On the morning of October 18, 2020,Central South University (CSU) and Monash University (MU) jointly heldan online and offline orientation ceremony for the2020 freshmen enrolled in theSino-foreign Cooperative Undergraduate Education Program at the Fourth Conference Room of the Science and Education Building in CSU Main Campus.The attendees included Professor Abid Khan,Deputy Vice-Chancellor of MU, ProfessorElizabeth Croft, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering of MU, Professor Huanting Wang, Associate Dean (International) of the Faculty of Engineering of MU, Ms. Lindsay Guy, Group Manager of the Faculty of Engineering, Professor Jeff Walker, Head of the Department of Civil Engineering of MU, ProfessorNeil Cameron, Head of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering of MU, teacher representatives from the Faculty of Engineering of MU, Chen Chunyang, Vice President of CSU, Bai Yi, Director ofthe Office of International Cooperation and Exchanges of CSU, He Xuhui, Deanof the School of Civil Engineering of CSU,Yi Liang, Vice Dean of the School of Civil Engineering of CSU, Wang Dezhi, Party Secretary of the School of Materials Science and Engineering of CSU, Hu Xiaoqing, Deputy Party Secretary of the School of Materials Science and Engineering of CSUV, Li Jinfeng,Vice Dean of the School of Materials Science and Engineering of CSU, and all the 2020 freshmen from the classes of civil engineering and materials under the Sino-foreign Cooperative Undergraduate Education Program. This ceremony was presided over by Gao Dongbo, Deputy Director of the Office of International Cooperation and Exchanges of CSU.
On behalf of CSU, Mr. Chen Chunyang delivered a speech, introducing CSU’s cooperation with MU and achievements thus made, and expressed his earnest expectations for freshmen’s growth. According to his speech, CSU has achieved rapid progress in its international development in 2020, the final year of the “Thirteenth Five-Year Plan”; in face of the challenges brought by the global pandemic, CSU will continue to promote its international development strategy by strengthening the internationalized talent training, offering better resources to Sino-foreign cooperative education, and providing more solid guarantees for students’ growth and success. Mr. Chen hoped that the freshmen can come down to earth, do well in self-learning, self-motivation, and self-management, and truly love learning.
Abid Khan, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of MU, also gave a speech, affirming the long-term strategic partnership between CSU and MU, and expressing his gratitude to CSU for its support during the epidemic. He indicated that although COVID-19 has complicated the current situation, students’ study, health and safety remain as MU’s top priority.Despite its short history, MU has achieved an international reputation for the excellent teaching and scientific research quality. In terms of comprehensive strength, MU ranks among the top 100 universities in the world. Specifically, MU ranks the 55th globally according to the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings 2021 and 64thglobally in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2021. The Sino-foreign Cooperative Education Program comes as a result of collaboration between MU,a pursuer of international development, and CSU,a top university in China. This program aims to cultivatestudents’ international competitiveness and make them fully prepared for the future.
On behalf of the Faculty of Engineering of MU,Dean Elizabeth Croft welcomed the 150 freshmen joining the Sino-foreign Cooperative Education Programjointly run by the two universities. She noted that CSU and MUhave been long-standing partners. Since 2005, a total of nearly 500 CSU students have studied in MU and achieved excellent results: 41% of these graduateshave furthered studies to pursue doctoral degrees in top universities in the world including MU, the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, Imperial College London; other students have been employed by first-class companies, universities, and research institutes in China, Australia and other countries, like China State Construction Engineering Corporation, Princeton University, Aecon, and so on. MU boasts world-leading student competition teams, rich experience in laboratory research, and newly builtStudent Hackerspace and Woodside Building for Technology and Design. MU is committed to expanding global cooperation to help students grow in an international atmosphere.
Via videoconnections, Professor Jeff Walker, Head of the Department ofCivil Engineering Department of MU, and Professor Neil Cameron, Head of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering of MU, talked about the long-term exchanges and education cooperation between MU’s and CSU’s Departments of Civil Engineering and Departments of Materials Science and Engineering as well as the faculty, courses, scientific research quality and results, and graduate employment prospects of the two departments in MU; moreover, the two professors expressed their welcome to 2020 freshmen.
Yi Liang, Vice Dean of the School of Civil Engineering of CSU, and Li Jinfeng, Vice Dean ofthe School of Materials Science and Engineering of CSU, addressed the ceremony on behalf oftheir respective schools. The two leaders welcomed the 2020 freshmen enrolled in the Sino-foreign Cooperative Education Program and urged them to forge ahead and to contribute to the society.
Subsequently, Yang Ting and Du Yuqian, freshman representatives from the School of Civil Engineering and the School of Materials Science and Engineering respectively, made speeches.
Then, the orientation ceremony came to a successful end.
