The President of CGS called the Secretariat of the Association of Deans (ACGS) and invited the Chinese Association of Graduate School Deans (CGS) to send three deans to represent China to attend the "Global Summit of Strategic Leadership in Graduate Education" (Stratagem) held in Banff, Alberta, Canada from August 30 to September 1, 2007, sponsored by CGS. The three deans of graduate schools represented China to attend the "Strategic Leaders Summit on Globalization of Graduate Education" held in Banff, Alberta, Canada from August 30 to September 1, 2007. Due to various reasons, among the three deans selected by the Secretariat of the Joint Conference, only Dean He Kebin of Tsinghua University made the trip as scheduled.
The summit was attended by about 30 people. They included: deans of graduate schools (Council of Graduate Schools (CGS), European University Consortium, Canadian Graduate School Consortium, Australian Graduate School Consortium, China Association of Graduate School Deans (ACGS)), embassy officials, government officials, and scholars engaged in graduate education research.
The topics of the summit: opportunities brought by the internationalization of graduate education; challenges brought by the internationalization of graduate education; international exchange of graduate education; international mobility of talents. The objectives of the summit: to open a global dialogue, to promote good practices in graduate education, and to clarify the direction of future international cooperation in graduate education. It includes sharing good practices in graduate education / understanding constraints in international cooperation in graduate education and necessary factors for achieving win-win situation / strengthening global dialogue on internationalization of graduate education / developing principles and promoting exchanges to facilitate the development of internationalization of graduate education.
Declaration adopted at the Summit (Banff Declaration): Respect differences and learn from each other / Enhance the quality of graduate education / Improve the capacity and awareness of graduate students to practice globally / Promote innovation in graduate education and graduate students / Clarify and strengthen the positioning of master's education / Encourage transnational collaborative graduate education projects / Capture the mobility of graduate students and postdoctoral scholars globally / Jointly promote postgraduate education in the context of globalization with employers, policy-making departments and universities / Establish a global postgraduate education exchange platform to discuss and exchange good practices in postgraduate education.
Dean He Kebin returned home from the conference on September 2. He will present the summit to all deans at the 2007 Annual Meeting of the Association of Chinese Graduate Schools(ACGS）to be held in October.
Asecretariat of ACGS
September 5th, 2007