On May 19th, the 2018 Education Internationalization Seminar was held at the International Business College of South China Normal University. The seminar was hosted by South China Normal University, undertaken by the International Business College, and co-organized by China Education International Exchange Association. The theme of this seminar was “Design, Implementation and Evaluation of the Internationalization of Higher Education”, aiming to build an exchange platform, share the cutting-edge research results of the internationalization of education, discuss the development trends and trends of the internationalization of education, and promote the quality of education and teaching system construction, and promote the development of internationalization in depth and breadth.

This seminar invited more than 10 well-known experts and scholars in the field of higher education internationalization from the United States, Canada, Britain and China. Professor Wu Jian, Vice President of South China Normal University, Li Jinjun, Director of the Exchange and Cooperation Division of the Guangdong Provincial Department of Education, Zhai Jinming, Director of the Academic Department of the China Education International Exchange Association, and more than 30 teacher representatives from the International Business College attended the seminar. Participating experts and scholars discussed the two major topics of “New Opportunities and New Challenges in the Process of International Design and Implementation” and “International Evaluation and Quality Assurance”.

The seminar began with the host of Professor Wu Jianli, Dean of the International Business College. Zong Wa, Deputy Secretary-General of China Education International Exchange Association delivered a speech. This seminar used a combination of keynote reports and topic discussions. In the keynote report session, Mr. Giorgio Marinoni, International University Association (IAU) Higher Education Internationalization Policy and Project Manager, shared the latest data of the Fourth Global Survey Report on Higher Education Internationalization of the International Association of Universities (IAU), revealing new developments in the internationalization of higher education which is domestic internationalization and curriculum internationalization. Zongwa, Deputy Secretary-General of China Education International Exchange Association, shared the “National Survey Report on the Internationalization of Higher Education”, showing the indicator system, model, content of the internationalization survey of China’s higher education and some characteristics of the international development of China’s higher education; Professor Liu Baocun, Chair of the  Society of Asian Education Comparison of Beijing Normal University, analyzed the importance and urgency of talent training, existing problems and countermeasures in China’s international organizations in the context of the “Belt and Road” initiative; Professor Gilles Breton of the University of Ottawa, Canada used “Universities as Participants of Globalization: Thinking of a Proposition” as the topic, introduced three modes of university participation in globalization , namely social justice, economic development and political interests; Professor Hans de Wit, Director of the International Higher Education Research Center of Boston College, USA analyzed the current driving forces and challenges of the internationalization of higher education in terms of politics, economics, and competition among universities, and pointed out the importance of collaboration and cooperation in the internationalization of higher education; Professor Barbara Fennell-Clark from the University of Aberdeen discussed the obstacles to the development of international education programs and sustainable development from intangible factors such as economic, market, and cultural differences; Professor Lu Xiaozhong, Dean of the School of Education Science of South China Normal University and a Yangtze River scholar, analyzed the history and current situation of the development of higher education cooperation in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the difficulties, and proposed a new idea of integrated development; Professor Gary Miron of West Michigan University in the United States and Professor Wu Jianli, Dean of the International Business College of South China Normal University, demonstrated the evaluation framework and evaluation indicators for the internationalization of the International Business College, based on the past years’ data collected through student interviews, questionnaire surveys and lectures, which has scientifically analyzed and evaluated the internationalization level of International Business College, and provide a basis for advancing the international development of the college level and improving the quality of education and teaching; Director of the International Office of China Agricultural University Professor Feng Weizhe shared his thought about how to create first-class management in Sino-Foreign cooperative education from the perspective of “first-class universities, first-class disciplines, and first-class higher education”. During the discussion session, the participating experts, scholars and participants put forward their views on some of the views and issues in the report, and conducted in-depth discussions on related issues. The seminar came to a successful conclusion in a concluding speech by Vice President Wu Jian of South China Normal University. Professor Wu Jian pointed out in his concluding speech that the internationalization of education was not only the development trend of higher education in the world, but also an important feature of world-class universities. South China Normal University attaches great importance to the internationalization of education, specially formulated the outline of the internationalization Development Plan of South China Normal University (2015-2020), actively cooperated with the national “Belt and Road Initiative”, and actively integrated into the cause of Guangdong education opening to the outside world. The university has implemented the internationalization strategy, adjusted the school-running pattern, improved the discipline structure, innovated the talent training model, updated the teaching content. In about 5 years, it aims at comprehensively promoting the internationalization of the concept of running school, the internationalization of teaching staff, the internationalization of personnel training, the internationalization of scientific research, and the internationalization of management level.

Internationalization is the school-running feature of the International Business College of South China Normal University. This seminar is the third annual meeting of the Internationalization of Education hosted by the International Business College. Through this conference, participants have a deeper understanding of the global and Chinese higher education internationalization development status, development trends, and obstacles in the development. They also further recognize the social responsibility and internationalization of universities in the context of globalization. The importance of talent training and quality assurance of cross-border cooperative education. In addition, this conference demonstrated for the first time domestic attempts to establish a college-level international evaluation framework and evaluation indicators, which have certain reference significance for the effective design, implementation and evaluation of higher education internationalization. The experts, scholars and participants all praised the seminar’s as in-depth, pragmatic, efficient and internationalized.

Date: 2018-05-22