From April 30 to May 3, the HBNU delegation led by President Prof. Lei Rujin visited Northern Ireland and attended the China-UK/Northern Ireland Education Cooperation Forum.  

The Forum was jointly hosted by Ulster University (UU) and the Chinese Consulate-General in Belfast.

At the Forum's opening ceremony on May 1, Prof. Lei Rujin, on behalf of HBNU, signed an agreement with UU on the Centre of Educational, Cultural and Language Exchange. Mr. Zheng Zeguang, Chinese Ambassador to the UK, and Dr. Davidson, UU Chancellor, witnessed the signing of the agreement and unveiled the Center.

In the keynote speech, Prof. Lei Rujin summarised HUBNU and UU’s cooperation and achievements over the last decade and expressed his confidence in the promising prospects for future collaboration. H.E. Ambassador Zheng Zeguang highly commended the achievements of the Confucius Institute for Northern Ireland at Ulster University (CINIUU) and hoped it would become a global model Confucius Institute in the future.

At the sub-forum on May 2, the delegation discussed further cooperation with UU, including student exchange programs (such as 3+1+1, 2+2 and 4+0 programs), teacher exchange and scientific research cooperation. The two universities reached a preliminary cooperation consensus.

On the same day, Prof. Lei Rujin met with the Chinese teachers and volunteers working in CINIUU. He sincerely thanked all the teachers and volunteers for their efforts to promote the Chinese language in Northern Ireland and their strong support in this forum. He hoped that they would continue to work for China-UK people-to-people exchanges.

CINIUU was co-founded by HBNU and UU over ten years ago. Since its launch, it has offered Chinese language courses and various cultural events for local schools and communities. It has become a window for local people to know about China and Hubei and a bridge for communication between the peoples of China and the UK and Hubei and Northern Ireland.