In the afternoon of April 17, the 6th Board Meeting of the Confucius Institute of University of Bangor (the CI at Bangor) was held at the Xueyuan Lu Campus, CUPL. Representatives from the University of Bangor attending the meeting included Mr. John Hughes, Vice-Chancellor of BU, Dr. David Joyner, British Co-Director of the CI at Bangor, Ms. Angharad Thomas, Director of the International Development Department, Prof. Shi Wei of the Law School, Dr. Lina Davitt, Program Manager of the Confucius Institute, and Ms. Luna Wu, Chief Representative of Bangor University China Office from University of Bangor. CUPL representatives included Prof. Huang Jin, President of CUPL, Vice President Ma Huaide, Vice President Feng Shiyong, Prof. Xin Yanjun, Chinese Co-Director of the CI at Bangor, Wang Fuping, Deputy Director of the International Cooperation and Exchange Office.
President Huang first extended a warm welcome to Mr. Hughes and his delegation, and then pointed out that the CI at Bangor is the first CI co-established by CUPL. During the past 6 years, the CI has made fruitful progresses in multiple fields, including Mandarin teaching, promotion of the Chinese culture, culture & academic communications, and etc. President Huang highlighted the year 2017, which witnessed the initiation of 5 Confucius classes, marking a new milestone of the development of the CI at Bangor. President Huang expressed his sincere gratitude to Mr. Hughes and all the board directors of the CI for their support, as well as to all the staff members of the CI for their hard work. He then briefed the foreign guests of all the inspiring events that had taken place at CUPL in 2017, the year of CUPL’s 65th anniversary. First, General Secretary Xi Jinping visited CUPL and delivered a speech on 3 May, 2017. Second, CUPL got enrolled in the list of “University with World-Class Discipline” of the “Double World-Class University” Strategy, with its discipline of Law listed as the “World-Class Discipline”. Third, the discipline of Law received A+ rating in the 4th round of the national discipline evaluation, ranking first among all the universities nationwide. Fourth, CUPL passed the undergraduate evaluation assessment by the Ministry of Education. President Huang indicated that, strengthening the development of CIs is one of the crucial agenda of CUPL’s internationalization strategy, and expressed his wish to deepen cooperation with University of Bangor and other prestigious universities in the world in various fields, such as law, political science, and sociology and so on.
Mr. John expressed his gratitude for the warm welcome and accommodation to President Huang and Chinese representatives. He said that he was also inspired by the visit of President Xi to CUPL. He then briefed the CUPL representatives of the recent developments of Bangor University, and the support and acknowledgement from the Welsh local government as well as the Chinese Embassy in UK to the CI. He highlighted that 2017 was the best year for the CI at Bangor ever in the history. Besides the 5 newly set-up Confucius classes, the CI at Bangor also received fruitful achievements in culture communication and activities. He pointed out that the CI at Bangor functions had become an important bridge for academic and cultural communication between CUPL and University of Bangor, as well as between China and UK. He expressed his gratitude for the support from President Huang and other CUPL leaders, the dedication of directors of the CI at Bangor and the hard work of all the staff at the CI at Bangor. He expressed his passions and hopes to the work of CI in 2018.
Later, in accordance with the conference agenda, the board of directors deliberated on and approved the memorandum submitted by the previous board of directors. Then, the British Co-director of CI at Bangor, Prof. David Joyner and Chinese Co-director of CI at Bangor, Prof. Xin Yanjun made a joint presentation of the work report of the CI at Bangor for 2017 - 2018 and the work schedule of the CI at Bangor for 2018 - 2019. The board of directors watched a video of the major events of the CI at Bangor in 2017 and 2018 together. Directors from both sides made a full discussion and approved the reports above unanimously.
The motion to accept Mr. Feng Shiyong as a Chinese board director was also passed unanimousl at the meeting by the board of directors. The board of directors congratulated Mr. Feng’s acceptance and Mr. Feng expressed his determination to honor this duty and to contribute his efforts to the development of the CI at Bangor. Two Chinese Calligraphies painted by Mr. Li Xiwen, famous calligrapher and Vice President of CUPL’s Labour Union, were presented to Vice Chancellor Hughes of University of Bangor and the British Co-Director of CI at Bangor.
Finally, Vice chancellor Hughes and President Huang delivered closing remarks. Vice President Ma huaide declared a successfull conclusion of the 6th Board of Directors Meeting of the CI at Bangor.
