From June 30th to July 2nd, a delegation led by Patrick McCole, Vice President for International Affairs of Maynooth University (Ireland), visited our university. Zhu Hongjun, Secretary of the University Party Committee and President of the University, warmly received the guests in the conference room of Qiuzhen Building on the East Longhu Campus, and attended the working meeting on jointly establishing a cooperative education institution. The meeting was chaired by Song Malin, Member of the University Party Committee and Vice President of the University, with the heads of the School of Economics, School of Finance, School of Statistics and Applied Mathematics, and International Exchange Center in attendance.
On behalf of the university, Zhu Hongjun extended the warmest welcome to the delegation from Maynooth University, who had traveled a long way. He stated that the university is fully advancing the “Anhui University of Finance and Economics New Economics & Management” development strategy, focusing on emerging interdisciplinary fields such as digital economy, intelligent finance, and data science & decision-making, and building research and teaching platforms deeply integrated with technologies like artificial intelligence, blockchain, and big data. As one of Ireland’s most academically dynamic and internationally influential research-oriented universities, Maynooth University has rich experience in cooperative education and has made remarkable achievements in fields such as quantitative finance, international economics, and data science—all of which are highly aligned with the current development vision of our university. Against the backdrop of in-depth integration of global higher education, Anhui University of Finance and Economics is willing to work with Maynooth University to practice the global education concept of “openness, cooperation, and win-win”, jointly build a high-level cooperative education platform, and organically integrate Maynooth University’s high-level educational philosophy, evaluation system, and teaching technologies with our university’s local resources. This will help form a high-quality talent cultivation model with international standards and local characteristics, and jointly write a new chapter in China-Ireland cooperative education.
Song Malin provided a comprehensive and in-depth introduction to the school-running strength of Anhui University of Finance and Economics from multiple dimensions, including the university overview, discipline construction, faculty team, talent cultivation, scientific research, and open education. This fully demonstrated the university’s firm determination and distinctive advantages in carrying out cooperative education.
On behalf of Maynooth University, Patrick McCole expressed sincere gratitude for the warm reception from our university, and highly praised our university’s outstanding school-running achievements, remarkable talent cultivation effects, and beautiful and well-equipped campus facilities. He pointed out that the two universities have great room for complementarity in terms of discipline structure, talent cultivation model, and international development mechanism. He expressed expectations that the two sides will further strengthen exchanges, refine cooperation details, and accelerate the construction process of the cooperative education institution through pragmatic and efficient actions. At the end of the discussion, the two sides formally signed a cooperation agreement to further enhance faculty exchanges, student exchanges, and scientific research cooperation between the two universities.
Written by: Wang Tao, International Exchange Center
Photographed by: Publicity Department of the Party Committee
Reviewed by: Cheng Xiwu, International Exchange Center
