On the afternoon of April 22, President Chen Yulu and Prof. Wang Liming, Executive Vice-President and Deputy Chairman of the University Council, welcomed Dr. Oberto Santín Cáceres, Vice-Minister of Higher Education in Cuba won his official visit to Renmin University of China.

In his opening remarks, President Chen Yulu welcomed the Vice-Minister and introduced basic information about RUC, including its history, top-ranking subject areas, and the demography of the students. President Chen further pointed out that RUC has a subject group of Marxism, and said he hopes to collaborate with universities in Cuba.

The Vice-Minister then expressed his honor of his first visit to Renmin University. With the increase of travel, Cuba and China are witnessing a closer contact, he said, which will contribute to a brighter future for educational collaboration between the two nations.

Dr. Santín Cáceres said that the first group of Chinese students arrived Cuba to study Spanish in 1964, and still keep strong ties with Cuba. Since 2006, with the launch of the Cuban Government Unilateral Scholarships Programme, the number of international students heading for Cuba has been increasing rapidly.

Cuba has established six special programs for 3,000 Chinese students, funded by Cuba government. Hundreds of students Chinese majoring in Traveling, Education and Spanish have already graduated from Cuban universities, Santín Cáceres said.

Meanwhile, Santín Cáceres added, he hopes to enhance collaboration through teaching, research and student exchanges with RUC. He also said that University of Havana is strong in economics, sociology and humanities, and had long experience of Marxism as well. Therefore, he said, he anticipated further engagement with Renmin University.

President Chen expressed his congratulations to the achievement of Cuba’s higher education during the past 50 years and agreed with the suggestion that the strong subjects of the two universities should be connected with each other as soon as possible. Afterwards, President Chen and Vice Minister discussed about the proposal that RUC and University of Havana could set up a bilateral forum in the Humanities area.

Prof. Chen Qi, Associate Dean, School of Marxism; Dr. Zhang Xiaojing, Director, International Office and Mr. Sheng Xiwen, Deputy Director, International Office, participated in the meeting.

Hilda León Castellanos, Vice-President of University of Havana; Zhao Lingshuang, Chinese MOE Official; and Karina Lubiaya, official of the Embassy of Cuba, were also in attendance.

The University of Havana is located in Vedado District of Havana, Cuba. Founded in 1728, the University of Havana is the oldest and largest public university in Cuba, and one of the first universities to be founded in the Americas. Today, the University of Havana has 16 colleges and 14 research centers, including subjects in Economics, Natural Science and Humanities.