A joint artificial intelligence laboratory between Nantong University and the University of Pannonia is unveiled in Nantong on Sept 9. [Photo/Nantong Daily]

Nantong University partnered with Hungary's University of Pannonia to launch a joint undergraduate program in computer science and technology on Sept 9, making Jiangsu province home to its first-ever Sino-Hungarian educational collaboration of this kind.

The launch ceremony also saw the unveiling of a joint artificial intelligence laboratory between the two institutions.

Under the program, students are set to spend three years studying at NTU and one year at the University of Pannonia, graduating with dual degrees. China's Ministry of Education approved the initiative in May.

The University of Pannonia is ranked among Hungary's top five national comprehensive research universities, with established strengths in computer science and AI. Annamaria Sasne Grosz, vice-president of the University of Pannonia, said that the university's information technology faculty has been recognized as a center of excellence by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and that the institution was the first in Hungary to offer university-level education in computer engineering in the early 1990s.

Wang Jianpu, president of NTU, described the launch and the joint laboratory as "important outcomes of deepening educational cooperation between the two universities and a vivid practice of enhancing mutual learning between Chinese and Hungarian cultures".

Janos Robert Fule, the consul for culture and education at the Hungarian Consulate General in Shanghai, said that, as an European Union member state and the only EU country participating in the Belt and Road Initiative, Hungary welcomes Chinese students.

Nantong University has been expanding its international education efforts in recent years. It currently operates one Sino-foreign cooperative education institution, three joint programs, and six mutual credit recognition programs, with nearly 900 students enrolled across these initiatives.