President Xu Xianming Visited Universities in South Korea and US

From May 6th to 16th, Prof. Xu Xianming, the President of Shandong University, visited the universities in South Korea and in the United States.

From May 6^th to 9th, President Xu, on the invitation of the President Kim Han-joong of Yonsei University, attended its 125th Anniversary Celebration and made a keynote speech in a Forum. Forum 2010 on Higher Education and Management: Planning and Leadership focused on the Future Management of the University: can we innovate by ourselves? and College Finance in the 21st century: where does the money come from? Presidents from four well-known overseas universities were invited. In the first session, President Xu was invited to introduce the diversity in the management of Chinese universities, its components and its operation, and the election and the appointment system of leadership. In the following session, President Xu was invited to make a keynote speech. Taking Shandong University as an example, he comprehensively explained the basic financial channels of Chinese universities, the deciding factors influencing the financing ability, the present financing concept and mechanism of Shandong University.

On April 9th, President Xu attended the 125th Anniversary Celebration of Yonsei University. Also, during his visit, he met with representatives from the Academy of Social Science of South Korea, China's Embassy in South Korea, the Higher Education Consortium of South Korea, and the Friendship Association of China and South Korea. He also met with SDU honorary professors in South Korea, Prof. Kim Jun-yeop,Prof. Cho Wan-kyoo, former President of Seoul National University, Prof. Kim Kwang-ok, Seoul National University, Prof. Kim Jae-youl, The Korea Foundation for Advanced Studies as well as SDU students studying in South Korea. In his interview with the Chosun Ilbo, Xu talked about his understanding of the internationalization of universities, the strategies that SDU adopted to realize its internationalization, and its academic competitive edge.

From May 9^th to 16th, President Xu visited the University of California at Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and Berkeley.

In UCLA, Xu met with Vice-President Roberto Pecceithe, Director Rhea Turteltaub in charge of foreign affairs, and Dr. David Unruh in charge of academic development. President Xu expressed his gratitude for the assistance from UCLA to the SDU students who attended UCLA s Summer School and his appreciation and support to the on-going collaboration in the field of archaeology between the two universities. Xu also expressed interest in the operation model of UC system, hoping it could shed light on the multi-campus management of SDU. The officials of UCLA introduced the financial allocation, staff recruitment, alumni work, and compared the operational efficiency between public and private universities in America. After the discussion, President Xu visited the School of Law and the Archaeological Center.

In the UCSB, Xu met with President Henry Yang and Dr. Gene Lucas, the Executive Vice-President. President Yang introduced in detail the mission and operation model at various levels of UC and analyzed the advantages and disadvantages of the present model. Gene Lucas talked about the cooperation and exchanges among scholars and students of the two universities. Xu exchanged his views on furthering cooperation with them.

In UC Berkley, Xu met with Dr. George Breslauer, the Executive Vice-President, and examined the university s management system, trend in development, fund raising, the system of unified management combined with independent management of the research university and issues that closely related to the future innovation of university management of SDU and cooperation in exchange of information and students. Xu also visited the East Asia Research Center, UCB

During their stay in America, Xu also met the alumni of SDU, and some experts and scholars. He introduced the new changes and development of SDU, as well as the policies in China to attract foreign talents. In the evening of May 16th, Mr. Gao Zhanshan , the Consul-General of the Chinese Consulate General in San Francisco met with the delegation.

By Liu Feifei