Since the reform and opening up, the number of students studying in China has been rising, and by the end of 2018, the number of students studying in China had reached nearly 500,000, making China the largest destination country in Asia and the third in the world; with the implementation of the “Belt and Road” initiative, the number of international students from countries and regions along the route is also increasing. 2019, the percentage of international students studying in China “In 2019, the percentage of international students from countries and regions along the Belt and Road reached 54.1%. “Countries and regions along the Belt and Road have become the main source regions for international students coming to China. However, in terms of the choice of majors, liberal arts majors such as Chinese language and literature still account for the highest proportion, while the proportion of majors such as economics, management and engineering is increasing year by year, but the overall proportion is still below 10%.
The Outline of the National Medium and Long-term Education Reform and Development Plan (2010-2020) points out that the scale of foreign students should be further expanded and the quality of teaching in China should be continuously improved. in June 2020, the Opinions of the Ministry of Education and other eight departments on accelerating and expanding the opening up of education to the outside world in the new era were issued, pointing out that the opening up of education to the outside world is a distinctive feature and an important driving force of education modernization. We must insist on the openness of education to the outside world, take the initiative to strengthen mutual appreciation, tolerance and interoperability with other countries in the world, and form a more comprehensive, wide-ranging, multi-layered and proactive education opening to the outside world. The brand of “Study in China” must be strengthened.
In the final analysis, strengthening the brand depends on improving the quality and management of education for students studying in China.
I. New ideas for improving the international influence and competitiveness of new engineering disciplines through studying in China
The influence of higher education can cover teaching influence, academic influence, alumni influence and industrial influence, etc. Without influence, there is no way to talk about competitiveness. Influence is a prerequisite for competitiveness. In order to proactively respond to the new round of technological revolution and industrial change and support a series of national strategies such as innovation-driven development, since February 2017, the Ministry of Education has actively promoted the construction of new engineering disciplines, formed the “Fudan Consensus”, “Tianda Action” and “Beijing Guide”, and issued the “Notice on Research and Practice of New Engineering” ,making every effort to explore and form the Chinese model and experience of leading the global engineering education and helping the construction of a strong country of higher education.
Facing the new changes and requirements of the work of studying in China and the new initiatives of the state, the higher education institutions of engineering should make use of the “east wind” of the Ministry of Education to promote the construction of “New Engineering, New Liberal Arts, New Medicine and New Agriculture”, and give full play to the advantages of their own disciplines to develop “New Engineering”. They should fully combine the construction of “New Engineering” with the education of studying in China, improve the quality of teaching by relying on “first-class majors”, enhance the intercultural teaching ability of engineering majors, increase the popularity and attractiveness of engineering majors in the countries of origin of international students, improve the quantity and quality of students. By creating a brand name for engineering majors, the academic influence, brand influence and reputation of China’s higher education will be improved, and the overall competitiveness of education will be enhanced.
II. Sample of Tianjin University of Science and Technology for enhancing the international influence of new engineering disciplines in biology
As one of the first undergraduate universities directly under the former Ministry of Light Industry in China, Tianjin University of Science and Technology (TUST) started to recruit Sri Lankan students in 2017, and has enrolled three classes of students up to 2021, of which the 2021 and 2022 classes have successfully graduated and all received bachelor’s degrees. The students of 2021 and 2022 have successfully graduated and obtained their bachelor’s degree. As an all-English international student program, the Biological Engineering program of Tianjin University of Science and Technology has been highly recognized in Sri Lanka, and has produced good results in expanding and enhancing the influence of the university, college and discipline. Over the past four years, the programme has provided the following practical experiences on how to rely on first-class majors and enhance the international influence and competitiveness of China’s “new engineering” in biology.
(1) Integration of teaching resources based on national first-class majors
The integration of teaching resources based on national first-class majors can enhance the academic status, trust and academic influence of China’s higher education in countries and regions along the Belt and Road. “Most of the developing countries along the Belt and Road are in urgent need of basic industrial talents who can adapt to their economic development levels, mainly in the manufacturing industry chain. National-level first-class majors have a mature education system and high quality education due to their complete educational resources and academic foundation. The international student program relying on national first-class majors can provide high-quality and mature education resources for international students, cultivate high-quality education achievements, and effectively export the teaching influence of “national first-class majors” and gain recognition by providing professional engineering and technical talents for the basic industries of the countries of origin.
(2) Using international engineering education accreditation to improve cultivation programmes
The cultivation programme is based on the standard of international engineering education accreditation to create a study abroad education that is in line with the world. Engineering education is the core of engineering education, and industrial engineer is the cultivation goal of engineering education. Engineering education accreditation is an internationally accepted quality assurance system for engineering education, and an important foundation for achieving international mutual recognition of engineering education and international mutual recognition of engineer qualifications. According to the expert report at the annual meeting of the Royal Society of Canada in 2021, the future of engineering education will show a trend of transnationalism, student-ledness and participation in industrial experiences. In view of the global recognition and demand of engineering education accreditation, the cultivation programme based on engineering education accreditation will raise the objectives, processes, standards and results of professional education for international students to international standards, and cultivate engineering talents with international cultivation programmes, so that they can become international talents who can develop in the global academic and industrial world without barriers and in a sustainable manner.
(3) Launching “academic flash mob” to stimulate academic communication
In addition to communicating academic influence through teaching and research projects, it is also important to make full use of modern information technology to innovate forms of academic communication. Tianjin University of Science and Technology has launched “Academic Flash”, a mini academic report that focuses on the characteristics of biology majors and follows economic hotspots and industrial needs. By introducing, explaining and presenting major academic issues in 10-minute mini-topics with lively animation design and Q&A sessions, the academic flash is vivid and lively, in line with the characteristics of the post-epidemic era and the preference of the “post-90s” network natives, creating an academic “speedboat” that is light and fast. The “little speedboat” can deliver and popularize knowledge lightly, quickly and accurately, thus enhancing the visibility and influence of the international student program.
(4) Holding academic conferences to enhance international visibility
Academic conferences are a multiplier for shaping academic influence. Tianjin University of Science and Technology has a long and stable foundation of educational exchange and academic cooperation with Thailand’s Assumption University, and both sides share the same direction of education and research in biotechnology, and the “Belt and Road” Biotechnology Symposium held once every two years has considerable influence in the biotechnology field of both countries. With a number of renowned experts and professors in the field of biofermentation, as well as alumni who are leaders and technical backbones in the industry, the university’s visibility and influence have increased as the international academic conference has become more influential in Thailand.
(5) Creating a cultural cultivation card to expand the influence of education
Although bioengineering is an engineering major, cultural nurturing is also a part of enhancing the influence of education. Relying on China’s profound traditional culture and rich online teaching resources such as China Catechism, the major of biological engineering has launched a series of lectures on Oriental herbal medicine, poetic China, medicine and food, and the community of human destiny, as well as a Chinese liquor “wine tasting competition” highlighting the tradition and characteristics of biological brewing. The “Wine Tasting Competition”, which promotes learning through competition and educates people through competition, cultivates international students and overseas alumni who know and respect China, as well as friends from all over the world who love and respect Chinese culture and recognize Chinese higher education; produces an album of New Year greetings for international students in the New Year, which is widely circulated among overseas students; the graduation ceremony for international students is grand and warm, and students spontaneously write in front of the screen in various ways: The graduation ceremony for international students was grand and heart-warming, with students spontaneously writing “I love TUST” (the abbreviation of the name of Tianjin University of Science and Technology) in front of the screen to express their feelings for their alma mater and teachers. The parents of the students also praised the teaching and management of the college, and the students graduated from the college and went to universities and research institutes such as the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Harbin Institute of Technology for further studies, and were employed in the Ministry of Health of Sri Lanka and other institutions, reflecting the better results of nurturing people.
(6) Promoting the transformation and upgrading of engineering majors through disciplinary integration
Cross-fertilization of disciplines is the core idea of the new engineering science, and it is also an important grasp and way to transform and upgrade engineering majors. With the deepening of the new engineering construction, the traditional engineering majors are facing the integration and upgrading, and the teaching contents and education methods of the engineering programs for international students relying on Chinese majors should be adjusted accordingly. In the context of the fourth industrial revolution and industrial changes, breaking down disciplinary barriers, breaking through stereotypes, improving the connotation of majors, expanding the boundaries of education, and releasing the spirit of cross-border, crossover, integration and innovation of the new engineering disciplines into the education for international students is not only the responsibility of a large higher education country, but also the practice of applying the achievements of higher education reform to globalization. It is also a practice of applying the results of higher education reform to globalization. The Biological Engineering programme at TUST has adopted the Biological Engineering programme as its main course, while the core courses from the national top-class Pharmaceutical Engineering programme have been selected as elective modules, with remarkable results. During the epidemic, the international students of the program participated in the testing work in the local PCR laboratory in Sri Lanka and fully applied their knowledge in the industrial services.
(7) Strengthening the integration of industry and education for precise talent cultivation
The competitiveness of higher education comes from the recognition of industry, and the achievements of higher education need to be appraised by industry. We should fully understand and explore the industrial needs of China’s business expansion in countries and regions along the “Belt and Road”, understand the needs of domestic enterprises for international talents, and understand the needs of the global industrial chain for talents, so that the cultivation of international talents not only takes into account the characteristics of students, but also meets the needs of talents for global economic development and industrial changes. The internationalisation of talent training will eventually become the prelude to the internationalisation of talent training, and the mode, standard and purpose of talent training will eventually converge for both domestic and international students, contributing to the Chinese solution for global industry talent training.
The biomedical industry is one of the strategic emerging industries and pillar industries of China’s national economy. The School of Biological Engineering of Tianjin University of Science and Technology has established the School of Biomedical Modern Industries based on “Biological Engineering” and “Pharmaceutical Engineering”, which is a synergistic development between the construction of new engineering disciplines and the integration of industry and education. The School of Biomedical Engineering of the University of Science and Technology of Tianjin (USTT) has been established to provide a continuous supply of talents for the improvement of the talent chain of the global biomedical industry. In the post-epidemic era, countries, especially developing countries where the biomedical industry is still in its infancy, have an urgent need for the whole industrial chain of the biomedical industry, and the quantity and quality of basic industrial talents, which are crucial to the well-being of people and the foundation of social development, cannot meet the national demand. The education model of TUST’s School of Modern Biomedical Industries incorporates the voices from the frontiers of industry into the teaching objectives, teaching process and teaching outcomes, creating a new paradigm for the development of industry-education integration in higher education worldwide.
The internationalisation of higher education is not only the internationalisation of the training targets, but also the internationalisation of the training objectives, the internationalisation of the training outcomes and the internationalisation of the industries served, which will eventually integrate with the social and economic development of the world and become an integral part of the global industrial transformation.
Taking the undergraduate program of biological engineering of Tianjin University of Science and Technology as a practical base, facing the “One Belt, One Road”, relying on the national first-class specialty of “biological engineering”, and giving full play to the advantages of education in a big country under the background of the new engineering discipline, through This is the practical exploration of the University of Science and Technology of Tianjin in the work of education for students coming to China, which is to enhance the international influence and competitiveness of China’s new engineering discipline in biology through the “quality project and brand project”, and ultimately to enhance the competitiveness of China’s higher education in the international arena through academic influence and comprehensive influence. It is hoped that through this exploration, the work of studying abroad in China will become a “Chinese brand” and contribute to Chinese power in global governance.
