RUC President Prof. Ji Baocheng and Vice President Prof. Chen Yulu met with Prof. Lester P Monts, Senior Vice Provost for Academic Affairs of University of Michigan (U-Mich), USA, and Prof. Louis Yen, Director of International Research and Development, Health Management Research Center, on June 26th, 2009.

The U-Mich delegation came to sign the agreement of co-establishing Confucius Institute (CI) at U-Mich with National Hanban (The Office of Chinese Language Council International). As the Chinese partner of U-Mich, Renmin University would co-establish its 10th overseas CI with U-Mich, the famous “Model of Public Universities of US”.

During the meeting, Prof. Ji said that RUC would try its every effort to promote the CI at U-Mich to be a model for global excellent CIs. He hoped U-Mich and RUC to promote the Chinese traditional culture and arts, and call for more concern on the development of humanities and humanistic spirit by all walks of the society based on the U-Mich CI platform. Prof. Monts quite agreed with his proposal.

Prof. Ji introduced the disciplinary uniqueness, general information of faculty and students, academic research, as well as international exchanges of Renmin University. Prof. Monts said U-Mich and RUC had much in common in terms of disciplines, and expected to create a bright future for the U-Mich CI by joint efforts.

The delegation also visited RUC School of Fine Arts and the Institute for the Promotion of Chinese Language and Culture. Both sides exchanged their views on possible cooperation of music and Chinese National Opera, etc. Prof. Zheng Xiaohua, Executive Deputy Dean of School of Fine Arts, Dr. Hu Juan, Director of Institute of Higher Education, Ms. Cheng Xin, Deputy Director of International Office, also attended the meeting.

Ms. Xu Lin, Director of Hanban, and Prof. Lester P Monts, Senior Vice Provost for Academic Affairs of U-Mich, signed the agreement of co-establishment of CI at U-Mich on June 26th, 2009. Prof. Chen Yulu, RUC Vice President and Prof. Tang Zhong, Director of International Office, attended the signing ceremony.