Overseas: Sino-British educational cooperation is booming, and joint vocational education has become a bright spot

on March 1, 212, liuxue86.com reported.

At the end of 211, China's Minister of Education Yuan Guiren signed the Sino-British Education Partnership Action Plan with British Education Secretary Goff during his visit to Britain. Around this time, the news of "twinning" and "marriage" between Chinese and British universities has been frequent: Chengdu University of Technology and EdgeHillUniversity began to prepare for the joint project of tourism management; Guangdong University of Foreign Studies and Lancaster University signed a cooperation agreement; The University of Sheffield announced the establishment of a new undergraduate business administration major in the Sino-British International College of the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology. For a time, Sino-British educational cooperation was particularly frequent and warm.

who will benefit from cooperative education?

According to UK-Chinese Times, there are many forms of Sino-British cooperation in running schools, which can be roughly divided into two types: Sino-British cooperation in running schools, that is, the strength of two institutions is combined to form a new school, such as Xi 'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University in Suzhou, China, which is jointly organized by Liverpool University and Xi 'an Jiaotong University. Sino-British cooperation in running schools means that the two universities cooperate to train students in some professional projects, but no new educational institutions are formed. For example, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Northumbria University in the UK have set up "3+1" dual-degree programs in many majors (that is, undergraduate students study in China for three years, and then study in the UK for one year in the fourth year, and after graduation, they can get degrees from both Chinese and British universities).

In terms of Sino-foreign cooperation in running schools, the cooperation between Britain and China is at the forefront. In 23, the University of Nottingham and Zhejiang Wan Li Education Group established the University of Nottingham Ningbo Branch in China, so that China students can enjoy British higher education without going abroad.

Professor Yao Shujie is the dean of the School of Contemporary China Studies at the University of Nottingham. He told UK-Chinese Times that as far as he knows, under the background of British education industrialization, British universities and China, which have a high demand for studying abroad, cooperate to run schools, on the one hand, in order to improve their international reputation and influence, on the other hand, they can also create employment opportunities for British natives. At the same time, for families with limited financial capacity, it is more economical to let their children receive advanced education from foreign universities at home than to study abroad.

in March 211, nyu shanghai, the achievement of Sino-US cooperation in running schools, laid the foundation stone in Lujiazui, Shanghai. Yu Lizhong, president of the school, believes that Sino-foreign cooperation in running schools can enable China to absorb foreign high-quality educational resources and promote the educational reform in China. Nationalunion? Zhang Yi, an international student official ofStudent,NUS), also holds the same view. She thinks that cooperative education is a stimulus for China universities to learn from foreign universities and improve their education level. In the long run, the purpose of China's active participation in cooperative education is to gather global talents like the United States.

does running a school change money?

However, with the increasing number and forms of Sino-foreign joint education in recent years, chaos has also appeared: some non-governmental cooperative education institutions illegally enroll students without the qualification certification of the Ministry of Education, which leads to the "water-filling" of teaching quality and academic qualifications; Some foreign low-level universities go to China to launch cooperation projects indiscriminately and issue diplomas with low gold content indiscriminately, which makes China students and parents pay time and money, but get little. These chaos have aroused the concern of students and parents. Xiong Bingqi, an educational scholar, even appealed to the public to be alert to the gray area of cooperative education and prevent foreign universities from circling the mainland for money.

Professor Yao Shujie said that, as far as he knows, the University of Nottingham set up its Ningbo branch in China for the purpose of not making money, and in fact, it didn't make any money. The employment rate of students in this school reached 1% within 6 months after graduation, and 7% of the graduates chose to continue their studies and 3% chose to work.

Zhang Wei believes that most students who come to the UK through the "3+1" or "2+2" programs choose to stay in the UK for further study, which actually provides more students for British universities. However, she doesn't think that the purpose of cooperative education in British universities is to make money. She said: "Now universities all over the world are using various policies to attract international students and choose the best people to work for their own scientific research projects. This is a talent strategy." However, she also regretted that due to the current tight immigration policy of the government, the effect of attracting talents from all over the world in Britain may be greatly reduced.

Yoshikazu Katō, a popular columnist and well-known Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools, told UK-Chinese Times: "The teaching quality of some projects can't be guaranteed, or students are recruited by informal means to make up for the financial problems. I have also heard a lot. In this regard, first of all, regulators and the media should supervise and criticize; In addition, if these projects are indeed low-level and low-quality, they will be eliminated sooner or later, which is a process. However, the trend of Sino-foreign joint education should not be stopped. "

Generally speaking, Yoshikazu Katō supports the cooperation between Chinese and foreign universities. He said: "In the early days of reform and opening up, young people at that time did not have the choice to go abroad. Now this cooperation has given young people in China more choices and freedom ... The biggest advantage of Sino-foreign cooperation in running schools is that it has enabled China people and foreigners to have more exchanges and provided a bridge for mutual understanding and communication."

study for X+X, or apply for studying abroad by yourself?

Zhang Wenxian, who just graduated this year, came to the UK to study for the fourth year through the 3+1 dual-degree program of Guangdong Institute of Petrochemical Technology and Northampton University. He thinks this project is very good, "to give young people the opportunity to experience abroad and broaden their horizons".

CEOPhilipHao of Uvic told UK-Chinese Times that "2+2" students spend one year more time studying in Britain than "3+1" students, and "2+2" students show higher overall quality under the British education evaluation system, so in recent years, "2+2" double-degree students from China are more favored by British schools.

In this regard, Zhang Wei of NUS believes that domestic schools should give more training on British educational concepts and spoken English before students go abroad, regardless of the "2+2" or "3+1" projects. "It is unrealistic to assume that students can immediately adapt to British education and integrate into the local culture when they come to the UK," Zhang Wei warned.

PhilipHao also revealed that compared with cooperative education programs, it is more popular for China students to study abroad directly for undergraduate or master's degree. Wang Xiaobao, a senior majoring in administration in Tianjin University, refused the recommendation of the university to recommend her to study in the postgraduate cooperation program between our university and foreign universities, on the grounds that the professional choices provided by the cooperative foreign universities were not ideal, and the tuition fees were not much lower. If you want to go abroad for further study, you might as well apply directly to an ideal university.

Mr. Zhang, a student's parent, said that his daughter is currently a freshman in Hubei, and he wants her to study in Britain after graduation. He said: "I don't intend to let her participate in those cooperation projects in China. If we apply ourselves, we can choose more majors and schools, and there is no shortage of money at home."

exchange program is another popular way of educational cooperation. Li Kewen, a graduate student of Fudan University, went to the University of East Finland for an exchange for half a year during his graduate studies. Although she is an economics student, she has listened to different professional subjects and exchanged studies with local students in those six months, so she has gained a lot in these six months.

However, Li Xiaojun, who has worked in the School of Architecture of Cardiff University for more than a year, is not optimistic about the exchange program. She told reporters that from her contact with the exchange students around her, because the British "receiving" institutions have loose management of exchange students, a considerable number of students are in the state of "herding sheep" and have not concentrated on their studies. Only some students with strong self-discipline will really benefit.

Would you like to go abroad to study in a foreign vocational school?

It is worth noting that the China municipal government has discovered the lack of vocational education in China's education system. In the education cooperation agreement reached between China and Britain at the end of 211, in addition to the cooperation between universities, the cooperation between Chinese and British higher vocational colleges has also been included in the scope of education cooperation. At the Sino-British University Cooperation Summit Forum last October, Yuan Guiren pointed out: "Now China's economy is trying to get rid of its dependence on cheap labor, and we need to rethink the development of vocational education. For China, the British apprenticeship education is a successful model worth learning. "

In December 211, the Memorandum of Understanding on Sino-British Vocational Education Cooperation was implemented at the level of the two governments. Around this time, the Alliance of Chongqing Vocational College in Wales was established, and Wales and Chongqing will cooperate to train technical talents in language training, tourism, management, art design, new energy, creative industries and other courses. Almost at the same time, Milton Keynes College, a higher vocational college in England, also reached a cooperation intention with Nanjing Kindergarten Teachers' College in preschool education, tourism and art design, and prepared to train full-time talents.

Indeed, according to the "China Talent Survey Report" of China Institute of Personnel Science, there is a shortage of high-skilled talents in China at present, and there has been a fault in senior technicians. Professor Yao Shujie pointed out that the reasons for this phenomenon are as follows: firstly, since the enrollment expansion of colleges and universities in China in 1999, it has become easier to go to college, and the number of students in vocational colleges has decreased sharply; Second, the upgrading of domestic colleges has become a trend, with junior colleges upgraded to undergraduate courses and two colleges upgraded to one, resulting in a decrease in the number of vocational colleges; Third, China parents' long-standing concept of attaching importance to academic qualifications and neglecting technology has influenced their children not to choose full-time colleges after middle school, but to go to college.

Zhang Qiu is very excited about the cooperation between China and Britain in vocational education. She thought the decision was "far-sighted". "Now is the demand market. There are too many domestic college students in China, and the goal is not strong. Unlike many vocational colleges in Britain, not only children who graduated from high school can go to it, but also vocational schools for adults to choose from. In Britain, vocational training is lifelong. " Sino-British vocational education cooperation "can improve China's competitiveness", so she is very optimistic about the potential of this piece.

However, due to the long-standing concept of attaching importance to academic qualifications over technology in China society, it may be difficult for parents to send their children abroad to study specialized skills instead of degree education in the short term. PhilipHao said that his Uvic study abroad agency has never been to an application case to study in a higher vocational college in the UK. In this regard, Zhang Wei believes that this requires government support.

In addition to the cooperation between universities, some British universities have started to provide training courses for China internship students in the UK to help them integrate into the local area. Wu Yiyong, a senior official of the International Department of Brunel University, told UK-Chinese Times that since 28, the university has been supporting the "Sino-British University Student Work Internship Program" launched by Britain and China, preparing two-week training for newly arrived internship students in China to help them understand the cultural differences between China and the West, British culture, life and business knowledge. Coventry University and Middlesex University also offer similar courses. These undoubtedly paved the way for the employability of China university students in the global context.

On February 18th, Professor Xue Lan, Dean of Tsinghua University Public Management, said at the LSE China Development Forum: "The education reform in China has started, and there have been minor changes in many places. The change of the whole system is bigger than everyone thinks. " The cooperation between China and Britain in vocational education may be a reflection of the gradual reform of the education system by the state. "Sino-British education cooperation is booming, and vocational education is a bright spot-Chinese-European news" Source: (www.liuxue86.com)