In the morning of May 26, Southeast University convened a seminar on international exchange and cooperation in response to COVID-19 pandemic. President Zhang Guangjun, Executive Vice President Wang Baoping, Vice President Jin Baosheng, Vice President Liu Pan and the heads of relevant functional departments attended the meeting. The meeting was presided over by Executive Vice President Wang Baoping.
At the meeting, the heads of various departments reported on the status quo, difficulties as confronted and corresponding countermeasures as adopted regarding internationalization under the condition of COVID-19 pandemic.
Sun Weifeng, Director of the Academic Affairs Office, and Jin Shi, Executive Vice President of the Graduate School, reported on the internationalized cultivationof talents during the pandemic; Guo Tong, Dean of the School of College of International Studies, reported on the enrollment and cultivation of international students during the pandemic; Wang Jingquan, Director of the Personnel Office reported on the employment of foreign teachers and the introduction of talents during the pandemic; Ye Zhirui, Director of the International Cooperation Office, reported on the interschool cooperation with world-class universities during the pandemic. Relevant comrades-in-charge from Suzhou Campus, Wuxi Branch, the Scientific Research Institute, the Social Sciences Department and the Finance Department, etc. also shared their supplementary speeches.
Liu Pan carried out a study and judgment on the introduction of overseas talents under the situation of COVID-19 pandemic. He believed in more opportunities than challenges, and we should actively take the opportunity to well introduce talents.
Jin Baosheng emphasized that in terms of joint cultivation of graduate students, it is necessary to improve the effectiveness of joint cultivation in a more accurate manner, give full play to the role of the college and department concerned, strengthen joint cultivation online and offline, and teach majors all in English.
Wang Baoping emphasized that the online education should be continued while more efforts should be devoted to developing more world-class cooperative universities and deepening the relationship with existing partners; pertinent measures should be adopted to do well in the work of international students and the Confucius Institutes. In respect of education in coalition, Southeast University-Monash University Suzhou Joint Graduate School and Southeast University Rennes Graduate School should actively explore the form of convening conferences online and work in an innovative manner.
Zhang Guangjun made a conclusion speech after carefully listening to the reports. He pointed out that the education internationalization would be the way to strengthen the school, but the epidemic had brought about difficulties and challenges to international exchanges and cooperation of our school, the same to the internationalization work of various departments to different extents. All departments should persist in the goals, overcome difficulties, make innovation in work mode and adopt proactive actions in accordance with General Secretary Xi Jinping’s emphasis on “cultivating new opportunities in crisis and opening up new situations in changes” so as to promote various internationalization efforts and minimize negative efforts as brought about by the pandemic under the current situation of normalized epidemic prevention and control.
First of all, efforts should be made to do well in the cultivation of internationalized talents online by various means, e.g., to promote the construction of online courses for foreign teachers, to carry out online summer camps and online course recognition for foreign universities, to strengthen the online enrollment, cultivation and management of international students.
Secondly, efforts should be made to do well in the international academic exchanges online by various means, e.g., to organize and participate in online international academic conferences, to organize online symposiums, and to conduct online international cooperation research.
Thirdly, efforts should be made to do well in the introduction of internationalized talents onlineby various means, e.g., to present the school’s policy about talent on the cloud platform, to organize talent recruitment overseas, to make innovation in work mode, to explore the introduction mechanism, and to intensify the introduction of overseas talents.
Fourthly, efforts should be made to do well in the international cooperation in school-running online by various means, e.g., to promote exchanges and discussions online with world-class universities to accelerate the construction of Wuxi International Campus.
Finally, President Zhang Guangjun emphasized that all colleges and departments should attach great importance to internationalization, care for teachers and students overseas, foreign teachers and international students, strengthen study and judgment, be brave in taking responsibility so as to turn crises into opportunities and create a new situation of international cooperation.
