On 2022-09-28, I attended the Fifteenth Sino German Seminar on Applied Higher Education [15. Deutsch-Chinesisches Symposium zur Anwendungsorientierten Hochschulausbildung] [第五届中德应用型高等教育研讨会暨] combined with the Second International Seminar on Cooperation in Dual Education in the Yangtze River Delta [2. Symposium zur Internationalen Zusammenarbeit der Dualen Ausbildung der Jangtze-Delta-Region] [第二届长三角双元制教育国际合作研讨会]. This event takes place every two years in our city Hefei (e.g., this year and 2020) and every other year in the German city Osnabrück. It is co-organized by Hefei University [合肥学院] and the University of Applied Sciences Osnabrück and presented as well as strongly supported by the Ministry of Education of the Chinese Province Anhui and the Ministry of Science and Culture of the German province Lower Saxony. It is always a pleasure to attend and full of exciting talks by high-level professionals in applied education, offering deep insights, inspirations, and great networking opportunities. Like in 2020, it was a hybrid event with both presence and online talks. This year, it was a two-day symposium, taking place in a beautiful lakeside location. The attendance was very high – both physically and online – with delegates from many universities, the industry, politics, as well as other education organizations.
The event began with a brief introduction by the moderator Giulin QIAN, the Secretary of the Education Working Committee of Anhui Provincial Party Committee [钱桂仑安徽省委教育工委书记]. Then eight welcome speeches followed, given by Prof. Gang WAN, Vice Chairman of the CPPCC National Committee and Chairman of the Chinese Association of Science and Technology [万钢全国政协副主席、中国科学技术协会主席], , the Former German president [Bundespräsident a.D]. Christian WULFF, Mr. Qingxian WANG, Deputy Secretary of the Anhui Provincial Party Committee and Governor [王清宪安徽省委副书记，省长], Stephan WEIL, President of the German Province Lower Saxony [Ministerpräsident von Niedersachsen], Prof. Thomas HANSCHKE, China officer of the German Province Lower Saxony and former president of the University of Technology of Clausthal [Beauftragter für Chinaangelegenheiten des Landes Niedersachsen und ehemaliger Präsident der Technischen Universität Clausthal], the President of Tongji University, Yongqi LOU [娄永琪同济大学副校长], Dr. Björn THÜMLER, Minister for Science and Culture of the German Province Lower Saxony [Minister des Niedersächsischen Ministeriums für Wissenschaft und Kultur], Prof. Chunmei WU, President of Hefei University [吴春梅合肥学院校长], and Prof. Andreas BERTRAM, President of the University of Applied Sciences Osnabrück [Präsident der Hochschule Osnabrück]. The keynote session was then moderated by Mr. Gengjia ZHANG, Member of the Education Working Committee of the CPC Anhui Provincial Committee and Deputy Director of the Education Department of Anhui Province [张庚家中共安徽省委教育工委委员、教育厅副厅长]. There were four very informative and interesting key notes, given by Mr. Changlian CHU, Member of the Education Working Committee of the Anhui Provincial Party Committee and Deputy Director of the Department of Education [储常连安徽省委教育工委委员、教育厅副厅长], Prof. Hendrick LACKNER of the University of Applied Sciences Osnabrück [Hochschule Osnabrück], Mrs. Yi LOU, Senior Director of the Academic, Corporate Culture, and Communications Department of Volkswagen Group (China) [娄屹大众汽车集团（中国）学院、企业文化和 沟通部高级总监], Prof. Jingmin CAI, Chairman of the International Exchange Branch of the Applied Universities of China Education International Exchange Association and Secretary of the Party Committee of Anhui University [蔡敬民中国教育国际交流协会应用型高校国际交 流分会理事长、安徽大学党委书记]. The conference dinner then offered plenty of opportunity for discussions and the exchange of ideas.
During the second day of the event, I attended Session 3, which was on Online Learning. It featured six highly interesting talks, given by Prof. Jin ZHANG, Vice-President of Shanghai Open University [张瑾上海开放大学副校长], Prof. Falk HÖHN of the Hochschule Hannover, Prof. Hanhua ZHEN, President and Party Secretary of Anhui Open University [郑汉华安徽开放大学党委书记、校长], Prof. Tobias SCHMOHL of the Technische Hochschule Ostwestfalen-Lippe, Prof. Lizhi WU, Deputy Dean of the Network Education College of South China Normal University and Secretary General of the Alliance of 100 Schools and 1000 Courses Sharing [武丽志华南师范大学网络教育学院副院长、百校千课共享联盟秘书长], and Prof. Hong LIU, Vice-Director of the School of Education of Hefei University [合肥学院教育学院副主任刘红].
