UVic receives high-level delegations from Europe, China

On October 1, His Excellency Dorian Prince, head of the European delegation to Canada, visited the university. UVic is the site for North America’s only Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence (JMCE), a credit to the high quality of European studies activities at UVic. The Jean Monnet Programme of the European Commission supports teaching and research in the field of European integration studies, the analysis of the origins and evolution of the European Communities and the European Union in all its aspects.

While here, Prince met with UVic Jean Monnet chairholders Amy Verdun (director of the JMCE) and Oliver Schmidtke (director of the European Studies Program) as well as staff of the Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis (housed at UVic) and the NEPTUNE and VENUS projects managed by Ocean Networks Canada.

On October 15, UVic hosted 22 vice-presidents from universities in the People’s Republic of China, many from highly-ranked universities in Beijing, Shanghai and other major cities. They were visiting to explore trends in modern Canadian universities and engaged in discussions with senior university officials including President David Turpin and Vice-President External Relations Valerie Kuehne. The visit was timely as UVic moves to strengthen its links with China based on a recent agreement with the China Scholarship Council that allows for doctoral-level Chinese students to attend UVic on a scholarship (see The Ring, June 2007). UVic is currently identifying suitable Chinese partner universities that will support these young Chinese academic leaders in their scholarship applications. A delegation of senior UVic administrators will visit China in December 2007 to meet with potential partner universities.

Both visits were hosted by the Office of International Affairs.