On the 7^th of November, RUC President LIU Wei met with Executive Director of the Worldwide Universities Network (WUN) Professor John Hearn and Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University of Western Australia (UWA) Mr Iain Watt. RUC Vice Presidents WANG Liming and YI Zhihong were in attendance at this meeting. President LIU expressed a warm welcome to Professor Hearn upon his arrival, thanking him for his part in the efforts that led to RUC’s acceptance into the WUN, highlighting the potential of this event for collaboration with other member institutions. President LIU noted that RUC is a globally influential comprehensive research institution with a focus on the humanities, leading the nation in the fields of economics, commerce, law, politics, management, journalism, philosophy, sociology and statistics. RUC’s research in the fields of food safety, public health, higher education and culture is in line with the goals of the WUN, with many of RUC’s academics developing research in these and related fields. He concluded, noting that in line with the goal of developing a world ranked university, the RUC is more than happy to accept entrance into the WUN, and will use this as a platform to develop incisive and effective collaborative relationships with the worlds educators and students, researchers and think-tanks. Professor Hearn then took the opportunity to express a warm welcome to RUC on its entrance into the WUN, commending RUC on its preponderance in the field of humanities and social sciences and research. He said, that RUC’s entry into the WUN will strengthen the Network, that all members of the Network welcome RUC, and are looking forward to opening up collaborative partnerships with RUC, so that they can work together to make a global contribution in face of the important challenges and crises facing the world today. Following, Pro-Vice Chancellor of UWA Mr Iain Watt expressed congratulations to RUC on behalf of UWA on becoming a member of the WUN. He stated that WUN is an important platform for cooperation between the world’s leading universities and international research organisations, and that utilising this framework will serve to develop international research collaboration. This will not only serve to strengthen ties between this university and others around the globe, but also build relationships between nations and their researchers. Accompanying these on their visit was the Director of some of WUN’s projects, LIU Mingyi. Assistant Professor LIU took the opportunity to brief those in attendance on the work of the Research Development Fund and the Global China Group. President LIU signed the agreement to enter the WUN on behalf of RUC, signifying the official entry of RUC into the WUN. Vice President WANG, Executive Director Professor Hearn, Vice President YI and others engaged in discussions on how to develop collaborative research under the framework of the WUN. Deputy Director of the Office of Scientific Research Professor XU Qinhua, Deputy Director of the International Office CHENG Xin and others attended the meeting and witnessed the formal signing of the agreement. Established in the year 2000, the WUN is an international organisation uniting universities so as to develop collaboration in the fields of scientific research, education and knowledge transfer. The Network is supported by funding to facilitate cross-institutional collaboration between high level institutions around the globe with the aim to resolve some of the most pressing issues facing humanity today. It supports collaborative projects in fields such as climate security and food safety, public health, reform and development of higher education, and cross-cultural understanding. At present, the WUN has 20 member universities. The other member universities of the WUN are: University of Alberta, University of Auckland, University of Basel, University of Bergen, University of Bristol, University of Cape Town, University of Ghana, Chinese University of Hong Kong, University of Leeds, Maastricht University, University of Massachusetts Amherst, National Cheng Kung University, University of Rochester, University of Sheffield, University of Southampton, University of Sydney, University of Western Australia, University of York, and Zhejiang University.