Recently, a delegation led by Prof. Dr. Esraa Mohamed, Cultural Counsellor of Embassy of the A.R. of Egypt Cultural Office in Beijing, China, visited the Open University of China (OUC). Fan Xianrui, a member of the Party Committee and vice president of the OUC, met with the visitors. The two sides carried out in-depth exchanges on building the Egypt Open Learning Centre and other cooperation programmes.

Relevant personnel in charge from the OUC's Department of digitalisation and the College of International Education also attended the meeting.

Fan Xianrui extended a warm welcome to Counsellor Mohamed and her delegation. She noted that this year marks the 10th anniversary of the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Egypt. At the XVI BRICS Summit, President Xi Jinping proposed the strategic goal of “opening 10 learning centres in BRICS countries in the next five years”. To implement this initiative, the OUC is willing to strengthen cooperation with the Embassy of the A.R. of Egypt in China, explore the establishment of the Egypt Open Learning Centre, and launch projects of "Chinese language + vocational education" in a combination of online and offline modes, thereby creating a new chapter in China-Egypt educational collaboration.

Mohamed stated that her visit was entrusted by the Egyptian Ministry of Higher Education to discuss with the OUC about the construction of the Open Learning Centre. She expressed a desire to further understand the organisational structure, operational mechanisms, cooperation mode, progress of achievements, and future directions of the Open Learning Centre, so as to efficiently advance the implementation of cooperation projects.

During the exchange session, both parties engaged in thorough discussions and reached a preliminary consensus, which laid an important foundation for the subsequent implementation of the strategic tasks for the Open Learning Centre.

Written by Lyu Guangru, photo by Zhuge Huanyu, OUC