxembourg. The two universities agreed to strengthen cooperation in green economy, life sciences and medicine in the future. Qiu visited the Confucius Institute at the University of Luxembourg, which is a joint project operated by Fudan University and the University of Luxembourg; here Qiu met with Jauffrey Bareille, the Luxembourg director of the Confucius Institute, and Wu Hao, acting Chinese director of the Confucius Institute, and together the delegation paid a visit to the Multimedia Center of the Confucius Institute which boasts the largest collection of books, magazines, newspapers and films for learning Mandarin Chinese and contemporary Chinese culture in Luxembourg.
The delegation also visited the Chinese Embassy in Austria and the Chinese Embassy in Luxembourg to exchange opinions on the development of higher education in China, Austria and Luxembourg.
Over the years, Fudan has made great progress in its cooperation with universities across European countries. The new achievements will lay the groundwork for stronger China-Europe academic partnership in the post-pandemic era.
