On the 3^rd of November, Francesco Ubertini, Rector of the University of Bologna (UniBo) arrived to visit RUC. President of RUC LIU Wei and Vice President WANG Liming met with the group of delegates from Bologna, and Vice President WU Xiaoqiu attended the University of Bologna’s Confucius Institution Council meeting. To begin the meeting, President LIU extended a warm welcome on behalf of Renmin University to Rector Ubertini. He highlighted that RUC is a research university with a humanities focus, and that the Confucius Institute established at UniBo in partnership with RUC in 2009 has already proven to be an important platform for teaching Chinese and Chinese culture in Italy. He concluded by noting that it has served to encourage the exchange between students from both universities, strengthening academic exchange and collaboration, and has become an important site for teaching students about China. President LIU continued, saying that in recent years, RUC has aimed to strengthen and deepen reforms in its education methods, striving for innovation so as to increase its global impact. Italy is a significant country as part of the European part of the “Belt and Road” initiative, this initiative proposed by the Chinese government creates a new channel by which to encourage collaboration in the field of education, and RUC is very happy to continue deepening its academic and educational relationship with the UniBo. Following, Rector Ubertini gave a speech in which he declared that the University of Bologna is one of the most international institutions in Europe as judged by its flow students, that they are also undergoing educational reforms, and that already one third of their courses are offered in English. He concluded by stating that he hopes that the two universities, with their firm foundation of exchange, can continue to strengthen and develop collaboration in the fields of academia and education. President LIU and Rector Ubertini then proceeded to formally sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two institutions. Both sides expressed their hope that the two universities would continue to develop significant collaboration, so as to create more opportunities for student exchange between the two universities. Both sides expressed hope that there would be further developments in their exchange program between Law faculties, as well as further collaboration in training and research in the field of economics. Following this, Vice President WANG Liming met with the delegate group, and met with the Director of the Confucius Institute of UniBo and Law Professor Marina Timoteo to discuss further opportunities for collaboration in the field of Legal Studies. Vice President WANG reminisced of his visit to Italy in June of 2015, when he was invited to attend an academic forum on civil law held at UniBo. He noted that RUC and UniBo have already built a solid base of collaboration in the field of law, and expressed his hope that the CI will foster further opportunities for exchange and collaboration in the future. After the meeting, UniBo Confucius Institute held the 2016 session of its annual meeting at RUC. Vice President WU Xiaoqiu was in attendance, and the meeting was presided over by the Director of the International Office ZHANG Xiaojing. During the meeting, the Italian Director of the CI Marina Timoteo briefed the attendees on some of the important progress that has been made by the CI in the past year, including financial matters and support provided by UniBo. The Chinese director, and assistant Professor at the School of Journalism XU Ying briefed the meeting on the particulars of the progress in Chinese language education, and of the plans for developing the Confucius Institute in the coming years. The members of the delegation from UniBo were Italian CI Director Professor Marina Timoteo, assistant to CI Director Angela Carpi, Dean of Chinese studies Professor Roberto Grandi, Director of the UniBo Department of Translation Rafael Lozan, and Engineering Department Professor Vincenzo Parenti Castelli. UniBo was established in 1088, it is the oldest Western university in the world, being in continuous operation for 928 years. At present, there are around 100,000 students enrolled at UniBo. Since the establishment of UniBo’s Confucius Institute in 2009, it has had enormous success in teaching students about Chinese language and culture, and has also held many successful and well-received academic and cultural activities. In this way, it serves an important role promoting understanding and exchange between China and Italy. In 2012, UniBo’s Confucius Institute received the award from “Global First-Rate Confucius Institute,” and in June of 2013, held the European Confucius Institute Conference. UniBo is ranked among the top European universities, especially in the fields of Law, Commerce, Philosophy, Education, Engineering, and Medicine, with its strengths very similar to those of RUC. On signing this MoU for student exchange, both institutions agree to exchange four students per year. One third of UniBo’s courses are taught in English, and they also offer Italian courses, supporting international students and helping them overcome the language barrier.