K.U.Leuven Tsinghua Week

K.U.Leuven Tsinghua Week

By Wang Shuzhen, Li Han

The K.U.Leuven Tsinghua Week, a major communication event between Tsinghua University and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (K.U.Leuven), started April 10.

Tsinghua University Council Chairman Chen Xi, Tsinghua Vice President Xie Weihe, Belgian Ambassador Bernard Pierre, and other senior administrators from both universities attended the opening ceremony held in Main Building, Tsinghua University that afternoon.

Professor Chen Xi extended warm welcome to the K.U. Leuven delegation . He said that it is a trend for the development of world higher education and an essential demand for the reform and development of Chinese higher education to enhance international communication and cooperation. He expressed the hope that the K.U.Leuven Tsinghua Week can promote mutual understanding and build a platform for academic exchanges.

We are looking forward to working together, to exchange master and doctoral students, in both directions, from Leuven to Tsinghua and the other way round. We are looking forward to exchanging lecturers and researchers, or to work together on joint publications and research projects. I am convinced that we can learn a lot from each other, and that this mission will be the starting point of a bright future together, said Professor Marc Vervenne, Rector of K. U. Leuven.

The representatives from both universities also planted a tree symbolizing the friendship of K.U.Leuven and Tsinghua in the Friendship Garden of Tsinghua April 10.

The Week features a meeting, group discussions, and K.U. Leuven alumni gathering. The group discussion especially provides chances for professor of both universities to have communications and deep talks in nine fields including nano-science, biomedical sciences, architecture, economics, humanities, law, economics, material engineering, chemistry, global governance, and strategy.

K.U.Leuven, a Belgium university founded in 1425 and situated at the heart of Western Europe, bears the double honor of being the oldest extant Catholic university in the world and the oldest university in the Low Countries. It grew into one of the largest and most renowned universities in Europe in the past six hundred years. At present, K.U.Leuven caters to more than 31,000 students, around 12% of whom are international students from more than 120 nations. On the academic side, the university is composed of 14 faculties, 50 departments and about 240 sub-departments.

It s just a start, but a good start which will hopefully promote the cooperation of both sides and positively enjoy promising prospects, said Andr Loeckx, Chairman of the Department of Architecture, Urbanism and Planning, K U. Leuven.

(Photo by Guo Haijun