Vice President Zhang Wenjun met with Vice President Jean-Pierre De Greve of Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)

On March 7, 2012, Vice President Jean-Pierre De Greve of Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and Mrs. Tong Xiaohong of VUB International Relations Office visited Shanghai Jiao Tong University. SJTU Vice President Zhang Wenjun met with the guests from VUB. A heated discussion on several issues like research and technology transfer was undertaken.

De Greve first introduced their successful experience in the university-enterprise cooperation. VUB has established partnerships with another two universities in Belgium and provided professors with an initial funding for their own business, to attract more investments with its reputation. Five companies are expected to be founded a year and the success rate reaches 30% to 40%. VUB divides the enterprise-university cooperation into three levels: the university-university, the university-enterprise and the university-enterprise-government cooperation.

Vice President Zhang Wenjun agreed with Mr. De Greve and introduced SJTU's educational mechanism of combining learning with research and production and its new mode of technology transfer, namely Minhang Center for Research and Teaching.

Both parties recognize the importance of academic exchange between professors which can promote the scientific research collaboration and joint postgraduate and doctoral programs.  

De Greve also visited KoGuan Law School and talked with Vice Dean Xu Xiaobin for further cooperation in international maritime law. He had a meeting with Professor Zhang Junhua from School of International and Public Affairs to discuss the International MA Program. De Greve was also invited by Deputy Head Sun Yang of Department of Physics to deliver a lecture titled "Sources of Galaxy Energy".

The Vrije Universiteit Brussel was founded in 1834 by a Brussels lawyer, Pierre-Théodore Verhaegen. It is a reputable university with a long history and more than 9000 students are enrolled. President Zhang Jie once visited the university in last November.