On the afternoon of April 15, the signing ceremony of SJTU-Santander Bank Cooperation Memo was solemnly held in Takada Hall on SJTU’s Minhang campus. Attending the ceremony were Mr. Emilio Botin, chairman of Santander Bank, Marcos Caramuru, consul-general of the Consulate General of Brazil in Shanghai, Yin Jie, deputy director of the municipal education commission, Academician Zhang Jie, president of SJTU, Xu Fei, deputy secretary of the Party committee of SJTU, Huang Zheng, vice president of SJTU, Yan Liangyu, president assistant of SJTU, Zhou Lin, head of Antai College of Economics & Management, etc. The ceremony was hosted by Huang Zhen and co-organized by the academic administration, School of International Education, the Education Development Foundation, the President Office and Department of International Cooperation and Communication.

President Zhang Jie extended enthusiastic welcome to the delegation led by Mr. Emilio Botin, chairman of Santander Bank. In retrospect of the cooperation between SJTU and Santander Bank since 2008, Zhang Jie expressed his admiration for the unremitting contribution to higher education made by Santander Bank and its strategic vision. Zhang Jie said, SJTU had always been dedicated to students’ knowledge transfer, capability development and character nurturing and had formed the “3 in 1” concept of talent-cultivation. One of SJTU’s major objectives in nurturing elites is to broaden students’ international perspective and improve their international competitiveness. On behalf of SJTU and the C9 League, Zhang Jie stated that in the future, Chinese universities would establish a complete and long-term strategic cooperative relationship with Santander Bank to nurture top talents for the world and would make greater contributions to the cooperation and communication between China and Brazil.

As the sponsor, President of Santander Bank Emilio Botin said that the “Top China” program and the “Top Brazil” program have not only enhanced the cooperation between Chinese universities and Santander Bank but also promoted the progress of agreement-signing between Chinese and Brazilian colleges. According to the agreements, the bank will offer financial support for these universities to develop programs of grant-in-aid, education and research as well as the application of new technologies on campuses or the connection between universities and enterprises. So far, it has established cooperative relationship with 833 universities in America, China, Spain, Morocco, Portugal, Britain and Russia with over 3,500 programs.

President Zhang Jie and President Emilio Botin signed the cooperation agreement. Apart from the two programs funded by Santander Bank(“Top Brazil” and “Top China”), the agreement also set the frames for cooperation between two parties in other fields of academic exchange like international exchange of students and teachers, education of Spanish, etc. It marks a new step of SJTU’s strategy of nurturing international talents and a start of the student exchange between top universities in China and Brazil.

It is reported that in 2008, organized by UNESP, “Top China” has been conducted between 10 universities in Brazil and SJTU, and Phase II of the program has been launched now. This year, Santander Bank initiated the “Top Brazil” program which will be organized by SJTU. According to SJTU’s academic administration, the two programs will cover every member university of the C9 League, that is, the nine Chinese universities and ten famous Brazilian ones. The aim is to strengthen the relationship between China and Latin America and to develop exchange activities in the field of environment and city planning. The exchange programs of this year are specially related to the theme of the Shanghai Expo–Better City, Better Life.

The exchange program between prestigious universities in China and in Brazil is aimed at promoting professional and academic communication between each other through summer courses. At the same time, Brazilian students will learn Chinese and Chinese cultures while Chinese students will learn Portuguese and Brazilian cultures. The credits of academic and professional courses on environment and climate change, biotechnology and biomedicine, the international financial system, the future information system, etc. amount to two thirds of the total credits and the rest credits are taken by courses on Chinese and Brazilian languages and cultures.

After the ceremony, President Zhang Jie and President Emilio Botin jointly planted a mulberry tree named “Tree of Future”, with the hope that the co-education and cultural communication between Chinese and Brazilian universities will have a bright future.