On the morning of October 11th, the 2021 Joint Management Committee (JMC) meeting of the Sino-foreign Cooperative Education Institution, jointly established by Northeast Forestry University of China and the University of Auckland, New Zealand, was held in Conference Room 609 of Aulin College. Professor Song Wenlong, member of the Standing Committee of the Party Committee and Vice President of NEFU, Professor Jim Metson, Executive Vice President of the University of Auckland (UoA), and persons in charge in relevant departments of the two universities attended the meeting.
Due to the impact of the epidemic, the meeting of the JMC took the form of video conference. In his speech, Professor Song affirmed the achievements over the past few years in teaching reform, and students’ rich and colorful scientific and technological innovation activities. Facing the impact of the global epidemic, the CLC (China Learning Center) set up by NEFU has carried out three sessions in total, and nearly 300 UoA overseas students stranded in China have come to NEFU to participate in the study, which has created a deep friendship with our school and laid a foundation for strengthening the humanities exchanges between the two universities. Aulin Joint Research Institute, established in January of this year, provides a new platform for promoting high-level international talent training and international scientific research cooperation. Prof. Song also spoke highly of Aulin College’s investment in scientific management, teaching reform, humanistic care and education and teaching, and hoped that NEFU and UoA would continue to strengthen teachers’ academic exchanges, and looked forward to the 70th anniversary of NEFU in 2022 when UoA teachers and students could gather in NEFU to draw a blueprint for development.
In his speech, Professor Jim Metson, Executive Vice President of the University of Auckland, expressed his sincere gratitude to the leaders and colleagues of NEFU for their strong support in the cooperative development of Aulin College. Especially under the epidemic situation, Aulin College developed against the trend, and achieved remarkable results in many aspects such as education and teaching, especially NEFU CLC, which was of great help to the study and life of Chinese students studying in the UoA.
Liu Zhiming, Dean of Aulin College, and Brett Berquist, Minister of the UoA International Department, respectively reported to the JMC on behalf of the universities of both sides. Liu briefly introduced the development direction of international cooperation between two universities in the post-epidemic era, the work of the NEFU CLC, and the enrollment and teaching management of undergraduate masters in Aulin College in 2021, as well as the construction of online teaching platform during the epidemic. Brett Berquis introduced UoA’s care and policies for international students during the COVID-19 outbreak in Auckland, and thanked NEFU again for its strong support for CLC. Professor Sebastian Link, Vice-Minister of the Faculty of Science of UoA, gave a detailed introduction and interpretation on the master’s study direction and training links of students and ecology postgraduates in the “3+2” training mode of Aulin College after they went to the UoA.
The meeting discussed and reached a consensus on increasing the quantity of the master’s degree in ecology (China), building an international joint laboratory of chemistry, and the agreement of jointly cultivating dual doctoral degrees, which played a very positive role in promoting the development of Aulin College. Aulin College will continue to take the development of college connotation as the main line, deepen cooperation projects, strengthen academic exchanges among teachers, improve the quality of running colleges, and expand its influence, so as to contribute to improving the strength of running colleges internationally, building the first-class brand of Sino-New Zealand cooperation in running colleges and promoting the positive development of Sino-New Zealand cooperation in this field.
