On June 26th, the signing ceremony of Jiangsu Teacher College of joint construction by Suzhou Municipal People’s Government and Soochow University jointly was held in the academic lecture hall of Honglou Convention Center.

In his addressing speech, President Xiong Sidong stressed that the joint construction of Jiangsu Teacher College of Soochow University was not only an important exploration to accelerate the integration development strategy of famous cities and universities and comprehensively deepen the reform of teacher education, but also would promote the transformation and development of normal education of Soochow University at a higher level and in a larger pattern. Facing the future, Soochow University would build the Jiangsu Teacher College into a leading and internationally influential high-level and characteristic teacher college, with equal emphasis on inheritance and innovation.

In the speech, Mayor Wu Qingwen highlighted that Jiangsu Teacher College of Soochow University was another key measure to promote university-local government cooperation, inherit and carry forward the excellent educational tradition of “Jiangsu Normal College”, and jointly promote the high-quality development of Suzhou education, having a milestone significance for intensive development of Suzhou teacher education.

According to the cooperation agreement, under the overall development strategy, Suzhou Municipal People’s Government and Soochow University would give full play to their resource advantages to support the reform and exploration of teacher education and promote the concrete construction of Jiangsu Teacher College of Soochow University. The government would bring the reform and development of Jiangsu Teacher College of Soochow University into the overall plan for development of education of the city, and provide policy and special funds for high-level outstanding teacher training, cooperative education and teacher education in cooperation of innovation platform construction. The government would support development of Soochow University experimental schools and affiliated schools in Suzhou city. Soochow University would further regulate the system and mechanism, and promote construction of a new pattern of teacher education development featuring deep integration between Soochow University and local government in such aspects as construction of teacher education disciplines, academic research on teacher education, effective connection between basic education and higher education, and construction of “Suzhou Teacher Education Alliance”.