On September 24, 2015, Haddad Adel, member of Iranian Expediency Discernment Council (EDC), Senior Consultant of the Supreme Leader and former legislative speaker, and Saffar Harandi, member of EDC and former Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance led a delegation to visit Peking University (PKU). Gao Song, Vice President of PKU, Guan Haiting, Vice Provost of PKU and Dean of the School of Continuing Education of PKU expressed their warm welcome to the guests at Linhuxuan. Zhang Jianwei, director of the third bureau of International Liaison Department of the Central Committee of the CPC, Hou Jianjun, Secretary of the Office of Continuing Education, and Fu Zhiming, Vice-President of the School of Foreign Languages of PKU attended the event. Before the reception, the guests had a cordial exchange with faculties and students from the department of Farsi at PKU.
Vice President Gao first reviewed the history of PKU’s development, introducing the faculties and disciplines, and he emphatically introduced PKU’s massive open online courses (MOOC) and the Yenching Academy program.
Haddad Adel first expressed thanks to the warm reception and introduced his colleagues. He conveyed a strong interest in the Yenching Academy and asked detailed questions about the admission requirements and the language of instruction. He explained that he wants to introduce the Yenching Academy program to the Ministry of Higher Education of Iran and to recommend outstanding students to attend the program. He mentioned that the world institute of University of Tehran has already set up a center for Chinese Studies and would provide Iranian students with scholarships to come to study in China, which would lead to more cultural communication between the two countries.
Afterwards, the two parties participated in an in-depth discussion about encouraging students who study overseas to return home after completing their studies. Vice President Gao introduced the “Thousand Talents Program” led by the Central Organization Department and Ministry of Science and Technology of China. He pointed out that China provides preferential policies to those students coming back from overseas study. As a result, an increasing number of Chinese youth are choosing to study abroad and then return home, which is an issue that Iran is also investigating.
After the meeting, the delegation went on a tour of PKU campus.
Translated by: Li Wei
