Mr. Weldon Epp, Consul General of Canadian Consulate General, accompanied by Mr. Geoff Machum, Chair of Halifax Port Office, Prof. David Gauthier, Vice President of Saint Mary’s University (SMU), Mr. Bill Bu, President of Atlantic Branch of Hong Kong-Canada Business Association, visited BNUZ. Prof. Tu Qingyun, President of BNUZ, Prof. Fu Ailan, Vice President of BNUZ met with the guests. Dr. Gan Chunyan, Director of Office of International Exchange and Cooperation participated in the meeting.

During the meeting, Prof. Tu Qingyun extended warm welcome to Mr. Weldon Epp and other delegates and expressed his sincere hope that Consul General can offer more support to our educational cooperation with Canadian institutions. Then, Prof. Fu Ailan delivered a welcome speech on behalf of the university and introduced BNUZ’s school-running guidance, features and our partnership with Canadian universities. Mr. Weldon Epp applauded on BNUZ’s cooperation with Canadian universities. When he learned that a joint B.A. Program of Commerce between BNUZ and SMU was approved by China’s Ministry of Education and will recruit students this year, he expressed his pleasure to seek for internship opportunities in Chinese branch of Canadian companies and he is willing to offer more support for BNUZ’s cooperation with Canadian universities and help to build a cooperative bridge and extend cooperation channels.

At the end of the meeting, Prof. Fu Ailan, Vice President of BNUZ, Prof. David Gauthier, Vice President of SMU, signed a new cooperative agreement, extending two universities’cooperation from business, liberal arts to science and technology and the cooperative level from undergraduate to graduate, which also marks a deepen and more extensive cooperation with SMU.

In the past 11 years, the number of students participated in the Finance 2+2 program between BNUZ and SMU has reached nearly 300. In total there are 100 students participated in our summer program with SMU and Acadia University in the past two years. 15 SMU students attended International Chinese Studies which is jointly held by BNUZ, SMU and Acadia University. Two students went to SMU as exchange students. Moreover, we also have a Venue Master program with University of British Columbia.

Apart from student exchange program, we also carry out faculty exchanges and visiting scholar cooperation with SMU. In the past two years, each side sent two faculty for the faculty exchange program in the counterparts. In 2012, BNUZ organized 20 backbone faculty to participate in a three-week training program in Canada. In 2013, dean of Liberal Arts School at Acadia University was invited to deliver a series of lectures regarding university management for our senior administrative staff.