On the afternoon of June 18, 2025, the 25th Joint Management Committee (JMC) meeting of the SJTU Paris Elite Institute of Technology (SPEIT) was held in a hybrid online-offline format in Shanghai and Paris.
Ding Kuiling, Chairman of the JMC, Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and President of Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), along with Zhang Zhaoguo, Vice President of SJTU, attended the meeting in Shanghai. Estelle IACONA, Vice Chairman of the JMC and President of École Nationale Supérieure des Technologies Avancées (ENSTA Paris), Patrick OLIVIER, President of Télécom Paris, Christopher CRIPPS, Vice President for International Affairs of École Polytechnique, attended in Paris. Sébastien REYMOND, Director of International Affairs at ENSTA Paris, represented the French side at SJTU in Shanghai. Gu Jianmin, Chief Technology Officer of Valeo Group, attended online. Benjamin DERMIERE, Educational Consul of the French Consulate General in Shanghai, was invited to attend as an observer. The meeting was co-chaired by Ding Kuiling and Estelle IACONA.
Ding Kuiling delivered the opening address. He expressed heartfelt gratitude for the support from Chinese and French university and enterprise representatives, emphasizing that the continuous investment from all parties has laid a solid foundation for SPEIT's development. He pointed out that as the college's highest decision-making body, the JMC would review multiple key issues at this meeting, engage in in-depth exchanges on academic positioning, talent cultivation, and international cooperation, and jointly plan the college's future development.
In her opening remarks, Estelle IACONA stated that as the new President of ENSTA Paris, although she had only taken office for one month, she had deeply felt the vigorous vitality of the project. She would fully support further expanding the depth and breadth of Sino-French cooperation and continuously promote the cooperation project to a higher level.
The meeting appointed Chen Cailian as the Chinese Dean of the college. Chen Cailian said that she had previously served as the Secretary of the College Party Committee, and after the role transition from Secretary to Dean, she would further promote the college's construction and development from both academic and management dimensions. The meeting introduced Xiong Zhenhua, the new Secretary of the College Party Committee. Xiong Zhenhua stated that he would fully rally the strength of teachers and students, work closely with the management team, and jointly build a highland for cultivating globally competitive engineering talents.
The meeting heard the 2025 work report of SPEIT. Chen Cailian, Chinese Dean, Zied MOUMNI, French Dean, and Yao Xue, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee, reported on the college's work over the past year. The meeting highly affirmed the fruitful achievements of the college in the past year in human resource management, enrollment and employment, reform of the cultivation program, and international student cultivation. The meeting reviewed and approved the college's teaching reform plan, the list of new Development Committee members, the 2025 budget, and the time and location of the 26th JMC meeting.
Ding Kuiling delivered the closing speech. He noted that with the official groundbreaking of the new Sino-French building, the continuous expansion of enrollment, and the increasing proportion of international students, the college is thriving. The deep cooperation and joint investment between China and France will inject strong momentum into the college's leapfrog development in the next five years. He sincerely invited representatives of French partner universities to attend the JMC meeting to be held in Shanghai this autumn to jointly discuss development strategies and outline the cooperation blueprint. He stated that he would continue to promote the college to become a model of Sino-French engineering education cooperation, contributing more to serving national strategies and cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries.
The meeting concluded successfully in a warm atmosphere of discussion and positive cooperation. In the future, SPEIT will take the new round of five-year planning as an opportunity, closely follow the pulse of the times, deepen Sino-French strategic cooperation, and continuously promote educational innovation and high-quality development. The college will anchor the frontiers of international engineering education, continuously expand the depth and breadth of talent cultivation, continue to play a leading and exemplary role as a model of Sino-French cooperative education, and inject stronger momentum and make greater contributions to the cultivation of global engineering and technology talents and educational mutual learning between China and foreign countries!
Also attending the meeting were Peng Di, Deputy Director of the Academic Affairs Office of SJTU, Ma Wei, Deputy Director of the Office of International Exchange and Cooperation, Lu Jialiang and Zhong Shengyi, Vice Deans of SPEIT, Sun Chenye, Dean's Assistant, Qi Guifang, Director of the Cooperation and Development Office; Gaëlle LE GOFF, Director of International Relations at École Polytechnique, Jean-François NAVINER, Director of International Relations at Télécom Paris, Manon TISSIER, Head of International Exchange Programs at Mines Paris, etc.