On the afternoon of March 23, 2015, Judith Wolfson, Vice President of the University of Toronto, along with Vinitha Gengatharan, Director of International Relations, visited Peking University (PKU). They were received by LI Yansong, Vice President of PKU, and XIA Hongwei, Director of the Office of International Relations. Both sides engaged in a friendly discussion at Linhuxuan and exchanged their opinions on several issues.
The first topic of the discussion was the coming China visit of Meric Gertler, President of the University of Toronto (UT). Afterward, both sides discussed their partnership models and potential collaboration opportunities between PKU and UT. The three priorities of the administration of President Gertler were also discussed. Namely, internationalization, connection between universities and neighboring communities, and innovation in undergraduate education, which were explained by Ms. Wolfson. Some of the relevant international conferences that UT held or attended and other relevant talks between UT and some of its partner schools were also mentioned.
Following Ms. Wolfson’s warm invitation given to LIN Jianhua, President of PKU to visit UT, Vice President LI responded by conveying the emphasis that PKU has similarly laid on the three priorities and expounding on the efforts of PKU to achieve them. Apart from current cooperation between PKU and UT, some potential fields for future collaboration were brought up, such as entrepreneurship, government, and biomedical science.
The meeting was drawn to an end by a quote from Ms. Wolfson, “Partnerships are important, but deep partnerships are more important.” Both sides reached an agreement on building a stronger relationship and expressed sincere willingness for further collaboration in the future.
Written by: Gustav Kuan-Wei PAN
