On the morning of November 18, a delegation from the French Groupe des Ecoles Centrales visited XJTU. XJTU President ZHENG Nanning met with the visiting guests in room 107 of the Science Hall. The members of the visiting delegation included Professor Christopher CRIPPS, the Dean of International Affairs at the Ecole Centrale de Paris, Professor Pierre DREUX, Deputy Director responsible for International Relations for the Ecole Centrale de Lyon (ECL), Professor Fouad BENNIS, director of the International Relations office of the Ecole Centrale de Nantes, Professor Zoubeir LAFHAJ, the director of foreign relations of the Ecole Centrale de Lille, Professor Olivier BOIRON, vice president for international relations of the Ecole Centrale de Marseille, and Ms. Cheng BAISUN, the head of 4+4 program and the coordinator of the cooperation between the Groupe des Ecoles Centrales and China.

President ZHENG Nanning thanked the Groupe des Ecoles Centrales for its participation in the “Sino-France 4+4” program. President ZHENG reviewed XJTU’s participation in that program, and said he hoped that XJTU could further expand its collaboration with the Groupe des Ecoles Centrales into more fields and also increase the exchanges of young faculty with the member universities. Professor Christopher CRIPPS concurred with President ZHENG’s remarks and said that XJTU has always had good cooperation with the Ecoles Centrales group. He added that the members of the group would continue to improve the course offerings for exchange students and to provide more choices for them.