The Confucius Institute of Arizona State University to actively promote high-end international scientific research cooperation of SCU

By Guan Ping

In an effort to accelerate the “Double World-Class” construction and promote the high-end international cooperation on scientific researches, the Confucius Institute jointly established by Sichuan University and Arizona State University has successfully invited a SCU delegation led by Executive Vice President Wan Xuehong of West China Hospital to visit Arizona State University. The purpose of the visit is to discuss the joint establishment of the platform (Biodesign China) for international scientific research cooperation and the transformation of scientific research achievements in collaboration with Bioscience Research Institute of Arizona State University (Biodesign), and also to attend a biomedical symposium jointly organized by both parties.

With a high expectation on this visit, President Michael Crow, Executive Vice President Sethuraman Panchanatha and Vice President Stefanie Lindquist of Arizona State University who is in charge of academic affairs and international affairs, met with the delegation of SCU separately. During the meeting, President Crow re-emphasized that “Arizona State University is the long-term important partner of Sichuan University and will pay much attention to the cooperation as usual”. The president hopes that this visit will promote and enhance the cooperation between the two universities, and the high-end cooperation projects between both sides can be achieved at an early date. Subsequently, the members of the delegation made fruitful discussions on the cooperation matters of construction of scientific cooperation platform, students' joint training, talent introduction with the relevant leaders, well-known experts and scholars of Arizona State University, and reached a preliminary consensus on the relevant cooperation programs.

Cooperation Background： Arizona State University ranks top in innovation education in the USNews and is the key partner of SCU in the United States.

With the approval of the Ministry of Education in 2006, our university carried out extensive, multiple-disciplinary and multiple-level international education exchanges and cooperation with Arizona State University by taking the Sino-US State-owned University Presidents Forum and the Sino-US University Strategic Design Institute as the platform, and brought about remarkable achievements. Since the signing of the comprehensive partnership agreement between the two universities in 2006, both sides have achieved fruitful achievements in cooperation areas of young teacher training, student exchanges, and collaborative researches. Since 2006, our university has assigned eight batches of young teachers to train foreign language at Arizona State University and two batches of middle-level officials to study and exchange at Arizona State University. In October 2007, the Confucius Institute jointly established by our university and Arizona State University was formally established. In October 2010, our university established the American Cultural Research Center with Arizona State University. At present, the student exchange programs implemented between both sides include: “3+1+1” Combined Bachelor-Master’s Degree Programme, “2+1+1 Undergraduate Project”, “Global Innovation” Winter Camps and Summer Camps. In July 2017, our university signed an agreement of joint training project for master students in business field in collaboration with Arizona State University and Woosong University.