On May 27, a six-member delegation led by Ian O. Connor, the president of Australian Griffith University visited SYSU. SYSU Vice-president Xu Ningsheng had a meeting with the guests on south campus. Both parties had a brief historical retrospect of the friendly contacts between the two universities and expressed their mutual expectation which is to enforce the cooperation on environment, life science, cultivating doctors with joint efforts and so on. They also jointly signed SYSU-Griffith University Memorandum of Understanding on Medical Research Proposals of Plants.

At the meeting, Professor Zhu Mingruo, the Director of Environment and Public Health Center of Griffith University and Professor Jiang Lifang, the Director of Microbiology Teaching-Research Section of Zhongshan School of Medicine exchanged and reported the development of the research cooperation of antiviral effect of plant medicine. The directors of the functional departments of the two universities attended the meeting.

Griffith University and SYSU have always been on good terms since the two universities had signed the SYSU-Griffith University Exchanging Contract in 1981. Presently, Griffith University is considered a significant cooperative partner of SYSU on teachers and students exchange and the scientific research projects.