On the morning of October 24, 2025, a delegation led by Matthew Evans, Provost and Vice-Principal of Queen's University (QU), visited Beijing Normal University (BNU). Chen Xing, Vice President of BNU met with the delegation.

Chen Xing extended a warm welcome to Evans and his delegation and expressed high regard for the long-standing collaborative achievements between the two institutions in fields such as geography and ecology. He introduced to the guests the disciplinary structure of BNU and the recent developments at its Beijing and Zhuhai campuses. He emphasized BNU's steadfast commitment to cultivating students' global perspectives and expressed anticipation for deepening cooperation with Queen's University to explore viable pathways for establishing new joint training programs and collaborative educational initiatives.

Evans expressed his gratitude for the warm hospitality extended by BNU. He stated that Queen's University highly values its decade-long partnership with BNU and is eager to expand cooperation in new areas, particularly through practical collaboration under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) framework to jointly address global challenges.

Leaders and representatives from the Faculty of Geographical Science, the College of Life Sciences, and the Office of International Exchange and Cooperation of BNU attended the meeting. The two sides conducted in-depth exchanges on topics including dual-degree programs for undergraduate and master's students, as well as Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools, reaching a preliminary consensus.

After the meeting, the two universities signed a cooperation agreement, formalizing substantive collaboration across multiple areas including faculty and student exchanges, dual-degree programs, summer schools, joint conferences, collaborative course design and teaching, and joint training of high-level talent.

Queen's University, located in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, was founded in 1841 and stands as one of Canada's oldest institutions of higher learning. As a member of the U15 research-intensive university consortium, the university excels in research, with its faculty having been awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics.