Ireland consul general seeks cooperation between XJTLU and Irish universities

July 19, 2016

Therese Healy, consul general of the Consulate General of Ireland Shanghai, paid a visit to Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University last week to seek potential cooperation between XJTLU and Irish universities.

Professor Youmin Xi, executive president of XJTLU, welcomed Ms Healy and briefly introduced the University during the meeting.

He said: “XJTLU has integrated the best practice of Western and Eastern education and is dedicated to cultivating talents who can adapt to future world development trends. In addition, XJTLU also aims to impact higher education in China.”

He added that XJTLU had set up research institutions with local government to carry out research focused on social problems, such as urbanisation, population ageing, smart and green cities amongst others. He also indicated that by establishing the research centres, as well as an international technology transfer centre and innovation hub, XJTLU hopes to attract international universities and research institutions to communicate and exchange experiences and ideas.

“XJTLU has cooperated with the British Council to provide training for Chinese primary and secondary school English teachers and hopefully we can carry out cooperation in the aspects of research and education with Ireland in the future,” he continued.

Ms Healy pointed out that university student employment is a challenge in Ireland, as it is in China, and that the University of Limerick, founded in 1972 by the Irish government, has good experience in solving these employment challenges.

She said that the University of Limerick provides students paid and semi-paid work placements, with the experience students gaining making them more employable: “I would like to introduce the University of Limerick to XJTLU and hope the two universities can seek potential cooperation and learn experiences and best practices from each other.

“Most of the Irish students who study in China are in Beijing and Shanghai, I would also like to encourage them to study in Suzhou in the future,” she said.

July 19, 2016