Associate Vice President GU Zhen meets with Rector of Bielefeld University

On June 17, a delegation led by Angelika Epple, Rector of Bielefeld University, visited Zhejiang University. GU Zhen, Associate Vice President of Zhejiang University, met with the delegation.

GU ZHEN extended a cordial welcome to Angelika Epple and her colleagues, and briefed them on Zhejiang University’s recent development. He noted that Zhejiang University attaches immense importance to collaboration with German universities and has continued to expand its cooperation network in Germany in recent years, with steady progress in talent cultivation, academic research, and faculty and student exchanges.

GU Zhen highlightedthe strong alignment between Zhejiang University’s School of Public Affairs, which has established strengths in public governance, social policy, and social development, and Bielefeld University’s distinctive academic profile. He expressed hope that the visit would help deepen ties between scholars, strengthen disciplinary links, and advance practical collaboration in areas of mutual interest.

Angelika Epple expressed her gratitude to Zhejiang University for its warm hospitality and spoke highly of its academic excellence and international reputation. She said that Bielefeld University values its longstanding partnership with Zhejiang University’s School of Public Affairs and looks forward to expanding university-wide exchanges, deepening school-level cooperation, strengthening research collaboration, while jointly exploring new opportunities for higher education cooperation between China and Germany.

As 2026 marks Zhejiang University’s “Europe Year” initiative under its Global Partnership Program, participating scholars also held an academic dialogue on how Chinese and European universities can further expand and deepen academic cooperation in an increasingly interconnected world. They exchanged views on future mechanisms for scholarly collaboration and pathways for sharing academic resources.

At the close of the meeting, Zhejiang University’s School of Public Affairs and Bielefeld University’s Faculty of Sociology signed a memorandum of understanding, establishing an institutional framework to support long-term academic exchange and collaboration between the two schools.

Source: ZJU School of Public Affairs
Translator: FANG Fumin
Editor: DING Chenwei