Minister Mr. Chris John Hipkins Visits Peking University

17/07/2018  On 17 July a high-level delegation headed by His Excellency Minister of Education Mr. Chris Hipkins and Her Excellency Ms. Clare Fearnley was welcomed by President of Peking University Professor Lin Jianhua followed by a roundtable focusing on China-New Zealand relation in the past, present and future, exploring possibilities of enhancing academic exchanges and collaboration up to a higher level.

On 17 July a high-level delegation headed by His Excellency Minister of Education Mr. Chris Hipkins and Her Excellency Ms. Clare Fearnley visited Peking University. President of Peking University Professor Lin Jianhua and representatives of Peking University welcomed Minister Chris Hipkins and Ambassador Clare Fearnley and their delegates and had a meeting with them in Linhuxuan. This is the first visit of Minister Chris Hipkins to Peking University and Beijing and Ambassador Fearnley’s first official visit to Peking University in her capacity as the New Zealand’s Ambassador to China. Peking University is Ambassador Fearnley’s Alma Mater, where she studied Chinese and law from 1987 to 1988. 

President Lin Jianhua Meets Minister Chris Hipkins

The New Zealand delegation consisted of Chief Executive of Education New Zealand Mr. Grant McPherson, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Massey University and Chairman of the New Zealand Centre Advisory Board Mr. Stuart Morris, Counsellor of Education Ms. Adele Bryant, Senior Manager International Cooperation and Engagement of Ministry of Education Ms. Tara Thurlow-Rae, Jacquelyn Bernstein as Senior Private Secretary to Minister Hipkins, Second Secretary (Economic/Trade) Ms. Rachel Brookie, and Education Manager of New Zealand Embassy Beijing Ms. Betty Xiao. Prior to their visit to Peking University, Minister Hipkins and Ambassador Fearnley visited the Chinese Ministry of Education and had a meeting with Minister Chen Baosheng to discuss how to enhance the existing collaboration between China and New Zealand.

President Lin Jianhua briefed the recent celebration of the 120th anniversary of Peking University and some of the major efforts and achievements of the university in the course of building up a double first-class university, including collaborations with New Zealand universities. He spoke highly of the collaboration with New Zealand universities, such as the three-brother collaborative programme with Massey University and Xinjiang Shihezi University. Minister Hipkins also stressed the importance and achievements of the academic collaboration between New Zealand universities with Peking University and other Chinese universities, emphasizingthe educational collaboration and academic exchanges as a part of the New Zealand-China strategic partnership. 

Representatives of Peking University faculty and staff present at President Lin’s meeting with the New Zealand guests also included Vice Director of the Office of International Relations Dr. Zheng Ruqing, Director of New Zealand Centre at Peking University Professor Liu Shusen, Professor of Ma Wanhua of the Graduate School of Education, Former Chinese Ambassador to New Zealand Mr. Chen Mingming, Professor Han Feng of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences， Secretary of New Zealand Centre at Peking University A/Professor Liu Hongzhong, and Dr. Ma Naiqiang of the School of Foreign Languages. At the end of the meeting President Lin Jianhua also presented Ambassador Fearnley a Chinese book of Buddhism translated and edited by Professor Wang Bangwei of the School of Foreign Languages, a friend of Ambassador Fearnley’s, who was then attending a workshop off Beijing. 

A Group Photo after the Meeting of President Lin and Minister Hipkins

From left to right: Counselor Adele Bryant, Chief Executive Grant McPherson, Ambassador Fearnley, Minister Hipkins, President Lin, Former Ambassador Chen Mingming, Professor Ma Wanhua, A/Professor Liu Hongzhong, Professor Han Feng, Professor Liu Shusen, and Dr. Ma Naiqiang.

The official visit of the delegation was followed by a roundtable focusing on China-New Zealand relation in the past, present and future, especially reviewing the history of educational collaboration and exploring possibilities of enhancing academic exchanges and collaboration up to a higher level. The roundtable was attended by Minister Hipkins, Ambassador Fearnley, all the other members of the New Zealand delegation, and representatives of Peking University, including Vice Director of the Office of International Relations Dr. Zheng Ruqing, Director of New Zealand Centre at Peking University Professor Liu Shusen, Professor of Ma Wanhua of the Graduate School of Education, Former Chinese Ambassador to New Zealand Mr. Chen Mingming, Professor Han Feng of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences，Secretary of New Zealand Centre at Peking University A/Professor Liu Hongzhong, Dr. Ma Naiqiang of the School of Foreign Languages, Xu Haolun of the Office of International Relations, who graduated from the University of Canterbury, and Tony Fiddis, a New Zealand postgraduate student who just graduated in June with a master degree of law from the School of International Studies, Peking University. 
 

As the co-convener, Professor Liu Shusen briefly introduced as the background information on what has been achieved since New Zealand Centre was established in 2007 as a collaborative programme between Peking University and New Zealand universities, including the annual undergraduate course “New Zealand History and Culture” since 2008, the only one of its kind among over all the three thousand Chinese universities and colleges, and the visiting fellow programme in support of academics of the eight public universities in New Zealand to visit Peking University for the purposes of presenting lectures and further engaging with their host professors for continuing collaboration. Minister Hipkins updated on the educational reform in New Zealand, including the increasing importance of performance-based fund for academic research and on-going promotion of lifelong education for the improvement of employment, industry and trade. Minister Hipkins pointed out all these reforms are all related with more than 100,000 international students in New Zealand, one third of whom are from China. Besides, he also analyzed some of the general problems in the profession of education, including the extensive shortage of teachers in primary and secondary schools. Ambassador Fearnley stressed the importance of further strengthening New Zealand and China relations through educational exchanges and collaboration at all levels, such as the three-brother pattern of collaboration between New Zealand universities and Chinese universities. She also recalled her experiences of working with Mr. Chen Mingming when he was the Chinese Ambassador to New Zealand from 2001 to 2004. As Ambassador Fearnley introduced, Mr. Chen was then known as the Model Ambassador and significantly contributed to China and New Zealand relations. Both ambassadors delightfully reviewed the history of China and New Zealand educational collaboration since the 1990s and proposed to enhance the reciprocal collaboration through more dynamic exchanges and dialogues at various levels. 

A Group Photo of the Representatives Attending the Roundtable

The one-hour roundtable covered many fields and social aspects in association with education. As Chairman of the New Zealand Centre Advisory Board, Stuart Morris spoke on behalf of the eight public universities in New Zealand, stressing the necessity and value of further collaboration as an important part of the strategic partnership between New Zealand and china. After recalling her experiences of visiting New Zealand in the early 2010s, Professor Ma Wanhua introduced recent trends in the international circles of higher education, including the increasing impact of world-class university rankings on the university governance, disciplinary restructures and readjustments, and the principles of teaching and academic assessments. She stressed that universities in China and New Zealand are similar in their nature of public institutions that are financially supported by governments so that common aims and interests should make it easier to collaborate for building a better and stronger relations between the two countries by making the best use of each other’s resources. She briefed the plan of teachers and school masters training programme launched by the Chinese Ministry of Education and proposed the collaboration of such professional training programmes. 
 

As one of the highlights of the visit of the New Zealand delegation headed by Minister Hipkins and Ambassador Fearnley, the roundtable would be followed up with a few further engagements, including the visit of a Peking University delegation to five New Zealand universities in August.         

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