Between November 14th to 19th, 2011, a delegation headed by Wuhan University president Li Xiaohong visited three prestigious universities in the U.S., including University of California, Berkeley, University of Pittsburgh and Duke University. The visit lasted for six days and substantial results have been achieved.

On November 14th, the delegation headed for University of California, Berkeley to have a meeting with Judson King the former dean and the present director of the higher education research center of UC Berkeley. Two sides had a discussion on the training program of leaders at mid-level and reached preliminary agreement on the relevant issues. Later, Li Xiaohong met with Ron Gronsky, the president representative of UC Berkeley and Zhou Xinping, the librarian of East Asian Library to have a talk on sending teachers in WHU to visit and study in UC Berkeley.

On the same day, the delegation visited the well-known Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and signed a cooperation memorandum between two sides, which laid a foundation for the co-construction of research platform, the personnel exchange programs and Ph.D joint training programs in the fields of water resource and environment. 

On November 16th, the delegation came to University of Pittsburgh where it’s president Mark Nordenberg and Li Xiaohong held fruitful talks including the co-construction of research platform for energy and material field and signed agreement on joint training program in engineering, which provides opportunities for students of WHU to study abroad while making use of foreign educational resources and promotes the cooperation between two sides on collaborative research and faculty cultivation.

On November 17th, the delegation made a visit to Duke University and was welcomed by its president Richard Brodhead. Two sides exchanged views on the system and management of U.S. and China’s higher education and signed cooperation memorandum between two universities. Later Peter Lange, the dean of Duke University met with the delegation to have a discussion on collaborative research, faculty and student exchange in various fields. 

During the stay, the delegation held four recruitment fairs respectively in San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Durham and New York, attracting almost 50 prominent scholars at home and abroad, including high-level talents and creative team leaders. 13 of them were interested in applying for the “Plan of Introducing High-level Talents overseas” as WHU candidates and about another 10 will be introduced as academic leaders.