On October 21, 2016, a delegation led by Ms. Mary Doyle, Deputy Secretary General of the Ministry of Education and Skills of Ireland and by Dr. Patrick Prendergast, Provost and President of Trinity College, visited Peking University (PKU). Professor Lin Jianhua, President of PKU, along with other PKU staff welcomed the guests and hosted a reception at the Yingjie Overseas Exchange Center.
Ms. Doyle firstly mentioned that Ireland has had a friendly educational relationship with China for a long time. In recent years, Ireland has been trying to build global high-level partnerships. For example, they have established a partnership with the University of California, San Francisco, to build an international health institute program. She expressed her gratitude for the warm welcome and hoped to strengthen the future collaboration.
Mr. Paul Kavanagh, the Irish Ambassador to China, mentioned that the Irish government is also making considerable investments in strategy-making, policy-weighing, specifically in projects which help understand the existing situation and guide current policies. Recently, Ireland has been making efforts to better understand and improve their circumstances through enhancing international communication and advancing education institutions.
President Lin responded that there were tremendous opportunities between leading universities of both Ireland and China. Universities can benefit a lot from cooperative activities like exchanging students, doing joint research, and co-organizing international seminars. Dr. Prendergast then mentioned that a science-based, technology and innovation-based economy has enabled Ireland to be the fastest climber in the Europe Economic Zone.
Written by: Wang Xi
Edited by: Xu Zheqi
