On the morning of April 1, the Joint Management Board meeting of SWUFE-UD Institute of Data Science was held for the 2021-2022 academic year. Due to the pandemic, the meeting was held via video link. ZHUO Zhi, president of SWUFE and chairman of the Joint Management Board of SWUFE; LI Yongqiang, vice president of SWUFE; Dennis Assanis, president of the University of Delaware and vice chairman of the university's Joint Management Board; Robin Morgan, Executive Vice President; and members of the two university's joint management board attended the meeting. The meeting was moderated by Yang Shilei, dean of SWUFE-UD Institute of Data Science.

Prof. Zhuo extended his sincere welcome to President Assanis and other board members for attending the meeting. He summarized the achievements made by the management board in promoting the conversion of students' grades, optimizing the curriculum and marketing the programs in the past year. Prof. Zhuo also introduced the strategies and deployment of digital economy-related disciplines at SWUFE, and hoped that SWUFE-UD Institute of Data Science would become a brand and model in the practice of "New Finance and Economics" strategy and Sino-foreign joint education. At the same time, he hoped that the two universities would continue to deepen the strategic cooperative relationship, constantly explore potential areas of cooperation, and jointly contribute to the better shared future of mankind.

Dennis Assanis said the University of Delaware is committed to excellence in education and he was pleased to partner with SWUFE to launch the SWUFE-UD Institute of Data Science. He reviewed the history and achievements of the cooperation programs between the two universities. In particular, the SWUFE-UD Institute of Data Science has provided students with an amazing opportunity to obtain world-class double degrees and enter the global business arena. He looked forward to furthering cooperation between the two universities.

Prof. Li Yongqiang made suggestions on how to ensure online teaching of courses by the UD side during the pandemic and for UD teachers to come to SWUFE after the pandemic.

The Board listened to the work report of 2021 delivered by YANG Shilei and the advice of Professor Rick Andrews, associate dean, on improving the student experience and optimizing the curriculum. The board members then had in-depth discussions and reached a consensus on issues such as establishing a resource-sharing mechanism of Delaware's partner universities, putting in place an honor system for outstanding students, and early admission to graduate programs.

Editor：LOU Yaqi

Proofreading：LI Zeyu