A HUST delegation headed by the Vice-President Prof CHEN Jianguo ended their eight-day tour in New Zealand and Australia starting from 24 October. During the trip, the delegation paid its official visits to the New Zealand and Australian universities including the Unversity of Canterbury, Otago University Christchurch, University of Melbourn, University of Sydney and University of Techonolgy Sydney. Also, the delegation attended the Annual Board Meeting of the Confucius Institute at the University of Canterbury (CIUC), hosted three recruitment events, met with several HUST alumni, as well as launched Huazhong University of Science and Technology Alumni Australia.  

The Christchurch Mayor Lianne Daziel, the PRC Consul General in Christchurch WANG Zhijian, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Ian Wright and Pro-Vice-Chancellor Jonathan Le Cocq from UC were present at the welcome reception organized by the University of Canterbury (UC). Also among the attendees were more than 40 principals and teachers from the local schools in Christchurch. At the reception, the Mayor and other VIPs delivered speeches, highly praising the Confucius Institute’s role in promoting the people-to-people exchange and enhancing the friendship between New Zealand and China. CHEN Jianguo commented in his speech that HUST will work closely with UC in providing support to the Confucius Institute, which will continue to serve as a bridge to connect the two sister cities of Wuhan and Christchurch, and two countries of China and New Zealand, for better understanding and more effective communications of different languages, cultures and societies.

As the Deputy Chair of the CIUC Board of Advisors, CHEN Jianguo co-hosted the Board Meeting, which approved the CIUC 2018 Work report and 2019 annual budget. The paritcipants from both HUST and UC also discussed about organizing commemorative events to celebrate the CIUC tenth anniversty in 2019.

At the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) Prof Kate McGrath, DVC (Innovation and Enterprise) Prof Glenn Wightwick, and the Vice Prsident Leo Mian Liu welcomed HUST delegation. During the meeting, the two sides expressed their hope that HUST and UTS should extend the cooperation in the areas of collaborative research and students’ innovation and entrepreneurship.

The delegation hosted three recruiting events at the University of Canterbury, the University of Melbourn and the University of Sydney. CHEN Jianguo introduced the rapid development of HUST and shared his own experience to inspire the young scholars to have a clear goal and be dedicated to their academic research. The Director of Human Resource Office Prof ZHOU Liping’s presentation focused on why the potential job seekers should choose HUST and what are the guidelines for their job application, and she welcomed the qualified scholars to join HUST and fullfil their professional pursuits. PRC Education Consul in Christchurch, Melbourn and Sydney ZHAI Jianjun, NIE Wenkai, ZHAO Jing were in attendence at the functions and made speeches.

On 30 October, the launching ceremony of Huazhong University of Science and Technology Alumni Australia (HUSTAA) was held in Sydney. The Dean of the School of International Education, also the Deputy Secretary General of Central Alumni Association of Huazhong University of Science and Technology (CAAHUST) LIU Junhua announced the official inaugural of HUSTAA. CHEN Jianguo and HUSTAA first President Ms YU Jianyuan unveiled the plague. In his speech, CHEN Jianguo remarked that HUSTAA should play a vital role in keeping the alumni in Australia connected, lifting the HUST profile and expanding the HUST talent pool in Australia.

During their stay, the Delegation went to see several scholars and alumni including: the Accociate Deputy Vice-Chancellor of RMTI Prof YU Xinghuo, Prof XIE Wei from Melbourn University, Head of Department of Computer Science and Information Technology of La Trobe Unversity Prof Henry Duh, and Dr GAN Kaiwan. Members of the HUST Delegation included staff and professors from the Human Resource Office, International Exchange Center and the School of Foreign Languages.