On the morning of July 12th, Professor Robert Orr, Assistant UN Secretary General responsible for policy coordination and strategic planning and Dean of School of Public Policy in University of Maryland, and his party paid a visit to ZZU. Professor Liu Jiongtian, Academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering and President of ZZU, and Vice President Han Guohe, met the visitors.

President Liu Jiongtian extended warm welcome to Dean Robert Orr’s visit and introduced the achievements ZZU has made in various respects. He hoped both sides could carry out substantial exchange and cooperation in postgraduates joint training, public policy research, cooperative school running, etc. Dean Robert Orr spoke highly of the measures ZZU has taken to promote international school running, hoping that we could achieve common development through communication and exchange among the teachers and students of the two universities. At the meeting, both sides discussed the important roles that public policy plays in global development, China-US educational cooperation, global climate change, etc., and have reached a consensus on the joint training project of Master of Public Administration. Both agreed to further deepen mutual understanding and develop extensive cooperation in broader fields through more exchanges and visits.

On the afternoon of July 12th, Xie Fuzhan, Henan Provincial Party Secretary, met Dean Robert Orr and his group. Xie Fuzhan said that the cooperation on public policy between ZZU and University of Maryland is a great opportunity for both Henan Province and ZZU. He hoped to witness further cooperation increasing better educational environment, providing high quality educational resources and realizing deep integration and common development in discipline construction of the two universities. Li Wenhui, member of the Standing Committee of Henan Province and Secretary General of Provincial Committee, Zhu Qingmeng, Director-General of Education Department of Henan Province, Liu Jiongtian, President of ZZU and others attended the meeting.

University of Maryland is a famous American public research university, ranking 126th in the QS World University Rankings in 2015-16, and 41st in the US News World University Rankings in 2015-16, with 31 discipline projects ranking top ten in the list of national news and world report. She boasts first-rate School of Administrative Management and Public Affairs and School of Business. A great number of former senior officials from the federal and state government and eｘecutives of large-scale enterprises teach here. Mr. Robert Orr is now the dean of School of Public Policy, Assistant UN Secretary General and special advisor to UN Secretary General on climate change. He was once eｘecutive director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs of John Kennedy School of Government in Harvard as well as head of Peacekeeping and Humanitarian Affairs Department of the United States National Security Council.