LNU News Center: On the morning of October 29, Professor Andrew P. Daire, Dean of the School of Education, Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), visits Lingnan Normal University (LNU). Vice President Dai Shu of LNU received the delegation in the No.2 Meeting Room, where the two sides had talks on the educational cooperation, and signed a cooperation agreement.
Dai Shu first extended a warm welcome to the guests and then introduced LNU in terms of geographical location, school-running history, scale, discipline development, and international exchanges. According to Dai, LNU established the majors in education in 1904, and has currently about 23,000 students and nearly 2,000 faculty and staff. It has trained a large number of primary and secondary school teachers for western Guangdong and even the whole province. With diversified development as the aim, it is constantly expanding the scope of discipline development. Dai expressed the hope that the two sides will have a long-term cooperative relationship through the signing of agreement.
Andrew P. Daire said that he is very glad to be here at LNU. He introduced the basic situation of VCU from the geographical location, teachers and students, professional characteristics, scientific research, and teaching practices. VCU has a history of only 50 years, but currently has about 32,000 students from 101 countries and more than 2,500 faculty and staff. It is large with 13 colleges and 2 campuses in the United States. The School of Education of VCU has more than 800 graduate students, 128 faculty and staff members, and the scientific research funding ranks second in VCU (more than 28 million dollars each year). VCU is a research-oriented college, and one of the few colleges in the United States that focus on cooperation with the community in research and education. Andrew P. Daire said that VCU attaches great importance to cooperation with LNU and hoped that the two universities will uphold the concept: “It takes ten years to grow a tree, but a hundred years to bring up a generation of good men”, working together to train more talents.
The participants discussed the specific projects of cooperation and other cooperation matters. After the meeting, the two sides exchanged souvenirs and had a group photo.
The meeting was chaired by Zheng Zhijun, Director of Office of International Exchange & Cooperation of LNU. Professor Xu Yaoying and Recruitment Specialist Dr. Jenna Lenhardt of VCU, together with personnel from the Human Resources Office, Student Affairs Office, Scientific Research Office, International Exchange and Cooperation Office, and School of Educational Sciences of LNU, also attended the meeting.
