On September 14, Rennes Graduate School of Southeast University was officially unveiled at Jiulonghu Campus. Mr. Cedric GUILLERME, S&T Deputy Counsellor of the French Embassy in China, Mr. Gaetan MESSIN, S&T Consul of the French Consulate in Shanghai, Mr. Guillaume ROUTIER, President of the French Union of Nanjing Normal University, President David ALIS, and Vice PresidentPierre Van de WEGHE of Université de Rennes 1 in France, Mr. Gilles LESVENTE, Dean of College of Information and Communication Engineering, Mr. Lotfi SENHADJI, Director of Signal and Image Processing Laboratory, President Zhang Guangjun, Managing Vice President Wang Baoping, Vice President Jin Baosheng, principals of the school's relevant departments and the teachers and students representatives from Southeast University attended the unveiling ceremony, which was presided over by Vice President Jin Baosheng.
At the ceremony, President Zhang Guangjun expressed his welcome to the delegation of President David ALIS on behalf of Southeast University and extended his congratulations to the unveiling of Rennes Graduate School; besides, President Zhang also expressed his gratitude to colleagues and teachers of both parties for their diligent contributions to the establishment of such Graduate School. President Zhang pointed out that Southeast University, as an university that undertakes the mission of constructing itself to be one of the double first-class universities in China, features a long history of international school-running and profound international education culture. In addition, the university has been unswervingly following the path of developing a powerful school in an internationalized manner by continuously expanding and deepening substantial cooperation with globally top-ranking universities. Among others, the exchanges and cooperation with Université de Rennes 1 for almost 30 years have achieved abundant results, which can be regarded as a model of Sino-French cooperation between higher education institutions. President Zhang also pointed out that the unveiling of Rennes Graduate School of Southeast University would function as a new platform and starting point of deepening exchanges and cooperation between both schools, and witness the new explorations made by both schools to advance the cultivation mode of innovative talents and upgrade the cultivation quality and level of high-level talents. He expected and believed that both universities, with the Graduate School as the carrier, would create it to be the highland of cultivating top-ranking talents, exchanges among top teachers and tackling key problems in scientific researches with joint efforts. Therefore, both parties could make their due contributions to promoting mutual exchanges and friendship among Sino-French and Sino-European young people, establishing a model of win-win cooperation between Sino-European higher education institutions, facilitating the exchanges and mutual reference of oriental and western cultures, and boosting the construction of human destiny community.
President David ALIS of Université de Rennes 1, in his speech, reviewed the history of cooperation between the two universities. He pointed out that the establishment of would greatly boost the cooperation between both universities. In the process of cooperation, great supports have been obtained from the government of both countries. He also pointed out that the newly established Rennes Graduate School of Southeast University would add its cooperation with the School of Public Health and the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering to cultivate graduate and Ph.D. students together on the basis of the original cooperation with the School of Computer Science and Engineering, the School of Electronics and the School of Economics and Management in order to deepen the cooperation between both universities and reserve more young scientific research talents. President ALIS also extended his gratitude to all presidents of Southeast University for their great support to the cooperation between both universities.
Cedric GUILLERME, S&T Deputy Counsellor of French Embassy in China, said in his speech that the cooperation between the two universities would not only be conducive to the cultivation of young talents, but also provide a very good platform for scientific research of both countries. At present, 12 joint educational institutions have been totally established in China and France, among which, the cooperation between Southeast University and Université de Rennes 1 is the most distinctive and unique because both parties have not only cultivated postgraduates, but carried out deep cooperation in scientific researches. He said that the French Embassy in China would provide certain financial support to the students and researchers of both countries, encourage both parties to jointly declare scientific research projects, and hope that all the young students present here would be actively engaged in the scientific research cooperation between the two countries.
Finally, Zhang Guangjun, President of Southeast University, and David ALIS, President of Université de Rennes 1, jointly unveiled Rennes Graduate School on behalf of both universities.
During the visit, Zuo Wei, Secretary of CPC Committee of Southeast University and President Zhang Guangjun met with the delegation of President David ALIS respectively. President Zhang Guangjun, on behalf of the school, renewed the cooperation agreement between both schools and reached a consensus on deepening the mutual cooperation in training high-end talents, exchanges of teachers and tackling difficulties in scientific researches with joint efforts, etc.
It is reported that Southeast University and Université de Rennes 1 started their cooperation as early as in 1989. In 2006, both parties jointly established Sino-French Biomedical Information Research Centre. For the International Cooperation United Laboratory of Information Display and Visualization as established in 2016, Université de Rennes 1 is also the major partner institution. Thanks to the exchanges and cooperation for almost 30 years, both parties have formed sound cooperative relationship of supplementation in respect of scientific research and teaching, moreover, fruitful cooperation results have been obtained. At the same time, the cooperation between the two universities has been highly recognized by the governments of both countries. Professor Yi Hong, the former president of Southeast University, was awarded an honorary doctorate by Université de Rennes 1. Two professors from Southeast University have successively received the medal of “Palm Education Knight” from the French government. Meanwhile, two professors from Université de Rennes 1 have been selected into the “Thousand Talents Plan” initiated by the Chinese government, and another professor was awarded the “Friendship Award” by the Chinese government. In this context, based on the long-term cooperation and common aspiration of cooperation, and under the approval and guidance of the education departments of China and France, Rennes Graduate School of Southeast University was officially inaugurated upon preparation for more than two years, which has initiated a new chapter of cooperation between the two universities.
