On May 18^th, 2016, the Education Department of Hunan Province unveiled the name list whose application of Hunan “Overseas Expert Program” among the Higher Institution in the 2016-2017 academic year has been approved, and Hunan Women’s University has entered the name list. Our successful application has marked a breakthrough in the “Overseas Expert Program” and will lay a sound foundation for the next application in the 2017-2018 academic year.

The overseas expert of HWU, Prof. Anne Harley who got her BA at Yale College and MA & DMA at Boston University, teaches at Scripps College, which is a member of the Claremont Consortium and a Top 3 women’s college and a top 24 liberal arts college in the United States. Prof. Harley specializes in performing music from challenging and ground-breaking contemporary composers as well as music from early oral and written traditions in Europe, America and Russia and appears in 17 internationally released CDs. TALISMAN and Voices of the Pearl, two groups which she founded and now lead, have attracted internationally respected leaders in their respective fields. She has also been committed to the disciplinary and intercultural comparative vocal music teaching and in charge of some related academic programs. Prof. Harley has also been frequently invited to teach vocal music in such higher institutions in China as Peking University, Shanghai Conservatory of Music, Shanghai Theatre Academy, Fudan University and Xiamen University.

The “Overseas Expert Program” of HWU will be co-implemented by the International Affairs Office and the Art Performance Department in the 2016-2017 academic year, when Prof. Harley will be invited to teach at HWU and bring the advanced vocal music training methods for the students and faculty of the Art Performance Department.

The “Overseas Expert Program” was initially carried out to introduce the overseas high-level talents by the Education Department of Hunan Province in order to fully implement the Outline of National Medium and Long-Term Program for Education Reform and Development (2010-2020) and the Outline of Building Hunan into a Province with Super Education (2010-2020). “Overseas Experts”refer to the foreign experts and scholars who are internationally recognized for their success in a certain discipline or field. The Program aims to support the higher institutions in Hunan to introduce the first class foreign experts and researchers to teach and conduct joint research in Hunan so as to improve the discipline construction and the talent-training quality and intensity the comprehensive competitiveness of the higher institutions. (Written and translated by Long Min from the International Affairs Office)