Dr. Greg Emery, Vice President of International Affairs, visited Tsinghua University (Beijing, China) from March 10 – 18, 2016.
Tsinghua University was established in 1911. Since its inception, the University has greatly valued the interaction between Chinese and Western cultures, the sciences and humanities, the ancient and modern. The educational philosophy of Tsinghua is to “train students with integrity.” Tsinghua has graduated over 120,000 students. With the motto of “Self-Discipline and Social Commitment,” and the spirit of “Actions Speak Louder than Words,” Tsinghua University is dedicated to the well-being of Chinese society and to world development.
At Tsinghua University, Vice President Emery attended a seminar entitled, “Senior Seminar on Engineering Education and Management for Developing Countries.” The main focus of the seminar was higher education policy and strategy in China and China’s efforts to internationalize its curriculum and educational initiatives. There was an emphasis on S.T.E.M. (and S.T.E.A.M.) educational initiatives and on the growing importance of developing vocational education.
Dr. Emery’s participation in the seminar was sponsored by the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the Kingdom of Cambodia and the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Ministry of Education, Tsinghua University. Other seminar participants came from Africa, Europe, Asia (South, Southeast, East), and North America.
Each day of the seminar was divided into two or three sessions (morning, afternoon, and some evenings). Specific seminars focused on Tsinghua University itself, including briefings on its past, present,
and future. TU’s Internationalization Strategy was discussed, which focuses on the relationship (and duty) of higher education institutions to promote and practice sustainability, and participate in poverty al-leviation and human capacity development. Essentially the strategy boils down to integrating applied ethics into their business model. Sessions focused on adapting higher education management in an ever-globalizing world, and assessment & quality assurance. Discussions on the relevance and practicalities of growing vocational training programs at a university level were fruitful, and determined to be essential to human capacity development.
Other seminars included the role of women in international higher education, especially in S.T.E.M. and S.T.E.A.M. disciplines, and two full days on developing and delivering Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) courses.
In addition to attending the seminars and lectures, Vice President Emery made calls on other centers and institutes at TU. For example, he visited TU’s School of Public Policy & Management and TU’s “iCenter” (a type of “innovation, entrepreneurship and creativity” incubator). During his time there, he also met with the senior management of TU’s School of Continuing Education, the Office of International Affairs, and the Department of Philosophy (applied ethics division).
