On November 12th, 2020, the first meeting of the Henan University -Victoria University(VU) Joint Management Committee was held online in Conference Room 152 of the Administration Building of Jinming Campus in HENU. HENU Representatives at the meeting were Tan Zhen, Vice President, Mao Liqun, Director of International Affairs Office, Ma Bin, Director of Financial Affairs Office, Hu Deling, Party Secretary of International Education College, Ma Xiaoyong, Dean of International Education College. VU Representatives were Steve Berridge, Senior Vice-President and Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Global, Mark Farrell, Dean of Business School, Farzad Khosrowshahi, Dean of College of Engineering and Science, Caryn Nery, Director of TNE Partnerships, and other members of the Joint Management Committee.

To start with, Tan Zhen expressed her gratitude for the efforts made by both teams for the joint program and extended her best wishes to strengthen the cooperation of both sides and proposed to actively explore new forms of teaching and research to cope with the challenges brought by the pandemic.  

Steve Berridge believed that both universities have attached great importance to the operation of the program. According to him, thanks to the unremitting efforts made by both sides, the teaching team worked closely, the teaching activities during the pandemic unfolded smoothly and the partnership has yielded wonderful results.

At the meeting, the JMC members then moved on to discuss the governance framework and terms of reference of the Joint Management Committee and the Joint Operations Team. Risks, challenges and opportunities of the joint program have been reviewed by both sides to pursue stable development. Afterwards, both sides have exchanged updates on student quality and academic performance, explored opportunities for strengthening the collaboration and talked about the joint strategic planning and key focus areas for the year of 2021.

In the end, both sides agreed on the importance of the valuable meeting and hoped that the two sides can make a breakthrough in future collaborations like scientific research cooperation, student exchanges between two universities. It was agreed that the two sides should actively explore concrete measures to reduce the cost of education for students, further expand new areas of cooperation, and speed up cooperation in new disciplines. It is hoped that the path of cooperation between the two sides will become broader and more fruitful.

Contribution：International Education College