On the morning of May 17, Mr. Matthias Afting, CEO, Mr. Timo Tekhaus, Director of Academy International and Ms. Chen Liwei, Head of China Office of Cognos International Group, visited SOU. Mr. Jia Wei, President , Ms. Xue Wei, Director of the Personnel Office, Ms. Weng Zhuhua, Director of the Institute of International Exchange, and relevant staff of SOU, attended the meeting.

President Jia extended a warm welcome to the delegation and introduced the current development of the university, the development of specialties, the exploration of dual system in educational programmes and development of the faculty.

Mr. Afting introduced the development of Cognos International Education Group in higher education, vocational education, continuing education and international cooperation. The two sides discussed the further cooperation in the development of industrial colleges, programmes for public well-being, and the opportunities of faculty and staff exchange.

Cognos International Education Group is the largest independent private education institution in Germany, with the largest education network and training institutions in Europe. Since the two sides signed the strategic cooperation agreement in 2015, they have continued to cooperate in the introduction of series of video courses, series of teacher training and the development of Chinese-German Open Online Course (CG-OOC) platform, etc, and carry out collaborative projects together.