On June 24, Vice President Zhang Ligang met with a delegation led by Monty Singh, Vice President for International Affairs at Victoria University of Australia, at the Zhengzhou campus to discuss deepening cooperation. Heads from the Office of International Affairs Office and the International Business School, along with other relevant units, accompanied the meeting.

Ligang Zhang first extended a warm welcome to Monty Singh and his delegation and congratulated Monty Singh on his role as Vice President for International Affairs at Victoria University. He noted that over the 22 years of collaboration between the two universities, a deep friendship had been formed. The joint educational program between Henan University and Victoria University is one of the earliest Sino-foreign cooperative education programs in the province. This program has provided a broad platform for learning and practice for the HENU teachers and students, continuously promoting student exchanges, faculty visits, and research cooperation between the two universities while keeping pace with modern educational trends, achieving a series of fruitful results. The enthusiasm and desire for cooperation between Henan University and Victoria University remain unchanged. Both parties hope to actively summarize experiences, expand areas of cooperation, and enhance the level of collaboration to jointly cultivate more talents with international perspectives and cross-cultural communication skills.

Monty Singh expressed that Henan University is one of Victoria University’s most important partners in China. Over the past 22 years, the joint educational program with Henan University has operated stably, achieved significant results, and grown substantially, cultivating a large number of outstanding international talents. He hopes both universities can further expand their scope of cooperation and work together to cultivate high-quality talents. Additionally, Monty Singh sincerely invited teachers and students from Henan University to visit Victoria University for exchanges to further deepen cooperation and strengthen ties between the two universities.

Subsequently, the Victoria University delegation held in-depth discussions with leaders from the International Business School, reaching a series of consensuses on further deepening student training, strengthening project cooperation, and promoting the development of international education.

The visiting group engaged in face-to-face exchanges with students from the Sino-Australian program. Monty Singh, George Yue, project leader of Department of Cross-border Educational Cooperation, Victoria University, in China and lan Luo, the admissions manager for China, introduced the recent developments, teaching models, course designs, and assignments at Victoria University. Finally, Monty Singh and his delegation answered questions from the students, creating a warm atmosphere of exchange.

Founded in 1916, Victoria University is one of Australia’s largest and most comprehensive public universities, ranked among the top 2% of world universities by Times Higher Education in 2024. The university comprises ten colleges with over 40,000 students. It is renowned for its educational quality and services, ranking among the top universities in Australia for educational quality. Since 2003, Henan University and Victoria University have jointly conducted Sino-foreign cooperative education programs, maintaining a long-term stable relationship of cooperation and exchange. In May 2016, Henan University renewed its cooperative education agreement with Victoria University, introducing Australian undergraduate degrees and becoming the first institution in Henan Province to award foreign undergraduate degrees domestically. This initiative helps outstanding Chinese students achieve their dreams of studying abroad without leaving the country at a cost far lower than studying overseas.