Launch of LEAD China office during LEAD Dissemination Conference at NAEA, July 2018

Launch of LEAD China office during LEAD Dissemination Conference at NAEA

On 10th July, the Dissemination Conference of the LEAD Project was held at NAEA. NAEA Executive President Prof. Ma Junjie, former VUB vice rector Prof. Dr. Jan Cornelis, vice president of New University of Lisbon Prof. Joao Amaro de Matos and LEAD Porject coordinator Prof. Chang Zhu addressed the opening. NAEA Vice president Dr. Yu Jingtian chaired the opening.

The LEAD China office is launched during the LEAD Dissemination Conference. The LEAD China office will play an active and crucial role in bringing together Chinese universities on the issues of capacity building on university governance in China and in exchanging and collaborating with European universities. The key aims and deliverables will further be realised, strengthened and multiplied through the LEAD China office at NAEA.

Chinese and European university representatives from Peking University, Tongji University(Tongji), Huazhong University of Science and Technology(HUST), Yunnan Normal University(YNU), Renmin University of China, National Academy of Education Administration(NAEA), Vrije Universiteit Brussel(VUB), New University of Lisbon (NOVA), Middle East University of Science and Technology(METU) and Tampere University of Finland(UTA) attended the conference. In addition, more than 70 middle level academic leaders attending University Middle Managers Program at NAEA also joined the conference.

During the conference, Prof. Ma Junjie and Prof. Joao Amaro de Matos gave a keynote speech on "University academic leadership: a comparative perspective between China and Europe". The dissemination events introduced the LEAD project results; and a Leadership Platform for Sino-Europe Universities was built between partner universities and other universities. During the closing session, the China Office of LEAD Project was inaugurated at NAEA.

Project Coordinator Prof. Chang Zhu from VUB introduced in detail the activities and achievements of LEAD project in the past three years, and presented two concrete deliverables of the LEAD project: the LEAD Book and LEAD MOOC. Representatives from LEAD Project partner institutions including NAEA, Tongji, Peking university, HUST and other European partner universities exchanged gains and thoughts from participating in the LEAD project. They all agreed that through the LEAD project, the in-depth exchanges and cooperation between Chinese and European universities have been fulfilled, the understanding of each other's higher education governance system and mechanism has been deepened, and the understanding of university academic leadership has been enhanced.

It is announced during the conference that the LEAD BOOK will be published in January 2019 and LEAD MOOC will be ready online in September 2018.