On the November 20th, Dr. Malcolm Butler, Vice President (Academic and Research) and Dr. Peter Twohig, Associate Dean of Faculty of Arts from Saint Mary's University visited BNUZ. This is Dr. Butler's first visit to us since he took office in July, 2017. Prof. Xiangdong Geng ,Chairperson of University Council, senior administrators of collaborative schools together with Dr. Chunyan Gan, Director of Office of International Exchange & Cooperation welcomed the guests and had an official meeting in International Centre.

In the meeting, Prof. Geng expressed warm welcome to Dr. Butler for his first visit. Dr. Butler also expressed that SMU has always attached great importance to the profound and long-term friendship and partnership between two institutions, and he hoped we could facilitate and expand our collaboration through this visit. Prof. Mingyuan Zhang, Dean of School of Chinese, Prof. Ai Xu, Associate Dean of International Business Faculty, Prof. Jing Huang, Associate Dean of School of Information Technology and Dr. Youguang Lei, Associate Dean of School of Education then made a brief introduction of the ongoing collaborative programs and past achievements in schools to SMU guests. And then both sides exchanged ideas in such programs. At the end of the meeting, Prof. Geng and Dr. Butler together signed a new collaborative agreement on master's programs (Mfin and IMTE programs) and renewed the Finance 2+2 program agreement.

In the afternoon, guests from Saint Mary's University visited our campus and the Office of BNUZ-SMU Joint Degree Program. Dr. Butler had a brief meeting with colleagues and faculty in the office. The office did a program briefing and then both sides discussed about the program situations.

Later in the afternoon, Dr. Butler had official meetings with our students from BNUZ-SMU Joint Degree Program and 2+2 dual degree programs and introduced the future study and life in SMU.

During the visit, Dr. Peter Twohig also delivered an academic lecture to the students in Teaching Chinese as a Second Language 2+2 program. After the lecture, he introduced the assistance and supports that SMU will provide for our students to help them better adjust to the new environment in Canada.