China-EU School of Law
CUPL President Huang Jin and Speaker of Finnish Parliament Maria Lohela agree to further student exchange
8 November 2017, by Internetredaktion
Photo: CUPL
CUPL president Huang Jin welcomes Finland's Parliamentary Speaker Maria Lohela.
The Speaker of the Finnish Parliament, Maria Lohela, and the China University of Political Science and Law’s (CUPL) President, Prof. Huang Jin, hope to deepen Finnish-Chinese student exchange between universities in Finland and CUPL. They discussed ways to increase university cooperation as well as the possibilities of traineeships at the Parliament in Helsinki during Lohela’s visit to CUPL on 6 November 2017 in the run-up to her state visit to Chinese Premier Li Keqiang. The Finnish Ambassador, Jarno Syrjälä, members of the Finnish Parliament, and the European Co-Dean of the China-EU School of Law, Prof. Bengt Lundell, also joined the meeting. Subsequently, for an audience of more than 200 students and professors, Maria Lohela held a lecture on the Finnish legal system in CUPL’s Academic Hall.
Prof. Huang Jin told Lohela about the China-EU School of Law’s aim to equip tomorrow’s legal elite with a profound knowledge of both Chinese and European law. He introduced her to CUPL’s long-term strategy to contribute to Chinese President Xi Jinping’s objective to establish a rule of law with socialistic characteristics in China by cultivating excellent law graduates and internationalising education. Currently, CUPL is cooperating with over 230 universities, research institutions and international organisations from 50 countries.
Maria Lohela, a graduate from one of CUPL’s three partner universities in Finland, the University of Turku, talked with Huang Jin about the Finnish higher education system and current reforms that are discussed in the Parliament. She focused on the Finnish students’ free choice of study programmes that in certain disciplines leads to an unbalanced male-female ratio and a disconnection of the numbers of graduates and demands by the employment market.
In Parliamentary Speaker Lohela’s lecture, law students gained insights into Finland’s politics, economy, culture and society. She described why she had chosen to pursue a political career and expressed her firm belief in the political participation of women and the Finnish parliamentary system. She outlined Chinese-Finnish cooperation and described ways to further strengthen these bilateral relationships.