On Friday, April 11, the President of Xiamen University and representative guests visited Chuo University Tama Campus.

During the Japan-China Presidents’ Meeting held at Xiamen University in October 2013, Chuo President Tadahiko Fukuhara was able to hold a friendly discussion with Xiamen University President Chongshi Zhu, as well as the Dean and Vice Dean of the School of Law at Xiamen University. This time, the visit was made to further discuss the outline of general agreement, memorandum on student exchange, and memorandum on faculty exchange programs.

In addition to reviewing the agreements, there was discussion as cooperating institutions on the Japan-Asia Youth Exchange Program in Science, also known as the Sakura Exchange Program in Science, led by the Japan Science and Technology Agency, an Independent Administrative Institution under the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. The Sakura Exchange Program in Science is an initiative that enhances exchanges between Asia and Japan of the youths who will play a crucial role in the future field of science and technology through the close collaboration of industry-academia-government by facilitating short-term visits of competent Asian youths to Japan. This program aims at raising the interest of Asian youths toward the leading Japanese science and technologies at Japanese universities, research institutions and private companies. (See website for more information about the Sakura Exchange Program in Science http://ssp.jst.go.jp/EN/outline/index.html#M1)

President Tadahiko Fukuhara commented that “Chuo University has been focusing on the importance of social responsibility from early on. We have initiated Academic Internship and other programs that provide credits. Recently we have more internship programs taking place overseas such as in Shanghai. We also founded the “University Consortium Hachioji,” allowing collaboration and cooperation between universities in the Hachioji area and citizens, businesses, economic groups, and the government. We believe that we can share our values and the goal towards the fulfillment of higher education and implement activities that build social cooperation.”

In response, President Chongshi Zhu commented that “Xiamen University is extremely enthusiastic about international exchange as well. We have been focusing on fostering global-minded talents through multi-cultural education, who can acquire practical skills to work closely with the society and businesses. In April, through industry-academia cooperation, we signed an agreement with a British research institution and a corporation in the Fujian Province for the foundation of the Graphene Industrial Technology Research Institute. Here, we plan to gather researchers not only in the sciences such as physics and biology fields, but also from the arts such as law, economy, and management. We are especially interested in driving exchanges with Chuo University in terms of industry-academia cooperative measures, since we believe that we can learn more from universities in Japan.”

The meeting and agreement shared between the two universities succeeded to further strengthen their ties.