Invited by South Africa Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Party Secretary Gao Jun, Academician Lei Qingquan of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and other three delegates visited the university from February 21^stto 26^th. The visiting purpose has been reached as expected.During the visits, Vice President Piet Naude(being in charge of academy and international cooperation) and other presidents(being in charge of international cooperation and student enrollment) met with the delegation. Party Secretary Gao Jun mentioned that China had always been attaching importance to the cooperation with African countries, especially with South Africa. In order to enhance the understanding of the two peoples, Chinese government encourages the cooperation between higher education organizations of the two countries. Professor Li Zhonghua ( of the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, HUST) has worked in Vaal University of Technology as a visiting scholar for a year in 2000 and fulfilled a short term research in 2005. Professor Li has established a good cooperative relationship with Mr. Henk. Although Mr Henk’s job changed, the partnership has been well kept. Last October, Mr. Henk was invited to visit HUST and met with Vice ZhaoHong and Party Secretary Gao Jun. Mr. Henk also visited the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering and had a seminar with professors. These all helped the two sides deepen mutual understanding and friendship. Both sides would like to further deepen the understanding and cooperatively carry out scientific research. HUST delegation’s visit this time is just a return visit on the invitation from Mr. Henk.

Party Secretary Gao Jun emphasized that, through several days’ visits to some schools and departments and chatting with their s and deans, the two sides agreed that cooperation could be carried out in the following three aspects: 1 student exchanges; 2 the scientific research cooperation; 3 postdoctoral and doctoral students joint nurturing. The delegation discussed with the counterpart about the establishment of Confucius institute in South Africa. Piet Naude expressed his warm welcome to the Chinese guests coming from afar. He said China was the strongest and fastest developing economy which roused great interest from people in South Africa. Universities on the South African side hope to cooperate with Chinese universities. It is the honor of South Africa Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University to have HUST Delegation as the first Chinese university delegation that has ever visited their university. Vice Principal Piet Naude agreed with the above three proposals for cooperation, especially the idea of jointly establishing the Confucius institute. The South Africa Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University has a department of philosophy, which is deeply interested in Chinese culture. They would like to further study the feasibility of the establishment of a Confucius institute. He also expressed his willingness to introduce other universities in the African University Union to HUST. Party Secretary Gao Jun thanked Piet Naude and invited him to visit HUST at his convenience. Vice Principal Piet Naude gladly accepted the invitation.

During the visit, the delegation held talks with Mr. Henk (Dean of School of Engineering, Building Environment and Information Technology), Mr. Schoombie (Chairman of Department of Engineering), Prof. Pottas (Chairman of Department of Information and Communication Technology), Prof. Shakantu (Chairman of Department of Building Environment), and Prof. McGrath (Chairman of Department of Mechanical Engineering). The delegation also visited the laboratories and the campus, looked on the students’ graduate design.

Li Zhonghua (Dean of the School of Electric and Electronic Engineering), Xu Xiangchen (Director of the Department of Enrollment and Employment), and Xi Zhaohui (Director of the International Cooperation and Communication) accompanies the visit.