Dr. Hiltraud Casper-Hehne said that PKU enjoyed a high reputation in Germany, and the same teaching idea and the similar teaching structure of the two universities provided a firm basis for further cooperation. In July this year, Modern Asia Research Center was established at Goettingen University and it was the first research center in Europe that offered courses with Chinese as the first foreign teaching language. Prof. Axel Schneider, a noted Sinologist and the Director of the center, visited PKU the other day and expressed his hope for a close collaboration with PKU Dept. of History and other humanistic schools to foster more top sinologists. In addition, Dr. Hiltraud Casper-Hehne talked about Germany's promotion of Chinese in primary education and the expansion in the field of Sinology in universities and colleges.

Prof. Yang thanked Goettingen University for what it had done in promoting the cooperation of education between China and Germany and expressed his expectations for PKU's longer and further cooperation with German universities. Mr. Zheng said that the interdisciplinary cooperation between PKU and German universities had come into the second five-year period, and every year PKU sent many graduates to Germany to undertake research on more than twenty subjects and there had been five PKU students who received full EU scholarship to study at Goettingen University. Meanwhile, PKU accepted German students to study in Dept. of Philosophy. He pointed out that German had become the second preferred country for PKU students for pursue further studies besides the US. Setting up a collaboration plan would enhance the academic research of universities, the cultural communication and friendship between China and Germany.

As the alma mater of the late well-known scholar Ji Xianlin, Goettingen University  held a series of activities in memory of him, for example, setting up "the day of Ji Xianlin", translating his work Ten years' stay in Germany, etc. Given the deep friendship and the promising future of cooperation between PKU and Goettingen University, representatives from the two universities signed a cooperation memorandum.

Background:

University of Goettingen, Georg-August-University of Goettingen in full, was founded in 1734. As one of the nine top universities in Germany, Goettingen University has a sound international reputation. Its disciplines like Laws, Mathematics, Physics, are world renowned. Numerous scholars like Carl Gauss, Max Weber, Alexander von Humboldt, and Heinrich Heine once studied there. PKU Prof. Ji Xianlin also studied at Goettingen University for a long time and got his Ph. D.