Nanjing Tech University held a grand ceremony to confer the Honorary Professorship on Prof. Tan Eng Chye, Deputy President and Provost of National University of Singapore in the auditorium of Science and Innovation Building on the morning of April 19^th. The ceremony was attended by Prof. Wang Deming, Secretary of Party Committee, Academician and President Huang Wei, Prof. Zhu Yaozhao, Vice Secretary of Party Committee and Secretary of Discipline Inspection Commission, Prof. Gao Ming, Vice Secretary of Party Committee and Vice President, Prof. Jiang Juncheng, Vice President, Prof. Zhang Jinming, Vice President, Prof. Gong Jianming, Vice President, Prof. Xin Weihong, Vice President, all mid-level administrators and teacher and student representatives.

In his sincere and affectionate speech on the ceremony, Academician and President Huang reviewed the ten-year fruitful collaboration between his IAM and NUS which originated from the First IAM-NUS Workshop in ZhouZhang, a waterside township of romance in Southern Jiangsu. The foundation of "Jiangsu - Singapore Organic Electronic and Information Display Joint Laboratory" and IAM’s publication of significant scientific research onNature Communication, a top academic journal are manifest achievements of the bilateral collaboration. Academician and President Huang introduced NanjingTech’s latest development and new strategies. In April, 2013, "Jiangsu Advanced Biological and Chemical Manufacturing Collaborative Innovation Center" led by NanjingTech was officially authorized as one of the first batch of 14 "2011 Plan" National Collaborative Innovation Centers. As pointed out by President Huang, entry into the "2011 Plan" was a new starting point for NanjingTech to further promote its collaborative innovation and would facilitate the strategic goal of building a "comprehensive, research-oriented, and globalized" university. Last year, NanjingTech launched a series of new globalization initiatives: adopting a new and more internationally-accepted English abbreviation of university name (NanjingTech); establishing Overseas Offices in Singapore, Russia, U.S, and U.K to recruit top talents throughout the world which was unprecedented among Jiangsu universities; deepening strategic cooperation with Top 50 Universities worldwide; signing an agreement with Imperial College, London, U.K, a Top 5 university in QS Ranking, to establish reciprocal joint research branches in Nanjing and London, making the London branch the first Chinese Collaborative Innovation branch in Europe; accelerating the Joint Collaborative Educational Programs with the University of Sheffield; co-foundingthe Confucius Institute with the University of Johannesburg (South Africa); starting strategic cooperation with Charoen Pokphand Group (Thailand) to explore new mechanism for building independent college. Academician and President Huang also talked about the wisdom and achievement of Singapore and NUS and pointed out that globalization was the key impetus for the excellence of today's NUS.

After the ceremony, Prof. Tan Eng Chye delivered an enlightening lecture entitled "University Governance and Global Talent Management-- The NUS Experience", elaborating on NUS’s experience in building a globalized and research-intensive university mainly from two aspects, ie, University Governance and Global Talent Management. He introduced NUS’s three institutional shifts from a teaching university to a globalized, research-intensive and entrepreneurial university and its efficient corporate management which helped to recruit academic leaders and top talents throughout the world with remuneration much higher than that offered by some top-ranking universities. Prof. Tan Eng Chye emphasized repeatedly that globalization played a very important role in NUS’s development and NUS was not only a Singapore university but also a globalized university. Among the four deputy presidents of NUS, two are foreigners, one being Prof. Barry Halliwell, Deputy President (Research & Technology) who was one of the world’s most highly-cited researchers in Biology and Biochemistry (Hirsch Index 127); the other being Mr Joseph P. Mullinix, Deputy President (Administration) who used to be vice president of many top-notch American universities like Yale University, Columbia University and University of California and had substantial experience in administration. Finally, Prof. Tan Eng Chye spoke highly of President Huang’s patriotism for China and his insightful vision in university governance.

After the lecture, Academician and President Huang awarded the Certificate of Annual Distinguished Lecture to Prof. Tan Eng Chye and pointed out that after the vigorous and resolute institutional reforms under the leadership of President Shih Choon Fong and the steady and continuous innovations under the governance of President Tan Chorh Chuan, NUS had made admirable and convincing achievement. In the QS Ranking 2014, NUS leapfrogged to 23^rd, exceeding the University of Hong Kong and Tokyo University to be the NO.1 university in Asia. NUS had considerable strength in the field of engineering, many of which ranked among the top ten in the world. NUS’s rapid development was enlightening and inspiring and NanjingTech should further promote the all-round cooperation with NUS in both breadth and depth and make our own mark in the world.

Prior to the ceremony, Academician and President Huang Wei and Deputy President Tan Eng Chye signed the NanjingTech---NUS Collaborative MOU in C501 of the Science and Innovation Building. Prof. Tan Eng Chye’s visit was a preface to the all-round bilateral cooperation in education as well as research. It would facilitate the staff exchange, in-depth collaboration and mutual development between two universities and would become a milestone in the implementation of NanjingTech’s globalization strategy.