On 12 September 2007, NIAD-UE signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Higher Education Evaluation Center of the Ministry of Education (HEEC), China, with the aim of enhancing the collaboration between the two organizations in the area of quality assurance for higher education.

The signing ceremony took place at the Vivasha Resort Hotel, Shanghai, China.

Before that, the meeting between Wu Qidi, Vice-Minister of Education, People's Republic of China and Tsutomu Kimura, President, NIAD-UE was held there.

The MoU was signed by Director General Liu Fengtai from HEEC and President Tsutomu Kimura from NIAD-UE.

NIAD-UE has been promoting mutual exchanges with HEEC since a seminar held on 30 November last year, and this MoU was signed under the mutual recognition that it is of great importance to enhance the cooperation in the field of quality assurance for higher education.

HEEC was established in August 2004, is an administrative body under the auspices of the Ministry of Education. The main responsibility is to organize and implement the evaluation of baccalaureate degree programs, associate degree programs offered in institutions of higher education, develop international cooperation and exchange with higher education (accreditation) agencies/commissions in other countries as well as in Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan, and enter agreement, as is authorized by the Chinese Government, with non-government agencies/ organizations in the areas of evaluation in higher education institutions, in the hope of enhancing education quality of Chinese higher education and providing its contributions to continuous and healthy development of Chinese education.

Based on this MoU, both organizations will implement various collaborative projects to contribute to the developments of higher education in China and Japan.

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