On 13 April 2022, Counsellor You Yi and Head of Education Section Sun Hongzhi of the Chinese Embassy in Finland visited Finland Campus and held a discussion with LUT University and our teachers in Finland to learn more about the development of the campus in the past year.

The President of LUT University, Juha-Matti Saksa, extended a warm welcome to the Embassy staff and expressed his appreciation for the Embassy's interest and concern for the development of the campus. Against the backdrop of the raging global Covid-19 epidemic, 114 Chinese students went to Finland safely in August 2021, thanks to the joint efforts of all parties, laying a good foundation for the campus' subsequent development. Over the past year, LUT University and Hebei University of Technology have maintained close communication and efficient cooperation, and cooperative teaching, student management and research cooperation are all being carried out in an orderly manner.

Sun Hongzhi said that the Finland Campus has created a new model of higher education cooperation between China and Finland, which is typical and representative, and the cooperation between LUT University and Hebei University of Technology is a strong combination. The Finland Campus provides a platform for Chinese teachers to teach foreign students abroad, and the mutual cooperation, exchange and learning between teachers from both universities will be beneficial to the development of education on both sides. As a public university, LUT receives both financial support from the Finnish government and extensive funding from Finnish companies, which can provide students with numerous opportunities for future employment and internships. Over the past year, the Chinese Embassy in Finland has maintained close communication with the campus and has always been interested in its development. We hope that with the joint efforts of all parties, Finland Campus will become a successful brand for training international talents.

Talking about language and cultural exchanges, Youyi encouraged both sides to carry out more exchanges and mutual visits when the epidemic conditions allow. For his part, Sun Hongzhi said that LUT University is welcome to recommend outstanding Finnish students and students from other countries to study and visit China, and the embassy will give the necessary scholarship support.

President Juha said that LUT has a long history of operation and a large scale of operation, and that the tradition of teaching in English and the concept of openness has been continued since the beginning of the university. LUT students and faculty have a strong interest in visiting China, especially Hebei University of Technology. The campus offers Chinese language and culture courses. The Chinese language courses are open to all LUT students and teachers, and the course enrolment is very high, making the university one of the largest Chinese language teaching bases in Finland. The campus currently offers generous scholarships for international students to study in China and is also actively planning to set up an HSK test centre in Finland to meet the huge demand for Chinese language learning and examinations from international students at the campus.

The seminar was a summary of the campus' work in the past year and also pointed to more possibilities for the campus' future development. The campus will continue to maintain communication with the Chinese Embassy in Finland and cooperation with LUT University to contribute to the promotion of educational and cultural exchanges between China and Finland and the training of highly qualified international talents with engineering expertise!