From December 8 to 15, WXIT President Zhou Guijin led a delegation to visit partner universities in the UK and Ireland, Cambridge Cultural and Educational Exchange Center in the UK and Shannon University of Technology in Ireland. Both sides reached consensus on deepening practical cooperation in the field of vocational education as well as Sino-foreign cooperative institution.
WXIT delegation was welcomed by Professor Patrick Horsley, Director of the Cambridge Cultural and Educational Exchange Centre. The center is committed to strengthening business ties and cultural exchanges between China and Cambridge, UK, and has organized more than 500 exchanges between Chinese delegations and Cambridge universities in the past decade. Patrick Horsley systematically introduced the British education system, shared the British vocational education apprenticeship model, and the successful cases of Sino-British vocational education cooperation. Zhou Guijin, WXIT President, introduced the school running situation and international development of WXIT. Based on the past work, both sides indicated that they would strengthen cooperation in the future to build a platform and contribute to the vocational education cooperation between China and the UK and the joint training of international talents.
Subsequently, the delegation went to Technology University of the Shannon (TUS) Limerick campus. At the Limerick Campus, Professor Vincent Kunan, President of Technology University of the Shannon, and Professor Mike Fitzpatrick, Dean of the Limerick College of Art and Design, received WXIT delegation and highly appreciated the high quality of WXIT international talent training. Professor Mike Fitzpatrick introduced the history of Limerick College of Art and Design, and led the delegation to visit the teaching and training venues of Limerick College of Art and Design, as well as the school's art exhibition hall located in the center of Limerick. The two sides had an in-depth discussion on how to deepen the cooperation between design and art majors, promote professional development, and enhance the effectiveness of cooperation and education.
At Athlone Campus, Vice President Donnaka McNamara, Director of International Exchange and Cooperation Mary Simpson, and leaders of the School of Computer and Software Engineering as well as the delegation received the delegation. Mary Simpson introduced the development process, current situation and discipline characteristics of TUS. WXIT President Zhou Guijin reviewed a series of achievements made by the two universities in the joint training of international talents and scientific research cooperation since the cooperation, and introduced a series of reform measures taken by the university in improving the enrollment and teaching quality of Irish colleges. The two sides expressed the willingness of the two universities to cooperate in the future to build Chinese-foreign cooperative undergraduate programs and jointly train talents at the undergraduate level, and signed a cooperation agreement.
The members of the delegation had in-depth communication and exchanges with each other on professional development, curriculum reform, cooperative education, joint scientific research and related aspects. WXIT delegation also had a meeting with Chinese student representatives in TUS who were encouraged to make full use of learning resource.
