On June 17, an online meeting concerning international cooperation and exchange was held between Guangzhou Maritime University (for short: GMU) and State University of New York Maritime College (for short: SUNY Maritime). The meeting was chaired by Ms. Zhu Jianfang, Director of the International Office of GMU, and Mr. Lloyd Bistany, head of the International Admissions of SUNY Maritime..
Attendees from GMU are Mr. Zhao Lehui (Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of GMU), Prof. Ge Chunfeng (Dean of the School of Port and Shipping Management), Mr. Xu Aiwen( Deputy Director of the International Office), and other related personnel. Attendees from SUNY Maritime are Dr. Jennifer Waters (Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs), Dr. Robert Edmonds(Department Chair of Global Business and Transportation Department), and Ms. Esther Rosario (Assistant to the Provost).
At the beginning of the meeting, Ms. Zhu Jianfang and Mr. Lloyd Bistany introduced the Attendees respectively.
Subsequently, Mr. Zhao Lehui introduced the development course, history, disciplines, faculty, talent training, and international exchanges of GMU. He said that GMU was taking the preparation for construction of Guangzhou Jiaotong University as an opportunity to accelerate the internationalization, actively expand international exchange and cooperation, and comprehensively improve the level of running schools. Prof. Ge Chunfeng then briefly introduced the history, professional characteristics and faculty of the School of Port and Shipping.
Moreover, Mr. Lloyd Bistany introduced the general information of SUNY Maritime comprising professional training, international exchange and cooperation. SUNY Maritime, established in 1874, is located in Throggs Neek Peninsula, New York, which is a public undergraduate college. In 1948, It turned into one of the founding colleges of State University of New York while it still represents the maritime school with longest history and largest scale in America. The college is aimed at cultivating excellent leaders for the global maritime industry, adheres to the school-running concepts of "academic advantages and relevance, student-centered base, practical learning, integrity, respect and leadership", and it sets up over 20 majors in engineering (marine, machinery, electrical appliances and facilities), shipbuilding, shipping(business administration and environmental port security), maritime research, marine science, humanities, international transportation and trade, etc. SUNY Maritime offering undergraduate and postgraduate degrees, is a college with five-star honors for graduate employment rate. Then Dr. Robert Edmonds briefly introduced the basic facts of Global Business and Transportation Department, reviewed its inter-college exchanges and cooperation, and said that they had accumulated a certain amount of experience in international cooperation and exchange and had a good foundation for further communication.
At the meeting, the two parties had a preliminary exchange of views on majors, models, levels, internship training, language requirements and other aspects of possible joint programs and combined cultivating projects, and looked forward to the promising future of the cooperation programs. Finally, the two parties expressed their strong willingness to speed up the signing of cooperation agreements and further negotiate specific details. This online meeting helped the two parties build a stable communication link, enhanced their understanding and mutual trust, and effectively promoted the international exchange and cooperation between GMU and SUNY Maritime.
In the summary, Deputy Secretary Zhao Lehui emphasized that SUNY Maritime had outstanding advantages and strong strengths in maritime affairs, and meanwhile had a high degree of matching with GMU in both the disciplines and features. He expressed the sincere wish that both parties could continue to maintain deep communication and close tie which would benefit further exchange of views on the follow-up details of the cooperative program between two universities. This meeting and the building tie with SUNY Maritime did help the diversified, wide-ranging and in-depth progress of our international cooperation and exchanges, thus meeting the development needs of GMU more accurately.
