From June 23 to 27, President Liu Weiqi was invited to lead an exchange visit to Korean universities. During the visit, Liu Weiqi took part in the "Shanxi Daily" activity. He visited three universities, which are Kyonggi university, Soongsil university and Yeungnam university. He investigated 18 projects of campus culture development and signed two cooperation agreements, which promotes the mutual exchange of international resources, deepens our close and cooperative relations with the universities of South Korea and speeds up the process of internationalization of our school. It can be said that this visit was a big success.
One big contribution to the success was the participation in the "Shanxi Day" activities, through which our university could show its international orientation. On June 25, Liu Weiqi led a delegation of the provincial education department to participate in the "Shanxi Day" activity in Muan county, Jeonnam Province, to introduce Shanxi higher education and the Shanxi University of Finance and Economics in particular. The provincial party secretary Luo Huining and Korean governor Kim Yinglu and other officials jointly planted a Chinese poplar red peach blossom, symbolizing that the cooperation between the two places is blooming to a beautiful flower of friendship. On that night, the delegation of our province also watched the brilliant artistic performances presented by artists from both places.
Signing the cooperation agreements was another contribution to the success of the visit and can speed up the internationalization process of our university. On June 24, Liu Weiqi had an in-depth exchange with Kim Rengui, President of Kyonggi university. During the meeting, Liu Weiqi introduced the history, discipline advantages and latest development of the university. He stressed out that the university attaches great importance to the cooperation with Kyonggi university and is willing to work together with the Kyonggi university to carry out various cooperation projects conducive to the development of the two schools. Kim Rengui warmly welcomed Liu Weiqi and his delegation and appreciated the achievements made by the Shanxi University of Finance and Economics. He believes that even greater developement can be achieved through exchanges and cooperation. The presidents of the two universities signed the memorandum of cooperation between Shanxi University of Finance and Economics and Kyonggi University and reached the intention of cooperation between the two universities in such fields as teacher and student exchanges, academic and research cooperation.
The third success was the promotion of the plan to improve the influence of academic backbone and the building of an international platform. On June 27, director Wu Junqing and President Liu Weiqi visited Yeungnam University. President Xu Jishou and other officials of Yeungnam University warmly welcomed the delegation and held speeches. Liu and Xu signed the cooperation agreement between Shanxi University of Finance and Economics and South Korea's Yeungnam University, committing to implement reciprocal exchange plans, carry out cooperation in teaching and scientific research, promote exchanges between undergraduates and graduate students, develop joint degree courses, and exchange of academic materials and journals.
Fourth, to discuss cooperation intention and expand the international pattern，on June 26, Liu Weiqi and his delegation paid an official visit to Soongsil university of South Korea and had talks with Dr. Lee Bingwen, vice President of Soongsil university. Li Bingwen expressed his great honor to welcome the delegation from Shanxi University of Finance and Economics and introduced the history and professional setting of Soongsil university in detail. Liu Weiqi spoke highly of Soongsil university's long history of running a school and its philosophy of running a school with an international view. He hopes that this meeting is a good start for the cooperation between the two universities, and the two universities take this opportunity to expand the cooperation space. The two sides also held in-depth and detailed discussions on the exchanges and visits between teachers and students, education background training and discipline construction.
Fifth, experience campus culture and expand international vision. During the delegation trip, Liu Weiqi and his delegation also experienced the Korean campus culture to expand their international vision. They e.g. visited the gymnasium, art galleries and museums of Kyonggi University and also visited the student activity center and art exhibition center of Soongsil University and the university library, homestay village, etc. of Yeungnam University. Furthermore, they had exchange talks with management personnel of all the three Korean universities to get an in-depth understanding of the external ecology and internal structure, advanced educational concepts and management methods of university governance in South Korea.
In recent years, internationalization has become one of the thirteen basic strategies of our university. October 2018, the school issued "Opinions on Further Strengthening Exchange and Cooperation to Stimulate School-running Vitality and Improve School-running Level". After putting forward the main tasks of "20 Articles of Exchange and Cooperation", the school has made great efforts to set up first-class standards, precisely, continuously expanding domestic and foreign exchanges and cooperation, and has constructed "Opening Learning Border, Opening Discipline Border". Up to now, the number of times that off-campus experts came to the school to give academic reports increased by 50.62%, the number of times that off-campus experts visited the school to study by 2000% and the number of times that off-campus experts visited the school to study, increased by 350.50% and 400.67%, respectively, compared with the same period in previous years. This marks the beginning of a new journey of openly running our school.The number of national social science foundation projects in 2019 has reached a new peak.
