Source: SYSU News Center
Written by: SYSU News Center
Edited by: Wang Dongmei

On the afternoon of November 23, 2016, the opening ceremony of the 6th Shan Hai Forum was held in Swasey Hall on Guangzhou South Campus of Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU). Themed on expanding cooperation and deepening communication, this forum brought together over 200 scholars from Sun Yat-sen University in Kaohsiung (NSYSU), Xiamen University and SYSU. Prof. Luo Jun, President of SYSU, Prof. Ying-Chung Chen, Senior Vice President of NSYSU, and Ms. Zhan Xinli, Vice President of Xiamen University, attended the opening ceremony, which was presided over by Prof. Ma Jun, Vice President of SYSU.
At the opening ceremony, President Luo Jun extended a warm welcome to the participants. He pointed out that the three universities have been learning from one another and making progress together. As the host of this forum, he suggested that the three universities should promote faculty and student exchanges, share innovation platforms, establish academic development fund respectively and project evaluation system to support practical cooperation in various academic fields.

Senior Vice President Ying-Chung Chen reviewed NSYSU’s participation in the previous five forums. He expressed the hope to promote joint research among three universities in marine engineering and marine natural medicine, use Tianhe-2 supercomputer to realize cooperation in big data, and deepen academic exchanges in life sciences.

Vice President Zhan Xinli expressed that Xiamen University set up the Shan Hai Fund in 2013 to provide support for the forum and cooperative research in related fields, and the forum has played an important role in expanding and deepening the cooperation and raising the research strengths of the three universities.
After the opening ceremony, Academician Albert Sun-Chi Chan from SYSU’s School of Pharmaceutical Sciences delivered a keynote speech on liberal education. He reviewed the history of liberal education and introduced distinguished scholars’ views on liberal education. He spoke highly of the goal of talent cultivation proposed by President Luo Jun: SYSU students should have both ability and moral integrity, able to cultivate charisma and eager serve their country.
On the evening of November 23 and the morning of November 24, the participating scholars held group discussions on Guangzhou South Campus, Guangzhou North Campus, Guangzhou East Campus and Zhuhai Campus in ten academic fields, including economic management, cross-Strait studies, higher education research, literature and culture, ocean and climate, big data and high performance computing, physics and astronomy, chemistry, materials science and engineering, and precision medicine.

On the afternoon of November 24, the closing ceremony was held in Zhuhai. The ten groups presented a report on their discussions respectively. Senior Vice President Ying-Chung Chen, Vice President Zhan Xinli and Vice President Ma Jun made a concluding speech respectively. They all agreed that the forum has achieved a good result, and hoped that the three universities would deepen exchange and cooperation to improve research strengths and international competitiveness.

The Shan Hai Forum is an academic forum co-initiated by Sun Yat-sen University in Kaohsiung, Xiamen University and Sun Yat-sen University, and is hosted by the three universities in turn annually. The 1st Shan Hai Forum was held in Kaohsiung in December, 2011. SYSU hosted the 3rd Shan Hai Forum in November, 2013. This is the second time that the forum is held at SYSU.