On September 16, Hou Huijun, Secretary of the Party Committee and Executive Vice President of NAEA, met with Mr.Varmola Tapio Sakari, chairman of ARENE and President of Seinajoki University of Applied Sciences. They exchanged views on the cooperation between NAEA and ARENE. Vice President(International) Yu Jingtian attended the meeting. 24 representatives from 21 Universities of Applied Sciences in Finland, Finnish Ministry of Education and Finnish Embassy in Beijing also attended the meeting.

On behalf of NAEA, Hou Huijun warmly welcomed the UAS rectors delegation from Finland, and expressed sincere respect and gratitude to all Finnish representatives who have promoted cooperation and made contributions to Universities of Applied Sciences in China and Finland.

During the meeting, Hou Huijun introduced NAEA and Higher Vocational Education in China to the representatives. About the future cooperation between the two sides, Hou Huijun put forward three suggestions: first, to hold the Advanced Seminar of China-Finland University of Applied Sciences; second, to carry out the research on governance and academic leadership cooperation of China-Finland University of Applied Sciences to promote the cooperation into a new stage; third, to further expand the cooperation in higher education career.

President Varmola Tapio Sakari said that he was very grateful to NAEA for the warm reception. He stressed that Finland was very happy to share the experience and lessons from the development of Applied Sciences University, and they were willing to promote the realization of the advanced seminar of China-Finland Universities of Applied Sciences. Vihma-Purovaara Tiina Maria, senior advisor of Ministry of Education of Finland, said that the two sides should enhance understanding and explore potential problems so as to ensure the success of future cooperation. (English version by Liqiang & Yaojinling, Office for International Cooperation, NAEA)