From May 14th to 15th (UK time), Vice President Professor Liu Yufang and five others paid a friendly visit to the University of Ulster and conducted cooperation discussions at their invitation. Professor Alastair Adair, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ulster, Professor Raffaella Folli, Provost of Belfast and Jordanstown Campus, and Ms. Catriona McCarthy, Director of International Affairs, warmly welcomed the delegation on behalf of the Ulster University.

During the meeting, Vice President Liu Yufang introduced CULR’s development history, talent training, curriculum structure and discipline layout, international development and co-construction with the Ministry of Education and All-China Federation of Trade Unions. He pointed out that CULR was highly compatible with the University of Ulster in applied-talent training, teaching and industrial matching, international education theory and practice, and the two schools had plenty cooperation opportunities in teaching staff exchange, short and medium term study programs and degree transition courses. He hoped the two schools could make full use of respective advantages, conduct inter-school cooperation and help each other in educational development.

Vice-Chancellor Alastair Adair introduced Ulster University’s campus distribution, school size, current development and future vision, etc. He strongly agreed with CULR's vision of talent cultivation and staff internationalization, and believed that there were many similarities in discipline and curriculum construction between the two schools. He hoped to take this visit as an opportunity to deepen mutual understanding and jointly promote extensive cooperation and exchange. Ms. Catriona McCarthy and Professor Raffaella Folli gave a detailed introduction on the cooperation model between Ulster University and Chinese universities, as well as English teaching, faculty development, international students and other aspects.

During the visit, the delegation had discussions with directors and faculty of Ulster's Business School and Faculty of arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. In Business School, Nicholas J. Read, program manager, and Jordie Carson, senior economist for applied research and teaching, warmly welcomed the delegation and introduced the school's size, curriculum and partnerships with local businesses. Professor Jiang Ying, Director of Academic Affairs of our university, discussed the course transition between undergraduate and graduate classes, cooperation model and students' language skills in human resources, economics, hotel management majors and other issues. Chang Shuang, Deputy Director of the Foreign Affairs Office, explained the development status and plans of exchange programs, and exchanged opinions mainly on joint training and overseas study.

At the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, Professor Paul Seawright, Executive Dean, and Professor Paul Carmichael, Associate Dean for international collaboration, introduced the school's professional features and research strengths, as well as international exchanges and collaboration. The two sides had in-depth communication on cooperation ideas in law, journalism, sociology, public administration, foreign language training for teachers and other fields, and believed that there was great commonality and a good foundation for cooperation in curriculum setting, talent training and academic research of the above majors.

During the visit, the delegation visited Jordanstown campus and Belfast campus, including the Bloomberg laboratory which had 16 licenses and could provide real-time data update for economics students, the library with e-books resources and remote teaching facilities, and student dormitories with complete facilities and comfortable environment.

CULR’s delegation strictly followed the international development plan in “the 13th Five Year Plan”, made extensive and effective discussions on relevant programs on international communication and exchange. The two sides had reached broad consensus on establishing inter-school cooperation and would jointly promote the implementation of specific cooperation plans such as joint training, medium and short term courses and teaching staff exchanges.

Founded in 1968, the University of Ulster (UU) is the largest university in Northern Ireland, with strong teaching and research capabilities. It combines teaching and research closely with industries and enterprises, and plays a great role in promoting social, economic and cultural development of Northern Ireland. Its business school is the sixth largest in the UK and is ranked seventh in research. In 2014, the School of Law ranked first in the UK for its legal scientific research achievements, and the hotel management major was rated as five-star according to American standards.

Party and Government Office (International Branch)