On the morning of September 28th, the inauguration ceremony of the Canterbury University-Shanghai Normal University Joint College (thereinafter referred to as the Joint College) was held at the SHNU Conference Center. Attendees included Ye Linlin, Deputy Director of the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission, Ardi Barnard, Consul General of New Zealand in Shanghai, James Kim-Russell, Deputy Consul General, Joce Nuttall, Executive Dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of Canterbury, and Lynne Parmenter, Associate Dean of the Faculty of Education. Catherine Moran, the incoming President of the Joint College, delivered a speech via video. The SHNU President Chen Heng and the SHNU Vice President Huang Hong attended the unveiling ceremony.
Chen Heng stated that the Joint College, as a top-tier comprehensive research university in New Zealand, has achieved remarkable results in cutting-edge fields such as artificial intelligence, pedagogy, and digital education, and hopes that the two universities' teams will promote the high-quality development of the joint college.
Catherine Moran delivered a video address, expressing gratitude to Shanghai Normal University for its relentless efforts in the establishment and preparation of the joint college. She congratulated the first batch of admitted students and wished them a fresh academic and life journey at the Joint College. In her speech, Bao Xiaodi stated that the Joint College, focusing on artificial intelligence, digital education, and teacher development, is of great significance not only to New Zealand and China but also crucial for addressing shared future challenges.
The attending guests jointly unveiled the plaque of the Joint College at Shanghai Normal University. After the ceremony, they listened to a thematic report on "The Development of Educational Artificial Intelligence".
At the ceremony, Huang Hong delivered a joint college work report: In the next step, the college will expand cooperation in fields such as engineering and business, connecting with world-class platform resources like the Human-Computer Interaction Technology Laboratory at the University of Canterbury.
The Joint College is a Sino-foreign cooperative education institution approved by the China Ministry of Education and the first such institution established by Shanghai Normal University. With an approved enrollment capacity of 992 students, the college has developed a talent cultivation system spanning undergraduate, master's, and doctoral levels. It offers an undergraduate program in Artificial Intelligence, as well as master's programs in Educational Artificial Intelligence and Digital Early Childhood Education, along with a doctoral program in Education.
