Historical news, full report retained: the forum took place in Paris on 21 June 2024, local time. The Chair’s original archive date of 24 June is preserved. Positions and cooperation developments refer to the contemporary report.
On 21 June, local time, China’s Ministry of Education and France’s Ministry of Higher Education and Research jointly held the inaugural Sino-French Education Development Forum in Paris. Chinese Minister of Education Huai Jinpeng and French Minister of Higher Education and Research Sylvie Retailleau attended and delivered addresses.
Sixty years of relations: expanding education and research cooperation
Huai noted that 2024 marks the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and France. During President Xi Jinping’s successful state visit to France in May, he and President Emmanuel Macron reached a series of important common understandings on embarking on the next sixty years of bilateral relations, setting the direction for the two countries’ future.
The forum aims to build a new platform to deepen exchanges between universities in the two countries, expand cooperation in education and research, strengthen collaboration between education and industry, and bring Sino-French educational cooperation to a higher level and greater development.
The intelligent age and shared challenges
Huai said practical cooperation in education has deepened mutual understanding between the two peoples, advanced education in both countries and contributed Sino-French approaches to global challenges. Looking ahead, he called on both sides to implement their heads of state’s important initiatives, promote balanced student mobility and encourage exchanges and mutual learning between civilizations.
Universities in both countries should look to the intelligent age and future development, exploring basic research, technological innovation and industrial cooperation. They should continue to deepen and broaden educational and research cooperation at the unknown frontiers of scientific inquiry, in response to humanity’s shared challenges and in priority areas of Sino-French cooperation.
The two education ministries should jointly build platforms for cooperation and development, actively support collaboration among university leaders and scientists and exchanges among students and scholars, and work together on scientific solutions to major global challenges.
French perspectives on long-term cooperation
Retailleau reviewed sixty years of educational cooperation. She said the forum is a positive step towards implementing the heads of state’s common understandings and important outcomes of the sixth meeting of the Sino-French High-Level People-to-People Exchange Mechanism, reflecting both countries’ commitment to long-term cooperation.
She noted that 2024 marks both the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations and the Sino-French Year of Culture and Tourism. The two education communities have cooperated effectively over many years and achieved fruitful results.
She described the forum as a milestone in bilateral educational cooperation that would stimulate university partnerships and exchanges of students and scholars. She hoped the two sides would strengthen dialogue and pursue mutually beneficial cooperation, contributing more to sustainable development worldwide.
Student exchanges, discussions and cooperation agreements
Government and university representatives from China’s Ministry of Education, Peking University, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Xiamen University and Wuhan University, and from France’s Ministry of Higher Education and Research, Campus France, the École nationale supérieure de chimie de Paris and Grenoble INP, among others, discussed balanced student mobility, exchanges and mutual learning between civilizations, climate change and sustainable development.
The forum also featured the launch of a commemorative album on studying in China and France and maintaining the original aspiration, marking the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations. (《中法留学·初心不变》)
Fudan University, Sun Yat-sen University and South China University of Technology signed cooperation agreements respectively with the École française d’Extrême-Orient, Grenoble INP and Nantes Université. The agreements covered areas including joint engineer training, nuclear energy research, and the humanities and social sciences.
Chinese Vice Minister of Education Chen Jie and Chinese Ambassador to France Lu Shaye also attended.
Sources and historical notes
The original Chair article credited the Ministry of Education website as its source and Liu Le as the Ministry website editor.
- The forum took place in Paris on 21 June 2024. The Ministry’s Chinese report was published on 22 June and its English report on 23 June. This site’s article is dated 24 June at 18:00.
- Positions, educational cooperation outcomes and future perspectives reflect the historical context of the original 2024 report.
- The photograph comes from the related report by participating French institution ESIGELEC. Identification and attribution follow the original image and source page.
Ministry report in Chinese · Ministry report in English · ESIGELEC report in French · AI and STEM learning resources
Original link: https://aiedchair.bnu.edu.cn/news-8818-en/
