On October 16, 2018, the Annual Council of Sino-Polish University Consortium under the “Belt and Road” Initiative was grandly held in Silesian University of Technology, Poland. The meeting aims to summarize the consortium work, plan the development path, propose the cooperation direction, promote the exchange and cooperation of the members of the consortium, and determine the rotating chairman unit of consortium of 2019-2021. Nearly 100 representatives from 16 universities in China and Poland gathered together to discuss the development of the consortium.

At the opening ceremony of the consortium, the Professor Liu Gonghui, President of Beijing University of Technology, delivered a speech on behalf of therotating chairman universities of the consortium. In his speech, the President Liu summarized the work carried out by the rotating chairman universities and the member universities in suchaspects as student exchanges, scientific research cooperation and Confucius Classroom applicationsince the establishment of the consortium, and proposed three consortium development proposals, including: improving the internal mechanism of the consortium and exploring multi-level exchange and cooperation model for UPS (University to University, Professor to Professor, Student to Student) School-Professor-Student, and carrying out scientific research cooperation that will help economic and industrial development of China and Poland. All the representatives present at the meeting expressed enthusiastic response to the President Liu’s speech. They believed that under the leadership of the rotating chairman universities,the universities of the consortium will actively participate in the construction of the consortium. It has achieved initial success since the establishment of the consortium.

At the round-table conference of consortium, the Professor Wang Wei, Director of the International Exchange and Cooperation Office of Beijing University of Technology, reported work on the preparation for the first “Belt and Road” China-Poland Art Design Competition and Art Festival, the construction and trial operation of the consortium website.

After discussion, all the representatives present at the meeting agreed that Beijing University of Technology, Chongqing Jiaotong University and Opole University of Technology would be reappointed consecutively as the rotating chairman units of Sino-Polish University Consortium under the “Belt and Road” Initiative. Representatives present at the meeting expressed that they would further strengthen exchanges between members under the leadership of the rotating chairman units, and make more contributions to Sino-Polish cooperation in higher education and the promotion of cooperation and exchanges between the two countries.

TheSino-Polish University Consortium under the “Belt and Road” Initiative is a non-profit strategic cooperation organizationinitiated and established through gathering university resources of the two countries and implementing the results of “China-Central and Eastern European Countries Education Policy Dialogue” under the support and guidance of the Beijing Municipal Education Commission and the Chongqing Municipal Education Commission, and on the basis of existing cooperation between universities in Beijing and Chongqing and Polish universities,which responds to the national “Belt and Road” Initiative. Adhering to the cooperative principle of “voluntariness and equality, opening and sharing, win-win cooperation, innovation and development”,the consortium aims to strengthen the comprehensive exchanges and cooperationwith universities in Poland and Central and Eastern Europe by developing partnerships betweenChinese universities and higher education in Poland and even in Central and Eastern European countries. TheSino-Polish University Consortium under the “Belt and Road” Initiative was jointly sponsored by Beijing University of Technology, Chongqing Jiaotong University and Opole University of Technology in Poland in March 2017, participated in the establishment by 23 Sino-Polish universities, which has expanded to 27 universities.