President Qiu Yong leads a Delegation to visit the International Telecommunication Union and the University of Geneva
On January 21st, Tsinghua University President Qiu Yong led a delegation to visit the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the University of Geneva (UNIGE). At the ITU, President Qiu held talks with Secretary-General Zhao Houlin and signed a Memorandum of Understanding. At the UNIGE, President Qiu attended the second Geneva Trialogue: Scaling Education for the SDGs and the GTI Advisory Board meeting.
At the ITU headquarters, President Qiu held talks with Secretary-General Zhao Houlin, reviewing and looking forward to the exchanges and cooperation between the two sides. President Qiu expressed the hope that both sides would take the signing of the MOU on cooperation as an opportunity to further deepen the long-term cooperative relationship, to carry out more extensive cooperation in the fields of professional exchanges, student internships, joint scientific research and personnel training, and to jointly produce professional journals to promote international academic exchanges on telecommunications. Vice President Yang Bin introduced Tsinghua University’s global strategy and the achievements of international cooperation in recent years. Zhao Houlin noted that since it became one of the first academic members of the ITU in 2011, Tsinghua University has been strongly supporting the ITU’s research and innovation work in the fields of digital broadcasting and radio communications. On the basis of the memorandum of understanding between the two sides, the cooperation will be further developed. He said the ITU also expects more students from Tsinghua to have internships in the organization.
On the same day, President Qiu also visited the Biotech campus of the UNIGE to attend and address the second Geneva Trialogue: Scaling Education for the SDGs, an event jointly organized by the UNIGE, the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) and XuetangX, focusing on how to promote SDG education through mass education. In his speech, President Qiu noted that since the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between Tsinghua University and the University of Geneva in 2017, the two universities have established a solid partnership in education and research on sustainable development. He hoped that the two sides would continue to strengthen cooperation in personnel training and joint research to build a win-win community and contribute to the building of a shared future for mankind.
Following the Trilogue, President Qiu participated in Geneva-Tsinghua Initiative Advisory Board meeting. Also attending the meeting were Yves Fluckiger, Rector of the UNIGE, Nikhil Seth, United Nations Assistant Secretary-General and Executive Director of the UNITAR, Irina Bokova, former Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and Francois Taddei, Professor of the Paris Descartes University in France, and other members of the Advisory Board Committee.
President Qiu thanked the members in the committee for their support for the research and teaching cooperation between the two universities to achieve the UN’s sustainable development goals. He also introduced the cooperation between the two universities in the field of sustainable development in 2018 and the results achieved. In order to further promote practical cooperation, President Qiu and the members focused on discussing and adjusting the working mode of the Advisory Board Committee. Vice President and Provost Yang Bin of Tsinghua University, Vice - Rector Stephane Berthet of the University of Geneva, and Zhu Xufeng, Associate Dean of the School of Public Policy and Management of Tsinghua University were added to the Advisory Board Committee. The presidents of the two universities will serve as Ex Officio members of the Advisory Board Committee to promote SDG education.
Writer: Angela Hua
Editors: John Olbrich, Guo Lili
