Chinese Cooperation with African Universities

QINGDAO UNIVERSITY SELECTS DSCHANG UNIVERSITY

Dschang, UDs/SIC – 09/09/2024. The University of Dschang (UDs) in Cameroon and the University of Qingdao (UQ) in China signed, on September 5^th, 2024 in Beijing, a “Memorandum of Understanding” for cooperation between the two institutions. The signing of this document of commitment took place within the framework of the “First China-Africa Universities Exchange Mechanism Conference”. A total of 12 African universities were part of this solemn meeting. This was witnessed by many who were, essentially, ministers in charge of higher education and research serving in numerous African countries.

The officially sealed partnership between these universities is the result of a long selection process. In its intercontinental activity, the Association of African Universities (AAU) of which  UDs is a member has in fact entered into a partnership with the China Association of Higher Education (CAHE). In a bid to strengthen their collaboration, the two organizations have set up an exchange mechanism between African universities and Chinese universities. This is how the AAU launched a call for interest to which around a hundred institutions responded satisfactorily. After investigations carried out by the CAHE, 12 universities were finally selected to take part in this first batch of MoU signatories

The UDs was thus selected on a competitive basis as part of the Cooperation Plan of 100 universities from China and Africa. On July 31^st, 2024, the Director of Partnerships at AAU, wrote to the Rector of UDs, announcing: “We are pleased to inform you that after a thorough process, the University of Dschang has been paired with a Chinese university under the China-Africa Universtities Cooperation Plan”. We were formally informed a few weeks later, notably through the invitation from the consortium of Chinese universities, that it is the University of Qingdao which has chosen UDs. It is this partnership which was publicly sealed by the MoU during the Conference on September 5.

Signed on the one hand by Prof. He Yan, Vice-President of UQ and, on the other, by Prof. Roger Tsafack Nanfosso, Rector of the University of Dschang, this MoU has an initial duration of 05 years . After this period, it will be reconsidered for possible amendment. The members of the two universities are called upon to give life to this memorandum through specific agreements relating to the projects which will be initiated and carried out by mutual agreement.

The MoU between UDs and UQ is one more opportunity that lecturers and students must seize. After the universities of Cologne in 2017, Para and Paraiba in Brazil in 2021, as well as the Eramus Plus mobility program, UDs opens a new perspective of internationalization. It invites lecturers and students to explore, beyond Latin America and Central Europe, other paths to the future in Asia in general and in the Middle Kingdom in particular!

Useful links

https://www.qdu.edu.cn/info/1040/19418.htm

https://www.qdu.edu.cn/info/1238/19421.htm

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/x4BcVyjXZbqzM2_Ue3Ebww