In the afternoon of March 24, the meeting for exchanging views on international student education of School of Electronic Information and Communications was held at the school meeting room. Leaders from School of International Education, including Ma Rong, Liu Junhua, Gao Xiang and He Gang, and leaders from School of Electronic Information and Communications (EIC), including Zheng Xiaojian, Qiu Caiming, Cheng Wenqing and Ge Xiaohu, attended the meeting. In the meeting, leaders from the two schools exchanged views on how to further improve the quality of the international student education of EIC based on the achievements already made by the school.

Ma Rong, Chair of the Party Committee of School of International Education, first gave recognition to the achievements made by EIC. He emphasized that EIC should give full play to its advantages to attract more high-quality international students, and give careful thoughts to a series of issues, such as the construction of Engineering Education Base for International Students, and formulate corresponding plans.

Cheng Wenqing, Deputy Dean of EIC, first briefly introduced the construction history of the Macro Engineering Education Base. She pointed out that the construction of the base is in line with the trend of domestic undergraduate education, which is solving complex engineering problems, and the integration of cultivation programs is essential to the construction of the base. She stressed that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, online education and the combination of online and offline education will become important teaching methods in the future, and the practice of experiments will face great challenges. To resolve these problems, a series of measures were adopted by EIC, such as pocket labs, virtual experiments and remote experiments. She also suggested that the training system for international students should be transformed so as to improve the quality of international education.

Ge Xiaohu, Deputy Dean of EIC, first gave a presentation on the international student education and international cooperation and exchange of EIC from several aspects, including the achievements made by EIC in international education and international academic cooperation, the overall situation of the admission, cultivation as well as the graduation of international students in recent years. He emphasized that in the future, EIC will invest high-quality resources in the international education to further develop it as a highlight of the school. Moreover, he proposed that to better assure the quality of international education, the training system for international students should be fully innovated.

Liu Junhua, Dean of School of International Education, highly praised the efforts made by EIC in the international student education. He said that EIC has laid a solid  foundation for its international education and sets an example for other schools in Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST). In the post-pandemic era, EIC should make preparations and formulate plans in advance to face the challenges and crises brought by the pandemic to the international education. He emphasized that international education should serve national strategies, serve the “Double First-Class” construction of HUST, and serve the development of EIC. He pointed out that quality is the lifeline of international education. To assure the quality of international education, four parts should be attached great importance to, namely admission, cultivation, administration of and service for international students. Moreover, only when the quality of cultivation, administration and service is improved can the school attract more high-quality international students.

Qiu Caiming, Dean of EIC, stressed in the meeting that international student education should be planed as a whole and make it serve the needs of China. EIC will innovate its cultivation mode of international education, invest the best resources and allocate excellent teachers to promote the development of international education. He also mentioned that nowadays, the Ministry of Education asks universities to adopt similar standards for all students, both international and Chinese students. Therefore, in order to comply with the requirements of the Ministry of Education, the mechanism of pre-defense should be established to improve the quality of international education.

In the meeting, they also exchanged views on the length of schooling of the international student class sponsored by the Ministry of Commerce. Liu Junhua proposed that on the premise that the education quality is assured, a flexible and scientific training mode that not only meets the requirements but also suitable for the reality should be explored, while Qiu Caiming provided suggestions in terms of the arrangement of classes.

Zheng Xiaojian, Chair of the Party Committee of EIC, first expressed gratitude to the leaders from School of International Education for providing guidance and suggestions for the international education of EIC. He emphasized that corresponding measures will be formulated and adopted to address the issues put forward in the meeting so as to develop the international education of EIC to a new level.