On November 25, Wu Zhaohui, President of Zhejiang University, attended the China-Germany Forum for Higher Education, Science and Innovation hosted by the Free University of Berlin. It is one of the supporting meetings of the 7th Hamburg Summit. Vice Premier Liu Yandong attended the opening ceremony and delivered a keynote speech.
Liu Yandong expressed that joining efforts for innovation and common development is the consensus reached by both Chinese and German leaders. Both sides should join hands to promote innovative development and fire up the “innovation engine” of the global economy. Both sides should deepen China-Germany innovation policy dialogues, strengthen top-level design, facilitate docking of strategies, promote policy coordination and establish sharing platforms. It is hoped that institutions of higher education, research institutions and enterprises of both sides can intimately cooperate and make new contributions to the innovation causes of both countries and the development of China-Germany all-round strategic partnership.
Approximately 60 presidents of elite research-oriented universities in China and Germany attended the forum. They carried out in-depth discussions on a series of subjects in the domain of tertiary education, including exchange programs, talent cultivation, research cooperation and future development. In the open-question session, Wu Zhaohui proposed the notion regarding how to set up a first-class university governance structure, which resonated with the audience.
In addition, Wu Zhaohui also paid a visit to three top universities in Germany: Technical University of Munich (TUM), Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU), and Free University of Berlin (FU).
At TUM, Senior Vice President Dr. Hannemor Keidel introduced TUM’s cooperation with Zhejiang University and the overview of TUM. Wu Zhaohui expressed that TUM had a lot in common with Zhejiang University in that both universities had a full spectrum of disciplines and were on friendly terms with the industrial community. He recommended that student exchange programs be launched, a bridge be built with Polytechnic Institute of Zhejiang University, innovative postgraduate programs be conceived and a dual degree program be started with the International Campus of Zhejiang University.
At LMU, Wu Zhaohui and President Bernd Huber reviewed the 1st Munich-China Forum for Higher Education, Science and Technology hosted by LMU in 2015 and the 2nd LMU-Chinese Universities Joint Forum for Science hosted by Zhejiang University in 2016. They shared with each other information about academic communication, student exchange and research cooperation.
During this trip, Wu Zhaohui also visited some alumni in Munich and Berlin.