Peking University, June 22, 2012: On the morning of June 19, Ian O’Connor, president of Griffith University of Australia, led a delegation to pay a visit to Peking University (PKU). PKU president Zhou Qifeng met with them and signed the agreement on the Dual Masters Degree Program in his office.
The agreement of “Foreign Linguistics and Applied Linguistics” and TESOL (Teaching English to Students of Other Languages) is jointly set up by PKU and Griffith University, aiming at playing advantages on language teaching resources from both sides and cultivating students to become outstanding talents in research and teaching.
Zhou welcomed the delegation and reviewed the history of collaboration between PKU and Griffith University. He pointed out that the two universities had made great progress in academic exchanges and piled up rich experiences. “In the past decades, PKU has done a lot in international exchange and we will create more chances for our students to study overseas and deepen the cooperation with international universities in the future”, he said.
Speaking of the challenges that Australia and China are facing now, O’Connor hoped that the two universities should carry out collaboration in climate change, water resources protection and biological engineering etc.
Background:
Since opening its doors in 1975, Griffith University has come to be regarded as one of Australia's most innovative tertiary institutions and one of the most influential universities in the Asia-Pacific region.
In 2006, under the cooperation of both Peking University the Institute of Population Research and the Australian Griffith University Centre for Environment and Population health, the two Universities signed to set up a "Sino-Australian Centre for International Cooperation" ,in order to make extensive cooperation in the field of population health, environment and development.
The Australia-China Futures Dialogues Annual Leader's Lecture, which started in 2009, is part of the Australia-China Futures Dialogue, a Griffith Asia Institute initiative held in collaboration with Peking University and supported by the Queensland Government. The future-oriented partnership focuses on how the Asia Pacific region will evolve in the next twenty years and how this evolution can be shaped in the interests of the countries in the Asia Pacific.
The 2012 Emerging Leaders’ Dialogue themed as “looking backwards looking ahead: 40 years of Australia-China Relations” was held at PKU from May 22-23.
Written by: Dong Zhiyao Zhang Jiang
Edited by: Cao Yixing
Source: PKU News (Chinese)
