USTB President Visits RWTH Aachen and KU Leuven

From June 24th to 30th, a delegation led by Prof. Zhang Xinin, President of USTB was invited to visit RWTH Aachen University, Germany and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium. USTBhas been cooperating with RWTH Aachen and KU Leuven since 1979 and 2008 respectively, primarily with regards tostudent exchange programs and scientific research programs in fields related to metallurgy and materials science. The strong academic characteristics of the two universities and the history of the established partnerships make them USTB’s key partners in Europe. As of June, USTB hadsent over 240 students to the two universities for master’s degrees. The intention of this visit of the delegation was to renew USTB’s cooperation agreement with the RWTH Aachen and KULeuven as well as to visit USTB students studying there.  

In RWTH Aachen University, Prof. Ernst Schmachtenber, President of RWTH Aachen and Prof. Reinhart Poprawe, China Affairs Representative of the General Office, received the delegation. A meeting was arranged for the two universities to renew their cooperation agreement. After the meeting, the delegation visited laboratories inthe Department of Ferrous Metallurgy and the Department of Materials Science, watched an experiment undertaken by a class of students and paid a visit to the School of Business and Economics. AtKatholiekeUniversiteit Leuven, President Zhang had an informal discussion with students from USTB to hear about the courses offered to them, their research subjects and future plans. He also spokewithpeople in charge of KU Leuven’s student exchange programsand the student recruitment.

USTB and KULeuven signed theircooperation agreement in 2008, which established that 20 students majoring in metallurgy and materials science at USTB could be sent to KULeuven for master’s degrees each year. Prof. LudoFroyen, then Dean of the College of Engineering of KULeuven, visited USTB.

USTB and RWTH Aachen signed their cooperation agreement in 1979. In April, 2008, Prof. BurkhardRauhut, then President of RWTH Aachen, was awarded an honorary doctorate degree from USTB, becoming the first honorary doctor in USTB history. In November, 2009, Prof. Ernst Schmachtenberg visited USTB and attended the ceremony celebrating the 30th anniversary of their cooperation.

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