At the invitation of Dalian Maritime University (DMU), President of University of Houston(UH) Renu Khator and a seven-people delegation, including Jaime Ortiz (Vice President in charge of international affairs and Vice Provost) and professor representatives from the UH Cullen College of Engineering, visited DMU from September 15 to 18. With a theme of "Internationalized Education, Shared Development", two universities conducted a series of events such as signing ceremony of a cooperation agreement for establishing “UH Institute, Dalian Maritime University”, appointment ceremony of DMU guest professor and cultural exchanges. DMU President Yuqing Sun, Vice President Youtao Zhao and the deans of DMU relevant departments participated these events.
On the morning of September 16, the signing ceremony of cooperation agreement for establishing “UH Institute, Dalian Maritime University” was held in the Administration Building. DMU President Yuqing Sun extended a warm welcome to the delegation led by Ms. Renu Khator. He briefly introduced the DMU history of adhering to internationalized education and its achievements in terms of faculty internationalization and global competitiveness of its disciplines in recent years. According to Sun, with the joint efforts of both schools, the cooperation would lead to better results on the existing basis.
Ms. Renu Khator expressed her sincere gratitude for the warm reception and highly appreciated DMU’s development achievements in recent years. She introduced UH’s achievements in internationalization in the past few years. According to Khator, UH attached great importance to the cooperation between the parties, and believed that such cooperation was of great value. She hoped that the parties could further expand the areas of cooperation, benefit more teachers and students, and achieve win-win outcomes.
Vice President Youtao Zhao briefly reviewed the course of the cooperation between the two universitiess and the achievements in the joint application for running Houston International Institute, Dalian Maritime University.
On behalf of both parties, Yuqing Sun and Renu Khator signed the cooperation agreement for establishing Houston International Institute, Dalian Maritime University。
On the morning of September 17, the appointment ceremony of a chair professor was held in DMU’s Zhongyuan Lecture Hall, and Renu Khator was appointed as Chair Professor of DMU School of Public Management and Liberal Arts. Before the start of the ceremony, Renu Khator delivered a speech named "The Trend of Higher Education: Opportunities and Challenges” during which she shared her pursuit of dreams in the internationalization tide, illustrated the importance of education and its development trend, and also encouraged DMU students to adhere to the pursuit of their dreams and promote their international thinking. This speech provided a new way of thinking for the internationalization development of DMU.
Yuqing Sun presented Renu Khator with the letter of appointment and delivered a speech. According to him, Khator is an educator with extensive international influence. This appointment was of great significance for the school to move towards internationalization and embrace new opportunities and challenges.
In the course this journey, the guests visited the Yukun Ship, the History Museum of DMU, as well as DMU's characteristic laboratories and teaching facilities. They also attended a Chinese traditional culture experience activity, and an workshop in the joint training project of the two schools.
This visit is not only a beneficial exchange of teaching, scientific research and talents training between the two schools, but also an important measure for our open education and discipline innovation. The signing of the cooperation agreement has written a new chapter of the integration of higher education, international talents training, research cooperation and people-to-people exchanges between these two universities. DMU will take this opportunity to make a breakthrough in the establishment of Chinese-foreign cooperatively-run schools from scratch, and provide strong support for the development into a "Double First-Class" educational institution.
