On November 6, the 5th CUMT Student Exchange and Study Abroad Fair was held at the library on CUMT Nanhu Campus. A total of 27 CUMT partner universities and educational institutions from 11 countries including Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, Germany, Canada, Poland, Finland, Austria and Sweden attended the Fair.
At the opening ceremony, Prof. Cai Shihua, Deputy Secretary of the CPC CUMT Committee, delivered a speech extending his gratitude to the overseas universities and educational institutions participating in the Fair. He stated that the strategy of running schools internationally and the training of high-level talents with global competitiveness are common characteristics shared by many world-class universities. It is also the way to build CUMT to be a world-class university with Chinese characteristics. During the period of the 14th Five-year plan and the great course of building CUMT to be a world-class university featured in energy and resources, CUMT will pay more attention to opening-up, propel international education with various measures, and enhance international exchanges and cooperation, with aim to provide more policy support and condition guarantee for students to study abroad. He stressed that though the COVID-19 pandemic has brought the higher education unprecedented challenges in international exchanges, higher learning institutions should continuously enhance the international exchanges and cooperation in academic research and talent training and strive to build a community with shared future for mankind. Hence, CUMT will make full use of the information technology and internet resources to create new ways and platforms for study abroad and will work with overseas universities closely to propel international cooperation. In his speech, Prof. CAI hoped CUMT students would actively participate in the Fair and find suitable overseas universities to realize their dreams.
The St. Petersburg Mining University in Russia was the first University of Honor of the Fair. The university rector, Prof. Vladimir Litvinenko expressed in his video speech that CUMT is a world-renowned university and a center for mining talents and mining science. St. Petersburg Mining University and CUMT have established close cooperation relationship in many areas and the two universities have many complementary advantages. Mining talents are the reliable support for national economic sustainability. Therefore, the development of mining science and the mining talents' ability plays a decisive role in the sustainability of global economy. He hoped to see more cooperation and international exchanges between both universities in the future.
Wang Zhizhi, Assistant Director of International Partnerships College of Engineering from the University of Kentucky in the US, said in his video speech that the University of Kentucky (UKY) and CUMT are close partners and have jointly cultivated many excellent students via exchange programs. He hoped that students attending the Fair will get more information about the teaching excellence of UKY through the Fair.
Chen Haotian, a student representative, delivered a speech sharing his experience as a visiting student at the University of Nottingham in the UK. He expressed that the visit acquainted him with different teaching methods of overseas university, and his English was greatly improved during studying abroad. He extended his gratitude for the great support and help gained from CUMT and hoped that more students like him could realize their dreams of studying abroad through the various platforms provided by CUMT.
After the opening ceremony, the 5th CUMT Student Exchange and Study Abroad Fair officially kicked off. Due to the pandemic reason, all the overseas participating universities introduced their universities online, including University of Kentucky, University of Nottingham, University of Exeter, University of Leeds, University of Birmingham, University of Adelaide, University of Waterloo, RWTH Aachen University, TU Bergakademie Freiberg and Studying Abroad Foundation (SAF), etc. On the site of the Fair, Russian students of CUMT performed traditional Russian dance and brought their home cooked food with Russian characteristics for students attending the fair, which led the atmosphere of the Fair to a peak.
This fair, hosted by the CUMT International Office and co-organized by the Office of Undergraduate Academic Affairs, Graduate School, Student Affairs Office, CUMT Youth League Committee, International College, and the Library, is a large-scale exhibition activity for studying abroad that has been held by CUMT under the theme of “Student Exchange and Study Abroad” for five consecutive years. It aims to implement the national strategy for opening-up education and to achieve the goal of CUMT to train world-class talents. The Fair also facilitate to further promote CUMT’s “double first-class” building, offer overseas partner universities and institutions with promotional opportunities and provide more channels for CUMT’s teachers and students to study abroad.
