From October 23 to 27, the 2018 Cross-Strait University Presidents’ Forum was held in Keelung, Taiwan. Yang Zhenning, member of the school party committee and vice president, was invited to attend and give a keynote speech. Thedirector of the International Exchange and CooperationCollege was accompanied.

In the forum, Yang Zhenning gave a speech entitled “Thinking and Exploring the Agricultural and Rural Talents Training System under the Background of Rural Revitalization Strategy”. He pointed out that in the face of the major strategyof revitalizing the country, agricultural universities must shoulder corresponding historical responsibilities. In the process of serving the rural revitalization strategy, Shandong Agriculture and EngineeringUniversity is based on the cultivation of rural agricultural talents, focuses on the needs of Shandong's economic and social development,keeps in step with the adjustment of higher education strategies, follows the laws of higher education, and clarifies the talentscultivate orientation of modern agricultural engineers andfine rural designers, reforms the talent training model byadjusting the professional structure, optimizes the curriculum system, improves the discipline support, strengthens the collaborative education, and initially constructs a talent training system that is compatible with the rural revitalization strategy, and embarks on a road to the construction of applied undergraduateuniversity featuring agricultural engineering. His speech was unanimously recognized by the universities on both sides of the strait.

During the forum, Yang Zhenning and his entourage exchanged views with friendly universities such as Taiwan Datung University and TaiwanHsiuping University of Science and Technology. They exchanged views on the exchanges and cooperation in the early stage. Both sides expressed their desire to continue to deepen in academic exchanges and cooperation, students and teachers exchanges, aiming at high efficiency and effectiveness, refining cooperation projects and forming a long-term mechanism; and discussed with the presidents of TaiwanNational Chung Cheng University and TaiwanI-Shou University, both parties expressed their hope to further deepen in teaching research andintelligent agriculture research. Negotiate, carry out substantive cooperation, give full play to the strengths of both sides, and achieve complementary advantages.

It is reported that the Cross-Strait University Presidents’ Forum has been held in rotation in Shandong and Taiwan universities since 2002. The2018forum was hosted by National Taiwan Ocean University, with the theme of “New Era, New Challenges: Prospects for Higher Education Reform and University Governance System”, “Talents Cultivation of Cross-Strait Exchange and Cooperation”, and “TalentsInnovation and Cultivation”. More than 100presidents and experts from46universitiesof both sides of the Straitparticipated in the seminar. Experts from the conference discussed the deep cooperation and reform and development of cross-strait higher education, reached consensus and achieved fruitful results.