The China-US University Presidents’ Online Forum was held this week. The event was organized by Tsinghua University and Yale University, and it brought together leaders from 20 universities in China and the United States to discuss pressing issues facing higher education.

Tsinghua University President Qiu Yong and Yale President Peter Salovey began the event by giving opening remarks. In his statement, President Salovey said that the way research universities around the world have responded even though the world is experiencing a true global disruption has demonstrated that open, integrative resilient research universities are built on cooperation across national borders. Both speeches focused on the main themes of the forum, which were openness, integrity, and resilience, and they highlighted the essential relationships and knowledge universities have gained during the pandemic.

Chinese Vice-Premier Sun Chunlan also delivered her congratulatory remarks via video during the opening session of the online forum held under the theme “Fostering More Open, Integrative and Resilient Universities.”

The opening ceremony was followed by three keynote speech sessions, where university leaders from China and the United States were able to present their views. These sessions were titled “Fostering More Open Universities,” “Fostering More Integrative Universities,” and “Fostering More Resilient Universities.”

Tsinghua Vice President and Provost Yang Bin provided the closing remarks for the forum and provided a realistic, but positive outlook on the future of higher education, stating “The pandemic and subsequent travel restrictions have added additional layers of complexity to educational exchanges and mobility, but through proactively searching for solutions and promoting communication and mutual understanding, we can turn challenges into opportunities and foster more open, integrative and resilient universities together.”

Read more about the forum here.