On the morning of October 19, Thomas Bailey, President of Teachers College, Columbia University(TC), led a delegation to visit Beijing Normal University(BNU). BNU Vice President Chen Xing met with the delegation.

Chen Xing extended a warm welcome to Bailey and his delegation and briefed them on the university's latest progress in teaching, research, and international cooperation. He noted that BNU greatly values its deep, long-standing friendship with TC, and expressed the hope that this visit would serve as an opportunity to further deepen practical cooperation in such areas as talent cultivation and joint research.

Bailey noted that, as leading institutions in education in China and the United States, the two universities have deep-rooted academic ties and broad prospects for cooperation. Meanwhile, TC is ready to work with BNU to jointly promote international exchange and innovative development in education.

Senior representatives from the Faculty of Education, the Institute of Chinese Culture | Jingshi Academy, the School of Arts and Communication, and the Office of International Exchange and Cooperation attended the meeting. The two sides held in-depth discussions on joint talent cultivation in global development and governance and in education and the arts, and agreed to maintain regular, close communication so as to translate their cooperation intentions into concrete outcomes and write a new chapter in their century-spanning educational cooperation. 

Before the meeting, the delegation toured BNU's Xicheng Campus and gained a firsthand understanding of its history and future development plans.

TC was founded in 1887 and later became affiliated with Columbia University. Its education programs consistently rank among the top in the United States and around the world, and renowned educators John Dewey and Paul Monroe taught there for many years. Academic exchanges between the two institutions date back to the early 20th century. In recent years, the two sides have carried out cooperation in faculty and student exchanges and joint research through platforms such as the Center on Chinese Education at Teachers College, and Gu Mingyuan, a senior professor at BNU, has been appointed an honorary professor of TC.