On June 10^th, Northwestern Polytechnical University (NPU), located in Xi’an, the starting point of ancient Silk Road, has signed cooperation agreement which focuses on students exchange and cultivation with United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) top university Khalifa University of Science and Technology (KU). NPU’s Vice President Prof. SONG Baowei and KU’s Senior Vice President of Academic and Student Services Dr. Ahmed Al Shoaibi signed an agreement on behalf of both parties.

Prof. Song reviewed the progress in cooperation in the fields of energy, agriculture, education and other fields between China and UAE. He underlined that the signing of this agreement is another typical win-win scenario to provide high-quality transnational educational resources for outstanding students on both sides. It will certainly create opportunities for promoting academic exchanges between young students of the two universities, and will lay a solid foundation for further deepening educational and cultural exchanges between the two countries.

Dr. Ahmed Al Shoaibi pointed out that cooperation between UAE and China has a solid foundation and broad prospects, and cooperation with Higher Education sector in China has always been served as a primary objective of Khalifa University. The signing of this agreement with NPU will further promote the joint cultivation of talents of the two universities, and will contribute remarkably to the collaboration and friendship between UAE and China in the field of education.

This student exchange agreement between the two universities involves aerospace, mechanical engineering, energy, electronical and electronic engineering, and other disciplines, covering both undergraduate and postgraduate students. The formal signing of the agreement is not only an important measure to solidly promote the “14th Five-Year Plan” of the university's international exchanges and cooperation, but also a specific step to implement the NPU’s first-class undergraduate action plan and first-class graduate student action plan, which is of great significance to further improve the NPU international cooperation layout.

As the best university in UAE, Khalifa University covers almost all engineering disciplines, including mechanical engineering, materials, electronics, computers, chemical engineering, petroleum, energy, aerospace-engineering and so on. It ranks 181^stin the world and 37^thin Asia in the QS World University Rankings 2023, and it is also listed among the best in the entire Middle East and Africa region.

Text: HAN Zhen

Photo: LU Di

Reviewer: CHEN Jun