A reception to celebrate the commencement of Tsinghua— Tokyo Institute of Technology joint training program for graduates was held in Tsinghua University on Oct.22.

As program's main sponsors for each side, Prof. Daisaburo Hashizume from Tokyo Institute of Technology and Prof. Zhaowei, associate dean of Tsinghua graduate school, made the remarks at the reception. They both highly appreciated the successful launch of this educational partnership and its far-reaching impact on enhancing the academic collaboration and mutual understanding between these two internationally noted universities. They hoped this graduate program will also become a symbol of long-standing Sino-Japanese friendship and strengthen the further recognition in educational, economic and cultural communication.

Representatives from Japanese Ambassador to China , leaders from Japanese enterprises in China and relevant guests from both universities attended the reception.

The joint graduate training program was inked by presidents of both schools earlier this year and officially kicked off in September 2004. According to the memorandum, 10 first-year grads, selected by universities respectively through a competitive process will spend approximately one year study in counterpart school. Participants will be granted master degrees from both universities after the required credits are earned and thesis defenses are successfully approved. The students involved this year are composed of those from the departments of Biology, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering.

Tokyo Institute of Technology, often called Tokyo Tech for short, was founded in 1881 as the Tokyo Vocational School. In 1929, it was elevated to the status of university. Tokyo Tech gets its academic reputation in biological sciences and nanotechnology worldwide.

Reported by Liu Yifu