Between February 19 and 23, 2017, Prof. Shi Yajun, CUPL Council Chair was invited to lead a six-member delegation to Waseda University, Ritsumeikan University, Okayama University, and Osaka University. Agreements concerning inter-school exchange and pragmatic cooperation with prestigious private and public universities in Japan have been achieved.
During the visit, Prof. Shi Yajun and his delegation met with Prof. Kaoru Kamata, President of Waseda University, Prof. Norimasa Morita, Vice President of Waseda University, Prof. Masato Ichikawa, Vice President of Ritsumeikan University, Prof. Kiyoshi Morita, President of Okayama University, Prof. Mitsunari Kenji, Executive Vice President of Osaka University and other school authorities and representatives. During these meetings, Prof. Shi Yajun introduced the unique role and advantages of CUPL, China’s finest higher institution of legal education in personnel training, scientific research, social service, cultural inheritance, international exchange, and etc. In particular, CUPL boasts an important platform and abundant resources for international exchanges. According to Prof. Shi Yajun, CUPL, as a pioneer of China’s legal education reform, will manage to seize the opportunity of “building top-tier universities and disciplines in the world” (known as “double top-tiers”) which has been proposed by the Chinese government, and promote comprehensive strategic partnerships with Japan’s prestigious universities so as to achieve the targets of coordinated personnel training as well as discipline innovation. In the talks, representatives of Japanese universities spoke highly of the contributions that CUPL had made, and expressed their sincere wishes to establish extensive cooperation with CUPL.
After in-depth and friendly consultations, the delegation decided to establish a cooperative relationship and to sign an inter-college cooperation agreement with Waseda University as soon as possible. CUPL also reached an agreement with Ritsumeikan University to draft a list of potential cooperation programs for faculty and students, to launch long-term and short-term student exchange programs in the fields of law or relevant disciplines, and to gradually promote the double degree program by exchanging academic credit. In addition, the two universities reached consensuses on promoting student exchange program in the field of psychology. The delegation also discussed with Okayama University on the topics of implementing the agreement signed in 2016, enhancing exchanges of preponderant disciplines and expanding the scope of future cooperation. Apart from the above achievements, CUPL also reached an initial consensus on inter-college cooperation with Osaka University and signed the cooperation agreement and memorandum for student exchange programs in the field of law and political science.