During the period from Oct 12th to 19th, Vice-Chancellor Xi Zhang was invited to visit Technical University of Berlin, Free University of Berlin, University of Kiel,German Archaeological Institute, University College London and University of Aberdeen with the delegation. During the visit, the delegation had a series of discussions about the exchanges and co-operations with universities and research institutes and reached cooperation consensus on several fields.
Technical University of Berlin has cooperated with Zhejiang University for more than 20 years. The co-operations between two universities include the student exchange, the visiting scholar program, research cooperation. Xi Zhang put a premium on the existing cooperation and exchanged the view on promoting the research cooperation, the joint Ph.D. program and student exchange with President of TU Berlin Kutzler. They agreed to extend the co-operations in Ship Engineering, history of Chinese and Western Science and Technology, Chinese Studies and Cross-culture Communication.
Founded in 1948, the Free University of Berlin awarded "elite university" status by the German Science Foundation for the quality of its research through the Initiative for Excellence of the German government, which will translate into additional funding. In the interview with Vice-President of the Free University of Berlin Schiller, Xi Zhang invited Schiller to visit Zhejiang University and Schiller accepted the invitation with pleasure. Both of them showed their desire to develop the partnership as soon as possible. They agreed to enhance the substantive cooperation in the visiting scholar program, research cooperation, the student exchange. The staff in Beijing Office would be dispatched to Zhejiang University to consult about the concrete plan.
The University of Kiel is the largest, oldest, and most prestigious in the state of Schleswig-Holstein. The Ocean Research is with more than 100 years of history. The Economics and the Medicine are prestigious, too. Zhejiang University has cooperated with the University of Kiel since 1986. There are 10-15 teachers training or studying every year in the University of Kiel. As the exchange, 15 students are sent to Zhejiang University. During the visit, the delegation met the scholars from various departments such as Institute of Earth Science, Leibniz Institute of Marine Science, Department of Philosophy, Institute of Sinology and Department of Literature. Both of the universities decided to cooperate in marine program and culture research.
The German Archaeological Institute is one of the world's leading archaeological research institutions. It was founded by Otto Magnus von Stackelberg, Theodor Panofka and August Kestner in 1829 in Rome. Since 1832 it has had its headquarters in Berlin, with offices in 13 cities. One of the offices is in Beijing. Xi Zhang had a discussion with President Gehrke on Archaeometry, marine archaeology, personnel training and research cooperation and they agreed to enter partnership. Besides Gehrke accepted Xi Zhang’s invitation to visit Zhejiang University gladly.
Founded in 1826, University College London (UCL) was the first university institution to be founded in London. 20 Nobel Laureates have worked or studied in UCL. Zhejiang University has cooperated with UCL in Medicine, Biotechnology, Material Science and Chemistry. Prof. Zhengxiao Gu, Assistant to President of UCL was appointed visiting professor of Zhejiang University. Xi Zhang and President Grant introduced the education and research circumstance to each other and hoped to enhance the cooperation between two universities. The delegation also visited the Archaeological Institute during the visit.
Xi Zhang interviewed the local alumni and introduced the achievements in the recent years and the blueprints of Zhejiang University to them when he visited those universities.