(Correspondents: Zhang Weili, Chen Yuan & Yangmengyao) On November 3, the Ministry of Education issued the Notice on Approving China-Foreign Cooperative Education Program (including the Mainland, Hong Kong and Macao) in the First Half of 2021 (JWH [2021] No. 35). This notice showed that Xidian University (“XDU”) was officially approved to cooperate with Virginia Tech (“VT”) in the cooperative undergraduate education program of Big Data Management and Application. As the first China-US cooperative education program successfully approved in XDU, it realized XDU’s strategic layout of higher education cooperation in North America. This program presented a grand gift to celebrate the 90th anniversary of XDU in the opening year of the 14th Five-Year Plan. It is a substantial breakthrough of XDU under the background of implementing the strategic layout of national education opening to the outside world.
The collaboration between XDU and VT began in 2006. The successful approval of this program is a valuable achievement made during the long-term interaction between the two universities. The School of Economics & Management (SEM) of XDU is the organizer of this program.
Over the years, the SEM of XDU and Pamplin College of Business of VT have held a series of intercollegiate social activities such as exchange visits between teachers and students, course lectures, scientific research cooperation and joint doctoral training, and have also produced rich cooperation results. Driven by the leadership and teachers and students of the SEM, the two universities entered into a university-level cooperation agreement in 2018. In response to the new challenges brought by global international situation, XDU is deeply implementing the requirements of accelerating and expanding the opening up of education in the new era, actively promoting China-US cultural exchanges, and continuing to connect with VT. To further enhance the breadth and depth of cooperation, the leaders of the two universities hold a high-level meeting in November 2020, and decided to jointly apply for China-foreign cooperative education program to the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China in the first half of 2021. The two universities established its work leading teams headed by presidents and deans of the two universities respectively. The members include the leaders from competent department of international cooperation and exchange and the school members undertaking this program. They also established an application working group composed of staff from relevant departments and school to vigorously promote preparations for program application. The rigorous, meticulous and efficient all-weather work was eventually rewarded as the program was finally approved.
This program is based on the “3 + 1” double registration and double degree mode, all lectures in which will be taught in English. It is the first exploration of comprehensively cultivating international talents in China in combination with big data, management, innovation and entrepreneurship. In response to this application, SEM and Pamplin organized experts and scholars to discuss and study curriculum programs for many times, and determined the goal of talent training, scientifically matched and innovatively designed the curriculum system, and committed to cultivating international talents through holistic education.
In order to ensure the operation quality of this program, leaders of SEM made plans early with great foresight, and strive for financial support from various parties to build an international faculty team. For example, the school dispatched a faculty team to Xi’an Jiaotong-liverpool University for training, and invited University of South Florida to hold special training on cooperative education program and international competency training forum for teachers of the school to enhance their international level. While increasing the frequency of regular international exchange programs, the school also pays attention to the development of international programs and the optimization of platform space. At present, the school is opening up a characteristic research space for international exchange students and striving to create a new model of international cooperation.
As an important carrier of education opening to the outside world, the successful approval for this cooperative education program is of great significance for cultivating new and international high-level talents of liberal arts and deepening the introduction of high-quality international educational resources. The approval of this program plays an important demonstration and leading role in improving the internationalization level and student cultivation quality of the school, as well as the long-term and high-quality development of discipline construction.
This program has been successfully approved. After a short celebration, teachers and students of the SEM of XDU will move on and spare no pains to run this program well with the spirit of Long March and build a good reputation for the program.
About our program partner:
Virginia Tech (VT), the top public research university in the United States, was founded in 1872. Its main campus is in Blackburg. VT offers 280 undergraduate and graduate degree programs, with 34,000 students at school and 250,000 alumni. In 2022, VT ranked 75th on the ranking of U.S. News in the United States, 30th among public universities and 247th among world universities.
Pamplin College of Business, founded in 1961, has more than 5,000 students at college and has passed AACSB certification. It ranks among the top in the United States with strong teacher resources. Pamplin College of Business focuses on promoting business development and innovation through technology and analysis, and cultivating interdisciplinary business leaders and elites. As it attaches great importance to innovation and entrepreneurship education, the college offers a number of innovation and entrepreneurship courses, runs the university’s innovation and entrepreneurship center, and undertakes various projects with high degree of participation. On the ranking of U.S. News & World Report in 2022, it ranks 41st in terms of undergraduate major of American colleges of business, 19th in terms of information system management major, and 31st in terms of computer science major.
VT had a wonderful report for the program approval on its website, please check the link for more details: https://vtx.vt.edu/articles/2021/10/pamplin-vt-xdu.html
