The Open University welcomes visiting delegation from Beijing Foreign Studies University

On Friday 9th June, the Open University were delighted to welcome a delegation led by Professor Yang, President of Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU). The delegation consisted of members of their senior team.  

The international visit aimed to strengthen our existing collaborations and served as a starting point to explore new projects in both teaching and research.  Beijing Foreign Studies University and the Open University have previously collaborated on a pilot joint Doctoral of Education programme, teacher training and more recently the Online Confucius Institute which celebrated its first anniversary last month.

During the visit Professor Yang and the senior team met with Vice-Chancellor Tim Blackman, Pro-Vice Chancellor, Kevin Shakesheff and senior representatives from across OU Faculties and teams, including WELS, FASS, FBL, STEM, KMI, BDU and the Graduate School. Dr Klaus-Dieter Rossade, Executive Dean of the Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies (WELS), said:

"It’s my great pleasure to welcome Professor Yang, President of Beijing Foreign Studies University, and other distinguished guests from Beiwai at the OU today... over the last year and a half, we’ve had a great collaboration in co-hosting the Online Confucius Institute at the OU, and we’ve had a very successful year despite various challenges”. He went on to say that “our two universities have collaborated in teacher training and in the joint Doctoral of Education pilot programme, which is the first of its kind with a Chinese university… Many of my colleagues, including myself, had not realised that the collaboration between our institutions dated back to 1990s.  We came to this realisation last April when we invited Professor Gu Yueguo from BFSU to give a public lecture in our Distinguished Speaker Series. We all believe, actually, we all know, that when we work together, we begin to understand each other better. And when people begin to understand each other better, they learn to appreciate each others’ cultures and begin to build trust – between themselves, their institutions, and their nations”.

Professor Yang Dan, President of Beijing Foreign Studies University, said:

“On behalf of BFSU, I’d like to express our heartfelt thanks to you for your considerate arrangement and hospitality. This is my very first visit to the UK since I’ve taken the post as the president of BFSU back in 2019. OU is our first stop in the UK. I believe it fully demonstrates our deep friendship and the prospect of bringing our joint cooperation to a new high in this new era of AI. Entering the new century, BFSU and OU kept in close touch with frequent visits. In April 2018, we formally signed up the MOU, agreeing to cooperate in joint research and teacher training. In October 2019, we launched the joint-EdD program. Currently, we have enrolled three cohorts of students and 7 faculty members of BFSU are pursuing their EdD under this program. Finally in 2022, building on our cooperation, we became co-hosts of the Online Confucius Institute at the Open University”.

The visit comes shortly after the Online Confucius Institute celebrated its first anniversary since launching in 2022 as well as a successful visit to BFSU by Dr Mirjam Hauck, LAL Associate Head of School for Internationalisation, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. Dr Hauck delivered a successful workshop on Virtual Exchange training for teachers as part of an exciting four-week online Virtual Exchange training programme run jointly between the OCI at the Open University, the Institute of Online Education at BFSU and UNICollaboration.org.

A selection of photos from the visit can be viewed here.  You can also view the story on our WeChat page.