Presidents, professors and guests of honour from American universities travelled to UIC on 18 and 19 November 2015 for the 8th Sino-American Liberal Arts Forum. The representatives in attendance were from institutions that have partnered with UIC to promote the exchange of students and knowledge between the US and China.
“The Forum was the biggest one we've ever organised, and all sessions were well attended,” says IDO Director Dr Katharina Yu.
She highlighted that the Forum, a tradition at UIC formerly only with its long-term partner the Minnesota Private College Council (MPCC) colleges, now also includes Oberlin College and the Associated Colleges of the South (ACS). The aim of the Forum is to strengthen the ties with US liberal arts institutions.
Dr Yu believes the Forum, which discussed the future of liberal arts education, has provided a platform to exchange views and expertise on Liberal Arts Education in different cultural contexts.
She adds: “We received very positive feedback from our guests. It is also clear from the speeches by our guests that UIC gets more and more recognition as a Liberal Arts College in China. I believe the Forum helps to reinforce UIC's position as a Liberal Arts School in China.”
IEEE TALE
Another big conference UIC hosted between 10 and 12 December 2015 was the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) International Conference on Teaching, Assessment and Learning for Engineering (TALE). The General Chair of the organising committee was DST Dean Prof Stephen Chung, and Associate Vice President Prof Lilian Kwan and ITSC Associate Director Dr KP Mark were appointed as General Co-Chairs.
Over 80 attendees from 17 countries and regions joined. Fifty-five of them presented their research and practice-oriented papers in the engineering education fields, including computer science, information technology and cognate disciplines.
Dr Feng Xin (Assistant Professor), Dr Guo Haipeng, (Associate Professor and Director of WPEO), Ms Ji Chunyan (Senior Lecturer) and Ms Ji Yanyan (Instructor) - all from the CST Programme - shared their paper on Software Engineering Education Methodology Exploration.
| Several other conferences have been held at UIC over the past few months to expand the college's national and international influence. |
| ◊ 22 October: Scholars at home and from abroad shared their insights at a conference titled “Reimagining China: Identity and Representation in Contemporary Chinese Fiction”. The conference, organised by the CELL Programme and sponsored by the Research Office, included speakers from Duke University, Peking University and City University of Hong Kong. Prof Mei-hwa Sung (Dean of DHSS), Dr Charles Lowe (Programme Director of CELL) and Assistant Professor Dr Xi Xu all presented their research papers. |
| ◊ 27 November: Organised by the ATS Programme, the first Symposium on Applied Translation Studies discussed “New Developments in Translation and Interpreting Studies: Issues of Application”. ATS Programme Director Dr Dawn Tsang, Dr Qian Hong and Dr Siu Lam spoke of the innovating translation pedagogy of ATS. Another ATS faculty member, Dr Sarka Masarova, explored the expression of self in poetry and translations of a selection of the Shu Ting poems. |
| ◊ 7 December: Academics from well-known universities in the mainland gathered for the Seminar on Philanthropic Education and Service Learning. The seminar was organised by UIC's WPEO, Sun Yat-sen University’s School of Philanthropy, and Beijing Normal University, Zhuhai’s Soong Ching Ling Education Centre on Philanthropy. Dr Guo Haipeng (Director of WPEO) addressed the attendants about UIC's Voluntary Service experiential learning course. |
| ◊ 11-12 December: China's first Conference on “Social Work with Older People: Practice and Research” was held by the SWSA Programme and the Centre for Social Management Research and Services. It welcomed more than 100 scholars and practitioners from 35 universities and 18 social work institutions. Ms Priscilla Chung (Lecturer), Mr Ng Yiu-Fai (Acting Programme Director of SWSA) and Prof Johnston Wong (Chief of Student Affairs) all shared their research on social work. |
This article is republished from MPRO's UIC Beacon Issue XVIII. To view an online version of the full newsletter, please click here (Wi-Fi network recommended); to download the original PDF file, please click here.
