On the afternoon of January 11, Vice-president Sébastien Grondel led a delegation of the Université de Valencienne et du Hainaut-Cambrésis of France (UVHC) in a visit to NEFU. A symposium was held in the eighth-floor conference room of the comprehensive office building, and Vice President Zhao Yusen and relevant department leaders attended the meeting.

Vice President Zhao Yusen extended a warm welcome to the guests and introduced the history, general information and discipline construction of NEFU. He mentioned that NEFU had attached great importance to various forms of international academic and teaching cooperation. Cooperation and cultivation projects with more than 100 universities have been established. Currently there are more than 300 international students at NEFU. Good results have been achieved since UVHC and NEFU signed a cooperation agreement in 2014.  We hope that the visit can help us explore broader and deeper cooperation so that we can integrate specific areas of students’ cultivation, realize mutually beneficial cooperation, and carry out more beneficial exploration of undergraduate and graduate student development, and teacher communication.

Vice President Sébastien Grondel expressed his gratitude to the warm reception. He introduced the location of UVHC, the superior disciplines, campus life, and the employment of graduates. The strong disciplines of UVHC include machinery manufacturing, hybrid vehicle research and development, automotive energy-saving materials research and development, humanized control design, and disabled facilities research and development.

NEFU is currently cooperating with UVHC on undergraduate dual degree programs and master programs. The undergraduate dual degree program is for juniors from NEFU to have the opportunity to study in UVHC for their fourth year with free tuition. And after meeting requirements, they can acquire bachelor's degrees from the two universities. The Master's program is for NEFU’s bachelor degree graduates to pursue their master's degree in UVHC. During their master’s degree studies, students will pay the same registration fee as the French students. Over the past two years, 12 students have been sent to France.

The Dean of the College of Traffic Pei Yulong, Vice Dean of the College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering Zhang Jiawei, and Vice Dean of the College of Information and Computer Engineering Jing Weipeng, had a detailed discussion with the professors of UVHC in students’ development and future career planning.

During the meeting, both sides have a deep discussion and communication about the possibility of developing the student development project. We hope that more beneficial exploration will be implemented in the areas of undergraduates, postgraduate development and teacher cooperation, so as to promote the cooperation and develop a cheerful and mutually beneficial cooperation.