May 27, 2025  |  President Office, International Office

Recently, SSPU delegation led by President Xie Huaqing visited University of Angers (UA) and the ECOLE 3A Group (ECOLE 3A) in France, as well as Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences (HKA) and 4Square Return GmbH (4Square) in Germany. The visits focused on advancing comprehensive and multi-dimensional cooperation based on existing agreements, covering areas in faculty mobility, student exchanges, research collaboration, joint postgraduate cultivation, and joint project applications.

During the visit to the UA, the delegation attended the opening ceremony of the university’s International Week as guests of honor and engaged in in-depth discussions with representatives from the U.K., Canada, and Romania. In a meeting with UA’s President Françoise Grolleau, both sides reviewed the development and the overall cooperation of the two universities. The two sides held further discussions on faculty and student exchanges, research collaboration, and joint applications of international research projects. Specific measures and suggestions were proposed regarding the Ph.D. student co-supervision programs. During the International Week, President Xie and the delegation warmly met with SSPU students currently studying at the UA and praised their academic achievements. The delegation member delivered a lecture on China’s Economy and Trade for students majoring in Economics and Management in the university. The delegation also toured the university’s logistics laboratory and environmental laboratory, gaining insights into its doctoral training in engineering disciplines and related research progress.

During the visit to the ECOLE 3A, the delegation had meetings with heads of the Business School and environment-related programs. Discussions were centered on optimizing student exchange programs, exploring ways to expand the scale of students and course matching, and ensuring exchange students to better blend into new academic and campus life in the hosting university. Both sides discussed how to match and optimize their curriculum systems in order to share education resources more easily. After learning about SSPU’s latest short-term programs and policies, ECOLE 3A expressed interest in facilitating more short term student exchanges.

At HKA, the delegation met with President Rose Marie Beck. The two sides exchanged latest developments and explored ways to deepen cooperation in education, research, and talent cultivation. They also had meetings with HKA International Office and the Faculty of Management Science and Engineering to learn about the university’s experience and practices under its dual education model that involves industry partnerships. They also explored future collaboration leveraging the disciplinary strengths of each university. The delegation also had a campus tour and visited the labs.

During the visit to 4Square, the delegation discussed with the Managing Director Armin Kienle to create more student internship opportunities and maintain a long-term and stable internship base, particularly on electronic waste recycling and WEEE regulation consulting. President Xie also had a conversation with one of the company employees who studied as an international student via SSPU’s exchange program back in 2015. Since 2008, the company and SSPU have jointly established the Sino-German Joint Laboratory on WEEE Recycling, a training base for undergraduates and postgraduates (designated as a Shanghai Model Base for Postgraduate Cultivation), and a faculty training base. Over the past decade, more than 10 SSPU faculty members paid visits for industry-university-research integration at the company, over 30 undergraduates and postgraduates for short-term internships, and more than 100 postgraduates participated in the enterprise visit.

Heads and representatives from President Office, International Office, Graduate Affairs Office, School of Resources and Environmental Engineering and School of Economics and Management were in the delegation.