The 12th Board Meeting of the Confucius Institute at the University of Saskatchewan (USask CI) was held online on June 19, 2023. The meeting was attended by Dr. Baljit Singh, Vice-President of Research at the USask and the Canadian Chair of the USask CI Board, as well as Dr. WANG Ying, Director of the Office of International Affairs and the Director of the International Student Center of Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT), and board members of both universities.
The board meeting was chaired by Dr. Zhao Kun, Deputy Director of the BIT Office of International Affairs. In the welcome speech, Dr. WANG Ying expressed her gratitude for the support and assistance by the USask and highlighted the renewal of the USask CI agreement in 2022 as a significant milestone for the development of the Confucius Institute and the growth of flagship partnership between USask and BIT.
Dr. Baljit Singh praised the efforts of former and current CI employees in fostering mutual understanding the communication between China and Canada through the Confucius Institute. Dr. Darcy Marciniuk, Assistant Vice-President of Research at the USask, and Chair of the USask CI Management Committee gave an overview of the work of the USask CI in the past 2 years.
During the meeting, board members listened to the work reports of the Confucius Institute for the years of 2021 and 2022, and discussed on various collaborative matters, including student and teacher exchange, research cooperation, and administrative staff training. Both universities expressed gratitude for support, and reaffirmed the commitment to further cooperation and cultural exchanges between the two institutions.