On the morning of Sep. 17, International Cooperation Symposium took place at the south campus of SYSU. Vice president Xu Ningsheng and Chen Chunsheng were present at the symposium. About 30 officials from schools and functioanl departments attended the symposium. The symposium was hosted by the principal assistant Wei Minghai.

During the symposium, vice president Xu Ningsheng conveyed the spirit advocated on the national forum for foreign affairs organized by the Ministry of Education and made some arrangements in order to actively respond to the “action plan to develop open education”, "support programs for overseas study” and “expansion programs for international students”. Vice president Chen Chunsheng stated that, we must make full use of SYSU’s advantage in international cooperation and communication and tightly seize this opportunity to further enhance SYSU’s internationalized education system. The responsible persons of schools and functional departmens conducted a hot discussion on relevant topics, expressing their willingness to actively respond to the programs.

The “action plan to develop open education” is initiated by the Ministry of Education to practically carry out the “National Plan for Mid-Long Term Educational Reform and Development (2010-2020)” to enlarge educational opening up. The plan includes the following key tasks and main content: to blueprint the pattern of the opening up, to support overseas study, to encourage foreign students to study in China, to innovate cooperational schooling, to bring in foreign talents, to promote Chinese language abroad and to perfect international service & aid, ect. Futhermore, three types of programs are to be set respectively as significant programs, experimental programs and researching programs, which will be especially endorsed as “Educational Programs for International Cooperation and Communication” in the educational budget by the central government, with the purpose to guarantee the financial support for the significant programs and experimental programs.