Memoranda of Understanding between the University of Newcastle and two Chinese universities – Ningde Normal University and Shanghai Normal University – are the result of a recent visit to Newcastle by Chinese academic staff hosted by our Faculty of Education and Arts. The group of English and Chinese as a Foreign Language teachers received a warm welcome as they trained in language acquisition, teaching and testing.

The visiting group was made up of twelve English teachers from Ningde Normal University in Fujian Province, and two teachers of Chinese as a Foreign Language from Shanghai Normal University. They visited for three weeks in July with the Ningde group led by Associate Professor Gong Fanyuan (Joe), Dean of the Foreign Languages Department, while the Shanghai participants were accompanied for the start of the program by Professor Cao Xiuling, Dean of the International College of Chinese Studies at Shanghai Normal University.

The visit has led to the formation of a number of personal and professional affiliations including the MoUs. It is hoped that the close ties formed during the visit will lead to a range of further collaborations between our universities.