On the morning of April 26th, the inaugural meeting of the QUST Council & the first meeting of the first session of the Council was held in Laoshan campus. The meeting examined and approved the “Charter of QUST Council (Draft)” and elected the leaders of the Council.

The attendees are as follows: YUAN Zhifa (Former chief editor of the Guangming Daily and Dean of the Institute of Communication and Animation of QUST), XIE Kechang (Former vice president of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, foreign academician of the American Academy of Engineering and the director of the Institute of Climate Change and Energy Sustainable Development of QUST), LIU Xianjun (Deputy director of the Academic Committee of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, editor of the "Higher Education Research" magazine, president of the Wenhua College of Hubei Province and the former deputy party secretary of Huazhong University of Science and Technology),LI Min (Deputy Secretary of the College Working Committee of the Qingdao Municipal Committee), DUAN Yonghong (Director of the Department of Technology Reward and Results Management, Association of China Petroleum and Chemical Industry), HOU Fengxia (Deputy Secretary-General of the China Rubber Industry Association), ZHAO Shiyu (Party Secretary and director of the Qingdao Sino-German Ecological Park Management Committee), TONG Yu (Deputy Head of Shibei District of Qingdao Municipal People's Government), HUANG Yingsheng (Deputy Head of Laoshan District of Qingdao Municipal People's Government), WEI Zheng (Vice Mayor of Gaomi Municipal People's Government), LI Ming (Chairman and General Manager of Qingdao HIWIN Group, Ltd.), YUAN Zhongxue (Chairman of the MESNAC Group, Ltd.), WANG Donghai (General Manager of Shandong LNADUNI Rubber Group), YIN Xingchang (General Manager of CHEESHINE Group), DU Deqing (Deputy General Manager of Shandong Xinhua Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd), CAO Zhiwei (General Engineer of CRRC Qingdao SIFANG Co., Ltd.), SHEN Yunshuang (Assistant Chief Engineer of Qingdao Wanhua Chemistry Co., Ltd), SHI Chuanmin (Assistant Dean of the Management College, Qingdao Brewery Co., Ltd.), DONG Dong (Head of the Strategic Development Department of Tongcheng New Materials Group Co., Ltd.), LI Dan (Director of Hisense Group Co., Ltd.) and LU Jing (Senior Engineer of the Zhongce Rubber Group Co., Ltd).

The school leaders such as LIU Xingyun, MA Lianxiang, ZHANG Yuanli, LI Qingling, LIU Guangye, ZHANG Shuhua, WEI Dianhua, YAO Feng, CHEN Kecheng, LI Yong, LV Wanxiangandalumni representatives attended the meeting. And the attendees also include theheads ofthe colleges, departments, Gaomi Campus, Jinan Campus, Sino-German Campus and some QUST-affiliated departments and the representatives of the teachers and students. The meeting was presided over by WEI Dianhua, the Vice President of QUST.

LI Min, the Deputy Secretary of the College Working Committee of the Qingdao Municipal Committee, delivered a speech at the meeting and expressed the warm congratulations on the establishment of the Council. He pointed out that over the years, QUST has always adhered to its principle of serving the local needs and following the development of the industry, and has co-built the Rubber Valley, the Rubber Industry Technology Research Institute, the National University Science Park and the Sino-German Campus together with the Qingdao municipal government. In this way, the QUST has been trying to integrate itself into the innovation system construction of Qingdao and actively explore the road of government-industry-university-research cooperation, making significant contributions to Qingdao’s economic and social development and innovation-driven strategy. And he hoped that QUST will take the establishment of Council as an opportunity to further explore the law of higher education and actively practice the new concept of higher education. He expected that, taking full use of the advantages, resources and innovative mechanisms of Qingdao, QUST will try to upgrade itself to a new level, realize new developments and make greater contributions to construct Qingdao into a livable and innovative international city.

LIU Xingyun, the newly-elected director-general of the Council and the party secretary of QUST, made a speech at the meeting. He noted that the establishment of the QUST Council is a milestone for QUST in its construction into a "Double First-rate" and a high-level university with spirit, culture, responsibility, vitality, and characteristics. The establishment of the QUST Council can meet the needs of constructing the modern university system and improving the internal governance structure of the school, help to build a new school system featuring the government as the main body and the participation of the social communities, and also be an effective way in fostering the exchange and cooperation between the school and the society so as to better serve the society. LIU Xingyun also said that he felt sincerely grateful for the trust of the representatives, and it was a great honor for him to be the school's first chairman of the Council. To better fulfill the task of the Council, LIU Xingyun stressed that the Council should focus on the work of two aspects in accordance with its charter and functions: the first is to fully exert its function of promoting the development of the school. That means the Council needs to explore the new ways or ideas in new situation to fully exercise its functions, and mobilize the enthusiasm of all sectors of society to boost the school sound and fast development. The second is to give full play to the Council as a bridge or band. That means the Council needs to facilitate a closer relationship, more dynamic interaction between the school and its council members to gradually build a collaborative education mechanism with the participation of the government, university, society and alumni. And the Council should constantly expand its vision, enrich its concept of running schools, innovate school-running ideas, aggregate school-running resources and strengthen school-running vitality to effectively enhance the school strength and social influence.

President MA Lianxiang delivered a speech on behalf of the school, and he welcomed the leaders and directors who attended the conference and expressed his heartfelt thanks to the alumni and friends who have long been concerning and supporting the development of the school. Focusing on the three aspects of “With clear educational conception, QUST has upgraded to a new stage in its school-running strength”, “Deepening comprehensive reform, its 'Double First-rate' construction has shown a new pattern” and “Adhering to the policy of running school openly, QUST has gathered the new kinetic energy in the school development”, President MA introduced the history of QUST in its following the national education policy and the law of higher education, sticking to the principle of education through the cultivation of morality and school development with QUST characteristics, and the school’s self-improvement through unity and hard work in the past 67 years. He stressed the goals of constructing QUST into a high-level university with “spirit, culture, responsibility, vitality and characteristics”. The QUST will rely on the Council to take the whole situation into consideration and coordinate the relationship between reform and development, as well as the mission and responsibility, promote the development and better realize the goals.

At the meeting, ZHANG Yuanli, deputy secretary of the QUST Party Committee, read out the "Decision on the Establishment of QUST Council ", and announced the list of the members (member units) of the first session of the Council.

LI Ming, the graduate of QUST of 1986 and the Chairman and General Manager of Qingdao HIWIN Group, Ltd., made a speech on behalf of all the members. Firstly, he expressed warm congratulations on the establishment of the Council, and as an alumnus, he also expressed his heartfelt thanks to his alma mater and his teachers for their long-term care and training. LI Ming noted in his speech that they will seriously fulfill the obligations of directors and exercise of the rights of directors to support the development of the school as always, make their contributions to the building “new engineering discipline” and a high-level university with spirit, culture, responsibility, vitality and characteristics of QUST.

There are 35 members in the first session of the QUST Council, among which 21 are unit members and 14 are individual members. The Council is composed of school organizers, departments in charge, representatives from units of joint development, school heads and heads of some school departments, leading officials from relevant academic organizations, teacher and student representatives, and representatives from local governments, industry organizations, enterprises and public institutions and alumni, etc. The Council is a consultation, negotiation, deliberation and supervision institutions for the construction and development of QUST. Following the principles of “active participation, democratic consultation, effective supervision, scientific rule of law, promote development”, the Council can also be an important governing organization for QUST to implement scientific decision-making, expand democratic supervision and promote social participation. LIU Xingyunawardedcertificates to the unit members and individuals members of the Council.

Through the vote by a show of hands, LIU Xingyun was elected as the chairman, MA Lianxiang as the executive vice president. YUAN Zhifa, XIE Kechang and LIU Xianjun were elected as the vice chairmen. Shandong Provincial Department of Education, Qingdao Municipal People's Government, Association of China Petroleum and Chemical Industry, China Rubber Industry Association were elected as the vice chairman units of the Council. WEI Dianhua was elected as the secretary general. ZHENG Deqian (the Director of the School Party Committee), NIE Guangming (Director of the Office of Alumni) and LIU Yun (the Director of the Development Planning Department) were elected as deputy secretaries general. The Council Office is at the school Alumni Office with NIE Guangming concurrentlyserveas the director.

(Translated byLiu Chao)