Recently, President Xi Jinping and Italian President Sergio Mattarella jointly met with representatives of both sides who attended the Conference on the China-Italy Cultural Cooperation Mechanism and the Chinese and Italian University Presidents Dialogue in Beijing. The two Heads of State were briefed by the representatives on the situation of Chinese-Italian cultural and university cooperation. Chen Yulu, President of Nankai University, attended the event.

The Chinese and Italian University Presidents Dialogue, sponsored by the Ministry of Education of China and the Ministry of University and Research of Italy, was held at Peking University. Huai Jinpeng, Minister of Education; Chen Jie, Vice Minister of Education; and representatives from 50 Chinese and Italian universities, including Peking University, Nankai University, Zhejiang University, Tongji University, University of Bologna, Politecnico di Torino, and Sapienza University of Rome, entered into the dialogue to discuss China-Italy higher education cooperation, collaborative innovation and models of high-caliber talent cultivation. Chen Yulu, President of Nankai University, was invited to deliver a keynote speech entitled “Civilization Continuity and Innovation: The Future Mission of Higher Education”.

In the keynote speech, Chen Yulu expounded on the practices of Nankai University in carrying forward civilization and encouraging innovation. He pointed out that Nankai University, a century-old Chinese university with a global perspective, has always upheld patriotism, popularized excellent traditional culture, promoted international cultural exchanges through international academic conferences on Chinese poetry education, and kept alive the Chinese sports spirit and Olympic culture through sports events such as Nankai University’s “featured marathon”. Nankai University operates the educational concept of “integration of knowledge, ability and quality and equal emphasis on moral, intellectual, physical, aesthetic and labor education”. The university cultivates high-caliber patriotic personnel with an international vision through multilingual performances of the drama “Thunderstorm”, international student choir contest, and compilation of “Chinese General Annals of Basketball”. It also works to diffuse China’s voice through culture, art and sports, and raise the international visibility of Chinese culture.

Chen Yulu introduced that the educational exchange and cooperation between Nankai University and Italy dates back to academic cooperation with the University of Venice and the University of Pavia in Italy in 1987. Nankai University launched the Italian language program in 2017, becoming the first key comprehensive university in China to offer undergraduate Italian language program. It became a national first-class undergraduate program in 2022. Nankai University has established cooperative relationship with 11 Italian universities in the fields of linguistics, psychology, design, etc. Romano Prodi, former President of the European Commission and former Prime Minister of Italy, was awarded the title of Honorary Professor at Nankai University in 2011. Fan Zeng, a tenured professor at Nankai University, was awarded the Order of the “Grand General of the Italian Republic” by the President of Italy in 2015; Professor Yang Lin, dean of the Department of Italian Language, was awarded the “Knight of the Order of the Italian Republic” in 2021; and Le Xiaoyue, a foreign teacher at the Department of Italian Language, was nominated for the Tianjin Haihe Friendship Award in 2020. As a participant in China-Italy amity and cooperation, Nankai University carries out Chinese-Italian people-to-people exchanges and cooperation, and promotes mutual learning among civilizations.

Chen Yulu highlighted that exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations is a critical driver of the progress of human civilization, and that openness and inclusiveness are an important foundation for advancing the modern civilization of the Chinese nation. He hoped that universities in the two countries would work together to explore new models of cultural inheritance, innovation, as well as exchange and mutual learning, and contribute to the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.

Chen Yulu met with the presidents of Italian universities including the University of Bologna, University of Naples - Federico II, the University of Padua, the University of Turin, and the University of Venice, and discussed intention on future cooperation in the fields of faculty-student exchanges, joint research, joint cultivation of students, etc.

（Edited and translated by Nankai News Team.)