On the afternoon of May 3rd, LIU Wei, President of Renmin University of China, met with visiting President of the University of Groningen in the Netherlands Sibrand Poppema. The two sides discussed issues related to deepening cooperation and student exchanges in various fields between the two universities. He was accompanied by Gert de Roo, Director of the Department of Spatial Planning and Environment at the University of Groningen, and Xuefei Knoester-Cao, Policy Consultant at the Institute of International Relations and Confucius Institutes.
LIU Wei welcomed President Sibrand Poppema to visit RUC and introduced the university and multi-disciplinary options available to students. He highlighted that RUC is a very well-renowned university in the field of humanities and social sciences in China, and a leader in the country in such disciplines as economics, law, sociology, journalism, statistics, business administration, and public administration. Driven by the international "double first-class" construction plan, the school attaches great importance to conducting exchanges and cooperation based on disciplines with European universities including the University of Groningen, and continues to learn from its collaboration with other like-minded universities. He hopes that both universities will use this visit as an opportunity to further deepen exchanges and cooperation in the areas of public administration and business administration.
Sibrand Poppema expressed his gratitude for the warm reception from Renmin University of China. He shared the development direction of the University of Groningen and recalled the previous exchanges and cooperation with Renmin University. The University of Groningen has more than 400 years of history and diverse disciplines, and has conducted a wide variety of interdisciplinary research on major social issues. The school’s future research priorities include healthy aging, energy, and sustainable development. He hopes that the two universities will further deepen their scientific research cooperation in the above-mentioned fields and he welcomes more Renmin University students to the University of Groningen for exchanges and studies.
After the talks, the presidents of the both sides signed the student exchange agreement between the School of Public Administration of Renmin University of China and the Department of Spatial Planning and Environment of the University of Groningen.
YANG Kaifeng, Dean of the School of Public Administration, YE Yumin, Director of the Department of Urban Planning and Management, and other relevant personnel attended the talks and witnessed the signing of the agreement.
Founded in 1614, the University of Groningen in the Netherlands is one of the oldest universities in Europe and has a high reputation in academia. The University was ranked 83rd in the world in the World University of London in 2018, and ranked 94th in the 2018 US News World University Rankings.
