The Global Consortium of Metropolitan Universities (GCMU) 2024 Annual Conference and Shenzhen University Internationalization Development Seminar commenced on November 15 at Shenzhen University (SZU). This event aims to strengthen the close cooperation among the member universities of the GCMU, fostering educational, scientific, technological, and cultural exchanges. Mao Junfa, President of SZU and Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, delivered the opening speech. Distinguished attendees included Ouyang Qian, Party Secretary of Guangzhou University; Liu Jun, Rector of City University of Macau; Reggie KWAN Ching-ping, Academic Vice-President of Hong Kong Metropolitan University; and representatives from East China Normal University, Soochow University, Nantong University, Fuzhou University, Beijing City University among others. Zhang Xiaohong, Vice President of SZU, presided over the opening ceremony.
In his address, Mao Junfa highlighted the collaborative efforts of SZU with the GCMU over the past two years, emphasizing the positive outcomes of integrating higher education with urban development. He said that as a metropolitan university named after the city and co-existing with Shenzhen, SZU firmly implements China's education opening-up policies, actively promotes high-level foreign cooperation and exchanges, and serves the construction of the international education demonstration area in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the comprehensive national science center and the talent highland. He expressed his hope that the conference and seminar would provide a platform for in-depth discussions on the internationalization of higher education, exploring opportunities, challenges, and future directions. He encouraged continuous improvement of the GCMU internationalization platform and multi-faceted cooperation among member universities to advance urban and national development and human progress.
At the university leaders' forum themed "Opportunities and Challenges in the Internationalization of Higher Education", Liu Jun, Ouyang Qian, Reggie KWAN Ching-ping and Zhang Xiaohong discussed the connotation, opportunities and challenges of higher education internationalization and leveraging the GCMU platform for this purpose.
In the afternoon, the International Office of SZU presented the university's internationalization projects, relevant policies, and the 2024 internationalization indicator system. They also promoted the special support plan for international scientific research cooperation. During the free-exchange session, representatives from alliance universities engaged in in-depth exchanges and offered suggestions for the development of the GCMU and SZU's internationalization efforts.
