10 October, the new president of Santo Tomas University of Chile, Maria Olivia Recart, came to visit ECNU president Qian Xuhong. During the meeting, president Qian congratulated Maria Olivia Recart on becoming the new president and expressed his warm welcome to the Chilean guests.
New president of Chile's Santo Tomas University visits ECNU
Since Santo Tomas University became ECNU’s first South American university partner, he spoke on the growing momentum between both universities in their education partnership.
President Qian then discussed the five plus action plans: Education Plus, Health Plus, Ecology Plus, Intelligence Plus and International Plus. Each of the “plus” action plans adheres to an internationalization strategy driven by innovation and world-class reputation. He said he hoped that the cooperation between ECNU and Santo Tomas University would thrive during the tenure of President Recart.
What she saw as a strong international atmosphere with unique features. Her trip to ECNU was the first overseas trip assigned to her after becoming the new university president. On cooperation between China and Chile, the two countries have maintained good political relations and educational cooperation between the two countries are set to reach new heights under the background of the Belt and Road Initiative.
For instance, in order to get more Chilean students acquainted with China, Santo Tomas University plans to add more courses pertaining to Chinese language and culture.
Meanwhile, she also mentioned the possibilities for joint-collaboration in estuarine and coastal studies by which the two universities exchanged views on a joint doctorate program for the field, and finally reached an official agreement on setting up the program.
After the meeting, the Chilean delegation paid a visit to the ECNU Latin American Cultural Studies Center and the State Key Lab of Estuarine and Coastal Research.
The Chilean delegation visits the ECNU Latin American Cultural Studies Center.
The Chilean delegation visits the State Key Lab of Estuarine and Coastal Research.
Established in 1988, the University of Santo Tomas is home to the regional center of the Confucius Institute in Latin America set up by China’s Hanban, or the National Office for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language.
The two universities have exchanged scholars more frequently for estuarine and coastal studies, environmental research, social development and educational technologies. They have also launched an exchange program for undergraduates majoring in Spanish. Maria Olivia Recart was Chile's vice finance minister from 2006 to 2010 before becoming the president of the Santo Tomas University in January 2019. The official cooperation agreement between ECNU and Santo Tomas University was concluded in December 2010.
Proofread by Joshua Mayfield Reviewed by Wenjun Guo
