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Developing a synergistic approach to engineering education: China’s national policies on university–industry educational collaboration

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Abstract

This article examines the intents and effects of China’s national policies to promote a synergistic approach to university–industry collaborative education. These policies set out to reduce the academia-industry disconnection for engineering education. Based on document analysis and interviews with various types of stakeholders, the study reveals that China has strived for a synergistic approach to education by strengthening the main-actor role of enterprises, framing a policy support system, incorporating external stakeholders in universities’ governance structures, and building a coordinated framework for a synergistic approach to education. These policies have enhanced enterprises’ motivation to participate in university education, deepened enterprises’ engagement with engineering education at course level, and created an educational innovation ecosystem. Some challenges remain such as the mismatch between course update and technological development, the mismatch between costs and return for faculty members, and difficulty in assessment of outcomes. Overwhelmingly, China has tried exploring a model conducive to the improvement of higher education quality, and the overlapping triple helix model, compared with the statist or laissez-faire patterns, has a more robust effect in galvanizing stakeholders towards their collective goal in the Chinese context.

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Notes

  1. “Double world-class” project, also translated as “double first-class” project, refers to China’s national plan to build numerous internationally top universities and disciplines by the mid-century. The plan is that for a certain number of comprehensive premium universities, they have been supported by the Ministry of Education in full swing to strive to become top institutions across the globe. These institutions are called “world-class universities.” For some other higher education institutions that are not competent enough at an aggregate level but still have strong programs and disciplines, these institutions are especially supported to develop some of their disciplines to be internationally outstanding, and are called “universities with world-class disciplines.” On September 2017, China announced 42 “world-class universities” and 95 “universities with world-class disciplines.” Overwhelmingly, institutions with a “Double world-class” label are universities in good standing in China.

  2. Although it is impossible to list all the participating company and university names in this paper due to their enormity in quantity, international readers can get access to the lists through links shown in Appendix with the help of an online translator.

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Funding

The funded was provided by the National Social Science Fund Youth Project (Grant No: CIA210268).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Higher Education, Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China

    Tengteng Zhuang & Haitao Zhou

Authors
  1. Tengteng Zhuang
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  2. Haitao Zhou
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Correspondence to Haitao Zhou.

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Appendix: documents analyzed

Appendix: documents analyzed

  1. (1)

    Opinions on Deepening Industry-education Integration by the State Council

    http://www.gov.cn/zhengce/content/2017-12/19/content_5248564.htm

  2. (2)

    On Accelerating the Development of New Engineering Education for the Cultivation of Extraordinary Engineers (Plan 2.0) by Ministry of Education, Ministry of Industry and Information, the Chinese Academy of Engineering

    http://www.moe.gov.cn/srcsite/A08/moe_742/s3860/201810/t20181017_351890.html

  3. (3)

    ‘Fudan Consensus’ of the New Engineering Education Initiative

    http://www.moe.gov.cn/s78/A08/moe_745/201702/t20170223_297122.html

  4. (4)

    ‘Tianda Action’ of the New Engineering Education Initiative

    http://www.moe.gov.cn/s78/A08/moe_745/201704/t20170412_302427.html

  5. (5)

    ‘Beijing Guide’ of the New Engineering Education Initiative

    http://news.sciencenet.cn/htmlnews/2017/6/379053.shtm

  6. (6)

    University-Industry Collaborative Education Program Notification by Ministry of Education

    http://www.moe.gov.cn/srcsite/A08/s7056/202001/t20200120_416153.html

  7. (7)

    ‘Tianda Scheme 2.0’ for New Engineering Education Initiative

    http://news.tju.edu.cn/info/1002/52034.htm

  8. (8)

    Announcement of Guidelines for Enterprise-supported Collaborative Education Projects (the first batch in 2020) by Ministry of Education

    http://www.moe.gov.cn/s78/A08/tongzhi/202010/t20201015_494734.html

  9. (9)

    Notification on Soliciting University-industry Collaborative Education Projects in 2020 by the Ministry of Education

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  10. (10)

    Notification on Soliciting University-industry Collaborative Education Projects in 2019 by the Ministry of Education

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  11. (11)

    Notification on Soliciting University-industry Collaborative Education Projects in 2018 by the Ministry of Education

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  12. (12)

    Notification on Soliciting University-industry Collaborative Education Projects in 2017 by the Ministry of Education

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    Announcement of University-industry Collaborative Education Projects (the second batch in 2019)

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  14. (14)

    Announcement of University-industry Collaborative Education Projects (first batch in 2018)

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    Announcement of University-industry Collaborative Education Projects (first batch in 2020)

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Zhuang, T., Zhou, H. Developing a synergistic approach to engineering education: China’s national policies on university–industry educational collaboration. Asia Pacific Educ. Rev. 24, 145–165 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-022-09743-y

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