On November 17, a delegation led by Professor Kiplagat Kotut, Vice-Chancellor of Moi University in Kenya, visited Donghua University. President Xiang Yanxun met with the guests, accompanied by representatives from the Office of International Cooperation, International Education Center, Graduate School, and Confucius Institute of Donghua University.
(the venue of the meeting)
President Xiang Yanxun extended a warm welcome on behalf of the university to Kiplagat Kotut and his delegation, recalling the longstanding collaboration between the two institutions and its fruitful achievements. He expressed Donghua University’s willingness to deepen cooperation with Moi University in areas such as faculty and student exchanges, joint scientific research, and sharing high-quality educational resources, adding that he looks forward to jointly writing a new chapter in China-Africa higher education cooperation.
President Kiplagat Kotut spoke highly of Donghua University’s disciplinary strengths and research accomplishments. He expressed his readiness to enhance collaboration in textile engineering based on existing partnerships, expand cooperation in emerging fields such as information and communication technologies (ICT) and artificial intelligence (AI), extend Chinese language courses to secondary schools in Kenya, and promote regular exchanges of faculty and students between the two universities.
The cooperation between Donghua University and Moi University originated in 2011 under the ‘China-Africa 20+20 University Cooperation Plan.’ In 2015, the two universities jointly established the world’s first Confucius Institute with a focus on textiles and apparel. In 2024, their partnership was selected for the ‘China-Africa University Ten-Thousand Cooperation Program,’ followed by the successful launch of the ‘Shanghai Heart Classroom’ project at Moi University in 2025, along with the signing of an agreement to jointly build an Overseas Graduate College for Engineering. Throughout this period, the two institutions have continued to develop signature initiatives such as the ‘China-Africa International Textile and Apparel Forum & Cultural Exchange Forum’ and the ‘Solidarity & Prosperity: China-Kenya Creative Cultural and Art Joint Design Competition,’ while implementing distinctive programs like ‘Chinese Plus Garment Making and Fashion Design.’ These efforts not only reflect their shared philosophy of "bridging through education and connecting through culture," but have also made their collaboration a prominent example of people-to-people exchanges between China and Africa.
