On the afternoon of February 9, the 12th meeting of the Joint Management Committee of the Wuhan University of Technology–Aix-Marseille University Institute (hereinafter referred to as “the Joint Committee”) was held in a hybrid format combining online and offline participation. Attendees included WUT President Wang Fazhou and Vice President Li Zhengying, Aix-Marseille University President Eric Berton, Vice President Marchi, and Assistant Vice President Xiao Wei, along with all Chinese and French members of the Joint Committee. Ms Ming Gaibi, Science and Education Attaché at the French Consulate General in Wuhan, attended as a special guest. The meeting was chaired by Professor Eric Berton, the AMU President and Joint Committee Chair.

In his speech, Wang Fazhou pointed out that China-France educational cooperation is now embracing a vibrant spring of development. During President Xi Jinping's visit to France in May 2024, he announced the important initiative to "promote the number of French students studying in China to exceed 10,000 and double the scale of European youth exchanges with China within the next three years", which has injected strong momentum into deepening bilateral cooperation. President Macron's visit to China last week and his keynote speech at the 2nd China-France Education Development Forum have opened up broader prospects for further promoting cooperation in the field of education between the two countries. China-France educational cooperation is set to embark on a new chapter and reach new heights. With the joint efforts of both China and France, the Aix-Marseille Institute has developed into a key model for China-France educational cooperation. Looking to the future, WUT will continue its commitment to building a high-quality platform for Sino-foreign cooperative education, advancing discipline development and two-way exchanges of faculty and students. It will keep innovating talent-cultivation models to strengthen students’ language proficiency and professional skills and actively explore new modes of scientific collaboration, using tools such as joint seed-funding programs and co-established laboratories to substantially boost joint innovation capacity.

Professor Belton expressed gratitude to President Wang Fazhou for his efforts and achievements in advancing the development of the Aix-Marseille Institute during his tenure as Dean. He reviewed a series of important progress and accomplishments made by the Institute in the past half-year, fully affirming the effectiveness of both sides' work in areas such as student exchanges to France, enhancement of academic regulations, and communication mechanisms of the teaching committee. He emphasised the significant role of international exchange and cooperation in higher education and sincerely invited President Wang Fazhou to visit Aix-Marseille University for further academic exchanges.

Ms.Ming Gebi, representative of the Consulate General of France in Wuhan, highly praised our university’s ongoing efforts to achieve breakthroughs in Sino-French cooperation in science, technology, and education. She stated that the Consulate General of France in Wuhan would continue to support the collaboration between the two universities, consistently monitor and strongly support the construction and development of the Aix-Marseille Institute. She expressed confidence that, with the joint efforts of all parties, the development of the college would better benefit both universities and make even more outstanding contributions to advancing Sino-French higher education exchange and cooperation.

At this joint committee meeting, the replacement plan for the deputy director of the Joint Committee and the Dean of the Aix-Marseille Institute, as well as the plan to add new committee members to the Joint Committee, were unanimously approved. The appointment ceremony for Li Zhengying as the Dean of the Aix-Marseille Institute was held, and a report on the development progress of the Aix-Marseille Institute was presented. The minutes of the 8th and 9th Teaching Committee meetings were reviewed and approved. It was decided that jointly formulated documents would be submitted for deliberation at the 13th Joint Management Committee meeting in 2026.

Heads of relevant functional departments of WUT and members of the leadership team of the Aix-Marseille Institute attended the meeting as observers.

Written by: Yu Lihan

Rewritten by: Xu Hanyue

Edited by: Li Huihui, Li Tiantian

Source: School of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Life Science, Institute of WUT-AMU