On November 13, the 2025 Sino-Italian University Presidents Dialogue themed “Integration, Innovation and Governance” was held in Beijing. The Dialogue was jointly organized by the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China and the Italian Ministry for Universities and Research. Representatives from over 60 universities and institutions from China and Italy gathered to exchange insights on promoting interdisciplinary integration, innovating joint education models, and cultivating talents for global governance, share the achievements of Sino-Italian cooperation in higher education and discuss future directions for collaboration under a globalized perspective. Zhu Fangwei, President and Deputy Secretary of the CPC Committee of Zhongnan University of Economics and Law (ZUEL), along with Oliviero Di Liberto, the Italian Dean of the School of Law and Economics and the Chinese Affairs Representative of Sapienza University of Rome, attended the Dialogue.
2025 Sino-Italian University President Dialogue
Minister of Education Huai Jinpeng and Anna Maria Bernini, Minister of Universities and Research of Italy, attended the Dialogue, delivered keynote speeches, and signed the Joint Statement between the Minister of Education of the People’s Republic of China and the Minister of Universities and Research of the Italian Republic.
Joint Statement by the Minister of Education of the People’s Republic of China and the Minister of Universities and Research of the Italian Republic.
Huai noted that, since the 2024 Sino–Italian University Presidents’ Dialogue, universities in both countries have actively followed up on the consensus reached by the two heads of state, forging a new cooperation framework underpinned by project platforms, focused on frontier and interdisciplinary fields, with approaches to the integration between industry and education, and thus effectively promoted a comprehensive upgrading of Sino-Italian higher-education cooperation. He offered proposals for promoting Sino–Italian higher-education cooperation, hoping that universities in the two countries will work together to advance collaboration in both basic disciplines and interdisciplinary areas. Also, he wished that the two sides could extend the collaboration to the exploration of effective mechanisms by which technological innovation and talent cultivation could mutually support, in a bid to act upon the shared vision of the shared pursuit of “technology for good” and “civilization advancement”.
Huai Jinpeng, Minister of Education of PRC, Delivered a Keynote Speech at the Dialogue
Zhu Fangwei delivered a speech entitled “Pooling Sino-Italian Wisdom to Lead the Future of Education through Interdisciplinary Integration” at the meeting. He pointed out that ZUEL features distinctive educational philosophy of deep integration of economics and law. ZUEL is endeavoring to promote an educational transformation centered on interdisciplinary integration and driven by artificial intelligence, conducting systematic iterations of its disciplinary system and reconstructing its school-running model. He emphasized that the cooperation between ZUEL and Sapienza University of Rome is a crucial step in implementing the strategy of interdisciplinary integration. The two universities have reached a consensus to jointly establish an international campus integrating an “international academic district, an industry-university-research park, and an international cultural community”. This campus aims to build an open and collaborative new international cooperation platform, thus fostering a new paradigm for China-foreign educational cooperation. It also seeks to create a high-level international joint research hub for Al, while promoting cultural exchange and mutual learning among multiple countries. Zhu Fangwei also extended a sincere invitation to all Chinese and Italian universities participated in the meeting to join in the co-construction. This collaboration aims to pool interdisciplinary wisdom and strength, thereby developing the International Joint Research Center for Interdisciplinary Studies and the campus into a new model of Sino-Italian educational cooperation, and ultimately to provide an innovative and practical “Sino-Italian Solution” to global challenges in the Al era.
Zhu Fangwei,President and Deputy Party Secretary of the CPC ofZhongnan University of Economics and Law, delivered a speech at the Dialogue.
Oliviero Diliberto, Representative of the Rector for China Affairs at Sapienza University of Rome and Italian Dean of the School of Law and Economics of our university, chaired the thematic seminar.
The thematic seminar of the Dialogue
Representatives from Peking University, South China University of Technology, Link Campus University (Italy), Politecnico di Torino (Italy), University of Turin (Italy) and other institutions of higher education also delivered speeches focusing on the theme of interdisciplinary integration.
Following the Dialogue, Huai Jinpengheld a cordial exchange with Professor Oliviero Diliberto.
A signing ceremony between Chinese and Italian universities was held during the Dialogue. Zhu Fangwei and Oliviero Diliberto jointly signed the Letter of Intent for Cooperation on Building an“International Campus” between Zhongnan University of Economics and Law and Sapienza University of Rome.
During the Dialogue, the two universities jointly signed the Letter of Intent for Cooperation on Building an“International Campus” between Zhongnan University of Economics and Law and Sapienza University of Rome.Directors and deans from the International Exchange Office and Cooperationas well as the School of Law and Economics of our university attended the ceremony as accompanying representatives.
Group photo of the school’s ZUEL delegates
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Reporter：Zhang Jun