Reported by WANG Juan
Translated by CHEN Xi
Edited by ZHANG Zhaodi & Patti Broderick
Update: 2011-11-18
On Nov. 7th, 2011, HIT Vice President REN Nanqi extended a warm welcome to University of Poitiers President Jean-Pierre Gesson (Université de Poitiers, France) and his delegation.
FAN Hongbo, Director of HIT’s International Office, shared with the delegation HIT’s long history of exchanges and cooperative programs with French universities and research institutes. REN expressed that these previous successes contributed greatly to the international development of both the French universities and HIT. He proposed inviting University of Poitiers faculty to teach at HIT, which Mr. Gesson heartily supported commenting that then students of both universities would not only enjoy identical classes in both France and HIT, but could freely choose their preferred instructional language—French, Chinese or English.
As one of Europe’s oldest universities, the University of Poitiers founded in 1431, has educated many famous historical figures including Maria Sklodowska-Curie (known as Madame Curie), Joachim Du Bellay, Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac, Francois Rabelais, René Décartes, Francis Bacon, and Scevole de Sainte Marthe, to name but a few. University of Poitiers is a national university of France with an enrollment of 24,600 students of which there are 3,000 foreign students from 110 countries. Its disciplines are organized in 14 branches, including 7 Teaching and Research Departments, 6 Institutes, and 1 Engineering School. They boast 45 renowned laboratories and 20 CNRS (National Scientific Research Center) associated research laboratories, conducting high level scientific research in many professional fields.
