From May 22nd to 30th, Vice President Luo Huibo led a university delegation on a fruitful visit to Chile and Brazil. To further implement “the Belt and Road” Initiative and the “1257” strategic blueprint of Sichuan University of Science & Engineering (SUSE), this visit aimed to continuously strengthen international exchanges and cooperation to further advance the international school-running process, in line with open-door education philosophy.
Chile is one of SUSE’s target countries for expanding cooperation in South America. The delegation first visited Universidad del Desarrollo (University of Development) of Chile. They held a meeting with Eugenio Guzmán, dean of the School of Government, and reached cooperative intentions between the two universities in aspects such as exchanges of faculty and students visits, joint training, collaborative scientific research, cultural and academic exchanges. Then, the delegation visited Ruan Huiqiao, the Deputy Director of the Center for Language Education and Cooperation (CLEC) for Latin America and the Caribbean. Both sides had comprehensive discussions on jointly building a series of demonstration projects that includes “Chinese Language Workshops” and “Chinese + Vocational Training” in Latin America by relying on SUSE’s industrial college.
There is an old saying: “make new friends, but keep the old”. Brazil is the country which SUSE maintains the closest collaboration in South America. This visit further deepened the partnership between SUSE and the State of Mato Grosso. Accompanied by Rita de Cássia Oliveira Chiletto, Director of the Office of International Affairs, State of Mato Grosso, the delegation led by Luo Huibo met with Vera Lucia da Rocha Maquêa, President of Universidade Estadual de Mato Grosso do Sul (UEMS), and all university leaders. Then the delegation made a field trip to the main campus of UEMS, both sides exchanged their views and refined cooperation details once again on projects including co-establishment of the Confucius Institute, online courses and joint scientific research, etc. Additionally, the delegation specially met with SUSE graduates who are studying at UEMS.
During the visit to Rio de Janeiro, SUSE established its first cooperative partnership with Rio de Janeiro State University, and both sides signed a letter of intent for cooperation after discussing the matters of cooperation together. Additionally, to facilitate the prompt implementation of existing cooperative projects, the delegation made a field visit to the Confucius Institute at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio) and its International Affairs Office. As a Talent and Intelligence Introduction Base of Sichuan Province, SUSE specially visited professor Lázaro, a member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences from Physics Department of PUC-Rio, and his Laboratory for Protective Coatings and Nanostructured Materials, in order to develop international cooperation projects with science and engineering characteristics, and attract high-level overseas talents in related fields, as well as establish closer scientific research partnership with key laboratories of Brazil cooperative universities.
This visit yielded significant outcomes. Not only did it effectively expand SUSE’s international cooperation network and deepen collaboration with higher-education institutions of Latin America, but it also strongly promoted the development of SUSE’s open-door education strategy and internationalization process.
The members of the visiting delegation included Luo Yi, Member of the Standing Committee of University Party Committee and Director of the United Front Work Department, Director Zhong Junbo from the Party Committee Talent Work Office, Dean Jiang Weidong from the School of Graduate, and Cai Zhaoliang from the School of Foreign Languages.
