Vice President Yang Huilin Headed a Delegation to Five British Universities

Between March 14 and 23, 2012, Prof. Yang Huilin, Vice President of RUC, was invited to visit University of Birmingham, University of Edinburgh, University of Glasgow, University of Durham and King's College London to promote inter-school cooperation and communication. 

    Between March 14 and 16, the delegation visited University of Birmingham. On the morning of March 15, president Yang met with Prof. Edward Peck, Vice President of the University of Birmingham in charge of China affairs. The two presidents had thorough discussions in respect of faculty exchange program, academic cooperation, student joint training program and so on. On March 16, President Yang attended an academic conference held by the School of Philosophy, Theology and Religion.
      
    On March 19, Prof. Yang and the delegation visited the University of Edinburgh. Stephen Hillier, Vice President of the University of Edinburgh in charge of international affairs met with the delegation. The two parties discussed the possibility of setting up a joint research center – “Center for Global Religious Study”. Besides, University of Edinburgh plans to set up a“Chinese Spirit”project to support the research of post-doctoral students. At this meeting the Art Troupe of RUC was invited to participate into the 2013 Edinburgh International Art Festival. After the meeting, the two presidents listened to the work report given by the Center for Climatic Changes of Edinburgh University on its cooperation with Renmin University of China.



    On March 20, Prof. Yang and the delegation visited the University of Glasgow. Vice President of the University of Glasgow, Prof. Anne Anderson, met with the delegation. Prof. Yang first looked back on the good cooperation between the two schools in religious studies, the joint training program of Ph.D. students and post-doctoral research, faculty exchange program, etc. Prof. Anne Anderson gave a brief introduction of the University of Glasgow and specifically introduced the School of Social Sciences. The two parties had discussions with regard to academic collaboration, student and faculty exchange, and joint-publication plans. They also talked about specific plans to deepen mutual cooperation and communication. In addition, Frank Coton, Vice President of the University of Glasgow in charge of academic affairs, exchanged views with Prof. Yang on higher education.  
 


    On the morning of March 21, Prof. Yang and the delegation visited the University of Durham. RUC has had a long time friendship with the East-Asia Department of University of Durham in faculty exchange program and Chinese language teaching program. The cooperation was halted for some time due to the re-organization of East-Asia Department. Recently the University of Durham expressed its will of re-strengthening its relationship with Renmin University of China. Prof. Yang introduced the disciplinary advantages and international strategy of RUC. He suggested that the two universities strengthen cooperation in the joint training program of Ph.D. students and post-doctoral research. The delegation also held meetings respectively with relevant schools of the University. Dean of the School of Business, Rob Dixon, Dean of the Department of Theology and Religion, Douglas Davies, Dean of the School of St. Mary, Simon Hackett, and others, communicated with the delegation concerning international cooperation projects.

 
   On the morning of March 22, president Yang and the delegation visited King's College London. Renmin University is one of the few East Asian partners of KCL. Thus KCL attached great importance to the visit of the RUC delegation and arranged meetings and seminars at various levels. Prof. Keith Hoggart, Vice President of KCL, met with the delegation, introduced the present situations of the two universities, and renewed the contract of mutual cooperation with RUC.  Later on, Prof. Yang met with the Dean of the School of Fine Arts and Liberal Arts, Jan Palmowski, Dean of the School of Social Sciences and Public Policy, Denise Lievesley. The two sides had fruitful discussions in respect of student exchange, faculty exchange, and academic research cooperation. Other members of the delegation had a seminar with the China Centre, Overseas Study Office and other relevant divisions of KCL concerning high-level student exchange projects.