On the morning of October 13, CUPL Prof. Shi Yajun, CUPL Council Chair, met with Dana Prudikova, Deputy Minister of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic and her party at the Xueyuanlu Campus.
Prof. Shi extended a warm welcome to Mrs. Prudikova and her delegation. First, he briefly introduced CUPL to the guests. He said that, despite its short history, CUPL has had profound academic and social influences on higher education in China, particularly in the field of legal education and research. CUPL has been praised as the home to the largest number of jurists in China and even across the globe. In recent years, guided by the national strategy of "building a state strong in higher education" and the master plan of "building international first-class universities and disciplines", CUPL has stepped up efforts in internationalization. CUPL has established partnerships with over 180 colleges in 43 countries and regions, including Charles University in Prague. Twenty-one percent of its partner colleges are among universities in the World Top 100 List. CUPL has carried out diverse international cooperation such as students and staff exchange programs, academic studies, Confucius Institutes activities and cooperative education projects. In particular, Prof. Shi mentioned that in 2008, China-EU School of Law was set up at CUPL jointly by the Chinese government and the European Union. Currently, it is the only Sino-foreign partnership law school in China approved by the Ministry of Education of the P.R.C.
Mrs. Prudikova said that she was delighted to visit CUPL since her major was administrative law. She introduced the current situation of legal education in the Czech Republic and said that due to the special features of the legal discipline, the international exchange of legal education was less common in the Czech Republic. Thus, she hoped to have a successful learning experience in international cooperation with CUPL. She stated that the Czech Republic stood ready to take this opportunity to strengthen exchange and cooperation between CUPL and Czech universities.
Prof. Shi said that the visit by Mrs. Prudikova would be a new starting point for cooperation between CUPL and Czech universities. With the support of Mrs. Prudikova, CUPL hoped to promote and deepen the following cooperation: first, inviting prominent Czech universities to participate in relevant work of China-EU School of Law at CUPL; second, promoting exchanges between CUPL and other Czech universities apart from Charles University in Prague and extending cooperation into fields such as liberal arts and social sciences; third, pushing forward cooperation in administrative law; fourth, promoting cooperation between the Collaborative Innovation Center of Judicial Civilization and Czech universities; fifth, strengthening cooperation between CUPL Press and relevant institutes in Czech; and sixth, exploring the possibilities of jointly establishing Confucius Institutes in Prague. Mrs. Prudikova expressed willingness to push forward bilateral collaboration with CUPL together with relevant government agencies and responded to the above-mentioned suggestions respectively.
Later, the two sides exchanged views on mediation and arbitration, sports regulations and the transformation of government functions.
