As the first batch of universities started to enroll international students in 1954, Tianjin University (TJU) has been improving the international education system from setting up an international education office to officially establishing the school of international education in 2000. Despite all the trials and hardships, TJU family has cultivated more than 30 thousand foreign students from over 150 countries.
With the implementation of the spirit showed in President Xi’s letter to Pakistan students in University of Science and Technology Beijing and guided by the major country diplomacy, the Belt and Road Initiative and Double-First Class Initiative, TJU has been committed to improving the international education system by carrying forward the TJU spirit, embodying Chinese characteristic and pursuing world-class education and aimed at training great international talents with the knowledge and passion of TJU, Tianjin and China. It has made great efforts to become an international education center recognized and yearned by all and make its contribution to the community with shared future for mankind.
Great Efforts to Support Major-Country Diplomacy and Belt and Road Initiative
With a high sense of responsibility and mission, TJU has properly accommodated international students from Sao Tome, Panama, Burkina Faso and other countries as its due share to actively respond to China’s major-country diplomacy and Belt and Road Initiative.
In 2018, TJU invited President Azali Assoumaini of Cmoros to come to visit and signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation.
In 2014, led by TJU, The Joint Statement of Establishing ACNET-EngTech has been signed between Excellence 9 and 8 universities of ASEAN. As the first engineering college union between China and ASEAN, ACNET-EngTech has been committed to generating more opportunities for international exchanges and cooperation among institutions of higher education, providing platform for engineering information sharing, so as to learn from each other.
In 2017, promoted by TJU, ACCEU has been established between the Excellence 9 and 10 engineering universities of central Europe. It will not only explore the new model for education exchanges but also enhance the cooperation for technology and innovation among universities from China and central Europe.
With untiring attempts to tap the potential of education markets and attract talented students of countries along the Belt and Road, TJU has cultivated and provided qualified international talents to those countries. Based on the advantages of interdisciplinary research in various fields and the successful establishment of Peiyang Silk Road Institute and the Center for Culture and Talent Development, TJU carried forward targeted academic researchers in fields such as comparing education among the Belt and Road regions and countries and international education in China.
Furthermore, TJU has actively promoted Chinese culture through promoting international programs with Chinese characteristics in the new era and improving international Chinese teaching. Among three Confucius Institutes it sponsored, the one in Bratislava, Slovakia, were awarded the Global Confucius Institute of the Year. The institutes offered various lessons of Chinese tailored to local culture and language teaching services to local schools, communities, enterprises and government. Since the first Confucius Institute of TJU were established in 2007, its three total Confucius Institutes has host more than 632 cultural activities of all kinds with total 216.52 thousand audiences. Its efforts have given full play to the role of education in China, which were reported by many famous media at home and abroad.
Committed to Improving Education, Teaching Quality and Talent Cultivation
As strict implementation of Standard for the Quality of Higher Education for Overseas Students in China (for trial), TJU has enforced The Implementation Outline of Internationalization Strategy and carried out international program Studying Abroad in Tianjin University. Besides, many enrollment and training programs and scholarship has been set up to steadily improve enrollment quality and select qualified overseas students, strengthening the supervision in enrollment for better international talent training.
As the first batch of universities awarded Chinese Government Scholarship in the preparatory education of undergraduate foreign students, equipped with Huawen education base of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council and participating as the main member of the steering committee of Chinese Scholarship Council, TJU has gradually perfected its engineering discipline in preparatory education by the successful experience accumulated through the long-lasting exploration and practice, enabling an international student training system distinguished by the Chinese teaching.
Meanwhile, it is also the first batch of universities that has passed Quality Accreditation on International Students Education by Ministry of Education, with the pioneering Chinese-teaching model for international engineering students featured zero-based, one-year learning. The teaching materials compiled by TJU has been award demonstration materials for preparatory education by the Ministry of Education.
Owing to its overall disciplinary construction of Chinese language, intercultural and engineering education, 25 rated majors of TJU exceled in the fourth-round discipline evaluation with 5 of them ranking the first and half of them above the average of first-class disciplines, guarantee its strong reliability on international education.
Through its multilingual courses introducing the Chinese culture, TJU has gradually built up a comprehensive system to educate overseas students of China’s national conditions and cultivated their national identity. it has established an international education center for intangible cultural heritage, wich successfully promoted Chinese traditional culture overseas, and enabled foreign students to have better understandings of China.
Enhancing the Stricter Regulation and Better Services
TJU has firmly implemented Administrative Measures for the Enrollment and Cultivation of International Students by Schools to perfect its regulations and institutions and improve the quality and efficiency on international education, with its international service management system and mechanism covering student enrollment, cultivation and management.
With a multicultural psychology counselling center, 2 students associations, 8 culture experience bases and 10 practice bases on international education, TJU has formed an integrated education system of China’s national condition covering various fields such as culture, internship and entrepreneurship.
Besides, it also carried out many relevant activities such as its international cultural festival, reputed as the World Expo in TJU that has been held for 12 consecutive years, which yielded good social effects. In 2009, TJU has founded China’s first multicultural psychology counselling center targeting on international students, providing them a mew model of counselling services including sand-play therapy.
In addition to cultural and psychological education, TJU also cooperated with local authorities of foreign affairs and exit and entry administration to conduct regular education of legal security and national condition.
TJU also gives full play to the force of example among its international students, such as four students who rescued students from drowning, the Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade, the translator of President Xi during his visit to Rwanda.
During the outbreak of Covid-19, the story about a Yemeni student introducing China’s anti-epidemic fight to the world has been reported by 63 famous domestic and foreign media with the total visits over 2 million. Such inspiring story has been listed on Outstanding Examples of International Students by the Ministry of Education and approved by the international community.
By: Xie Fuyu
Editor: Qin Mian
