From October 30 to November 3, at the invitation of Keele University and the University of Huddersfield in the UK, Liu Xiangbing, Secretary of the Party Committee of our university, led a delegation of 5 people to the UK for inter-university cooperation and exchanges with the above two universities.

On October 30, the delegation visited Keele University. Keele University is a friendly cooperative university of our university. It is a comprehensive public university founded in 1949 by A.D. Lindsay, former Chancellor of the University of Oxford, and ranked 32nd in the 2023 UK University Rankings published by The Guardian. Mark Ormerod, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Keele University, warmly welcomed Secretary Liu Xiangbing and his delegation. Secretary Liu Xiangbing expressed in his speech that the two sides have many similarities in terms of founding time, discipline system construction, and inter-university cooperation awareness. There is a good cooperation foundation in promoting talent cultivation and academic exchanges between the two universities. He has high expectations for establishing a long-term cooperation mechanism and deepening cooperation projects in the future. The two sides also exchanged views on specific cooperation details such as joint talent cultivation, exchange of teachers for visiting and teaching, and credit recognition between the two universities. Scott Bambrick, Director of Keele Business School, David Law, Academic Director: Global Partnerships, Samir Dani, Deputy Director of Keele Business School, Dimitrios Syrrakos, Head of Economics Group, and Xuebing Cao, Head of the Marketing, Management and Organisation Group, participated in the discussion and exchange.

On October 31, Keele University held a seminar on Chinese-British labor relations. Secretary Liu Xiangbing was invited to give a keynote speech at the seminar on the topic of "Seeking from Top to Bottom: Review and Exploration of the Discipline Construction of Labor Science in China". The speech briefly reviewed the development of labor science systems at home and abroad, introduced the theoretical and practical explorations, achievements, and current gaps of domestic labor scholars in promoting labor science as a first-level discipline, especially the beneficial explorations of labor education and trade union studies at our university in recent years, which have formed a relatively complete labor science discipline system. Starting from the background of the times and the needs of labor science development, he made two proposals: first, to keep pace with the times and create a better world of labor; second, to emphasize collaboration and build a "sacred family" of labor, while calling on labor science scholars worldwide to unite and work together for the prosperity and progress of labor science and labor cause. The speech aroused a warm response and positive recognition from scholars attending the seminar. Roger Seifert, Honorary Professor of Business School, Cao Xuebing and Dr. Dave Lyddon, Honorary Fellows of Business School delivered academic reports on the history of British trade unions and labor movements at the seminar. During the seminar, the two sides engaged in in-depth discussions based on the academic reports and reached a consensus on deepening academic exchanges in the field of trade unions and labor relations.

On November 1, the delegation visited the University of Huddersfield. Founded in 1841, the University of Huddersfield is a comprehensive public university known for its high-quality teaching and high student employment rate. Bob Cryan, Chancellor of the University of Huddersfield, warmly welcomed Secretary Liu Xiangbing and his delegation. The two sides had in-depth discussions on talent cultivation, international exchanges, teacher visits, joint doctoral training, etc., and signed a memorandum of cooperation. Secretary Liu Xiangbing invited Chancellor Bob Cryan to visit our university on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of our university's founding, and Chancellor Bob Cryan gladly accepted the invitation. Vice-Chancellor Alistair Sambell, John Anchor, Associate Dean of School of Business, Professor Qihai Huang, Head of Department of Management, and Andrew Mandebura, Director of International Development from the University of Huddersfield attended the meeting. Secretary Liu Xiangbing and his delegation also visited the campus, teaching and living facilities, library, School of Business, etc. and had exchanges with Chinese teachers at the university.

During this visit, Secretary Liu Xiangbing and his delegation had extensive exchanges with the leaders and professors of the two universities, introducing the achievements of China's trade union development as well as the talent cultivation and teaching and research advantages of our university. This effectively deepened the international community's understanding and recognition of our university, further expanding our university's international influence. Professor Wen Xiaoyi, Dean of the School of Labor Relations and Human Resources, Associate Professor Meng Quan, Director of Labor Relations, Associate Professor Xu Junwei, Director of the Department of Business Administration, and Dr. Qian Zhichao from the Department of Human Resource Management were also on this delegation.

(School of Labor Relations and Human Resources, International Office of Cooperation and Exchange)