President S. Joe Qin Attended the 40th Anniversary Celebration Activities of Shenzhen University

President S. Joe Qin of Lingnan University was invited to attend the 40th anniversary celebration activities of Shenzhen University (SZU) on 27 September and during which he conducted a lecture to the faculty members and students of the University.

President Qin made use of the occasion to meet up with President Mao Junfa and Vice President Zhang Xueji of SZU. Apart from sending forth his heartiest congratulations to the University on its 40th anniversary, he expressed his appreciation about SZU’s admirable achievements, saying the University had grown rapidly with the development of the Special Administrative Region, nurturing more than 300,000 innovative and entrepreneurial talents for the Greater Bay Area.President Qin also introduced to them the latest developments of Lingnan University and looked forward to strengthening collaborations between the two universities in areas including student exchanges and data science. President Mao was delighted to have the presence of President Qin on this memorable occasion. He said all along the two universities had been working closely together and he also hoped to see more exchanges and research collaborations between the faculty members and the students of the two universities.

Upon invitation, President Qin gave a lecture in the afternoon on the theme of"Dialogue with SZU students on internationalization of higher education", moderated by Professor Li Jun, Head of the Faculty of Education of the University. Based on his more than 30 years of experiences in the higher education sector in the United States, Hong Kong and Mainland China, and combining the concepts of East and West, President Qin shared his experience and perspectives about university education with the students and faculty members. Taking Lingnan University as an example, President Qin introduced the features of liberal arts education and encouraged the students to focus on not only professional knowledge, but also on general education. He considered university education as the process of becoming an adult, and so students should learn to handle things and deal with people with maturity in the university years. About the essence of university education, President Qin borrowed the famous quote by James Bryant Conant, President of Harvard University in 1943 ---"that which is left after all that has been learned has been forgotten."

President Qin was also invited to give a speech at the reception hosted for SZU’s partnering universities and colleges. He congratulated SZU again on its 40th anniversary, saying that SZU had nurtured for the society countless number of very accomplished talents, whose achievements had fully reflected the success of SZU in the past 40 years.

Lingnan University and SZU signed a letter of intent in 2021 with a view to carry out some comprehensive and multi-level collaboration in areas including joint research, joint supervision for students and student exchange. As at present, the two universities are working closely on various items including joint supervision for PhD programs, joint research, as well as innovation and entrepreneurship education. In May 2023, Lingnan University and SZU co- organized the first Greater Bay Area Youth Forum.