2025-10-31
On October 24-25, 2025, the Fourth Engineering Education Innovation Forum and Academic Symposium on High-Quality Training of Outstanding Engineers was held at Chongqing University. The event was organized under the guidance of the Engineering Education Branch of the Chinese Society for Higher Education, hosted by the National Academy of Outstanding Engineers at Chongqing University, and co-organized by the journals Higher Engineering Education Research and Review of Science and Education Development.
The forum was co-chaired by Luo Yuanxin, executive dean of the National Academy of Outstanding Engineers at Chongqing University; Zhang Wei, executive deputy secretary-general of the Engineering Education Branch of the Chinese Society for Higher Education and professor at the China Institute for Science and Education Strategy of Zhejiang University; Song Chaosheng, executive dean of the School of Intelligent Vehicle Technology at Chongqing University; Pang Yu, director of the Graduate Training Center of the Advanced Institute (Shenzhen), University of Electronic Science and Technology of China; and Wang Jinfeng, deputy dean of the Undergraduate School of South China Agricultural University.
On October 25, parallel sessions focused on topics such as engineering knowledge graphs, industry–education integrated training for professional degree postgraduates, the cultivation of engineering undergraduates in application-oriented institutions, and demand-led mechanisms for adjusting program structures. The successful convening of the forum further deepened interaction and cooperation among China’s engineering education scholarly societies, universities and research institutes, and effectively supported the building of a high-quality engineering education system and the cultivation of outstanding engineers.
At the plenary session on October 24, experts delivered keynote speeches on topics including global trends in engineering education accreditation, building teams of outstanding engineers who can thrive in an intelligent society, deepening industry–education integration, and advancing the development of higher-order engineering competencies.
Li Zhiyi, former vice president of Dalian University of Technology, member of the Mechanical Engineering Teaching Steering Committee of the Ministry of Education, and Chair of the Conclusions Review Committee of the China Engineering Education Accreditation Association (CEEAA), delivered a report entitled “Latest Changes in the Washington Accord Graduate Attributes and Implications for China’s Engineering Education.” By analyzing the latest adjustments to the Washington Accord graduate attribute framework and comparing them with the 2024 edition of China’s accreditation graduation requirements, he argued that engineering education should be aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and that the diversity and inclusiveness of the engineering profession must be fully recognized.
Professor Zhao Yongsheng, former vice president of Yanshan University, gave a keynote speech entitled “Several Fundamental Issues in Engineering Education Program Accreditation.” He provided a detailed interpretation of the basic attributes of engineering education accreditation, approaches to observation and measurement, and methods of evaluation and assessment. He also stressed that, in the new era, greater emphasis should be placed on developing engineering students’ ability to solve complex engineering problems, and that high-level project-based courses are an important pathway for strengthening this capability.
Lu Guodong, executive deputy director of the Robotics Institute of Zhejiang University and Secretary-General of the Engineering Education Branch of the Chinese Society for Higher Education, spoke on “Stimulating the Innovative Vitality of Faculty and Students through Competitions.” He reviewed the development of teaching competitions for faculty and discipline-based contests for students, affirmed the positive role that teaching competitions play in enhancing instructors’ teaching capabilities, and further emphasized that competitions for teachers and students can serve as an important breakthrough point for promoting industry–education integration.
Wang Jin, deputy director of the Academic Affairs Office, deputy dean of the Graduate School and Director of the Teaching Operation and Service Centre at Northwestern Polytechnical University, delivered a report titled “Exploration and Practice in Cultivating Chief-Engineer-Type Talent.” He shared the university’s practical experience in building a training system for such “chief-engineer-type” talent, including nurturing a “chief-engineer education culture” characterized by being low-key and pragmatic, inclusive and open, solid in accumulation and dedicated to “forging swords for the nation.” He also described how the university has constructed a support system in terms of pathways, schemes and models as well as curricula, textbooks and practice, and concluded by exploring practical initiatives along four dimensions: strong professional foundation, robust systems thinking, emphasis on practice and readiness to shoulder responsibility.
Liu Meng, dean of the Undergraduate School of Chongqing University, gave a presentation entitled “New Challenges and Major Explorations in Engineering Education in the Era of Artificial Intelligence.” He outlined the university’s innovative practices in response to the advent of the AI era in four areas: building general-education core courses on artificial intelligence, reshaping the curriculum system, enriching teaching resources and renewing academic programs. He further proposed future directions for reform that shift evaluation criteria towards originality and industrial impact, focus training on AI collaboration strategies and ethical judgement, and strengthen core competencies such as problem insight and cross-domain transfer.
Wu Nengbiao, Party secretary and dean of the School of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Han Hong College and the School of Smart Agriculture at Southwest University, as well as an expert in teaching evaluation and teacher-education accreditation for the Ministry of Education, presented a report titled “Revision of Engineering Program Training Schemes Based on the OBE Approach and Analysis of Common Issues.” He reviewed the basic logic of outcomes-based education (OBE) and introduced Southwest University’s practice of revising its program training schemes in light of the OBE philosophy, focusing on adjustments to program objectives, curriculum systems and graduation requirements. He then discussed common challenges encountered in implementing OBE and, drawing on the university’s innovative practice, proposed corresponding countermeasures.
Fu Yong, director of the Teaching Evaluation Office and chair professor at Anhui University, an expert for both rounds of institutional audits conducted by the Ministry of Education’s Evaluation Centre and an ASIIN expert in international program accreditation in engineering education, delivered a report entitled “Three Pathways to Industry–Education Integration for Training Outstanding Engineers from the Perspective of Classified Development.” Starting from the classification of universities, he summarized diverse practice models of industry–education integration, including innovation-led models in research universities, co-construction and alignment models in application-oriented universities, and skills-matching models in vocational institutions. He concluded by clarifying the future direction of improving tiered and classified models for industry–education integrated training of outstanding engineers.
He Jianian, deputy dean of the School of Civil and Transportation Engineering at Guangdong University of Technology and member of the Guangdong Provincial Teaching Steering Committee for Civil Engineering, shared a report titled “Reconstructing Curriculum Systems and Exploring Teaching Practice Based on the OBE Philosophy in the Context of Engineering Education Accreditation.” He first reviewed the core ideas of the OBE teaching philosophy—being outcomes-oriented, student-centered, reverse-designed and demand-driven. Using the civil engineering program at Guangdong University of Technology as an example, he then described the implementation of OBE in three areas: curriculum system reconstruction, course-level teaching practice and achieved outcomes. He proposed advancing a “three-orientation” teaching philosophy that is education-centered, student-centered and demand-centered; optimizing a “three-integration” education pathway that promotes integration across disciplines, integration of industry and education, and integration of science and education; and building a “three-coordination” training model that coordinates efforts within the university, among domestic partners and with overseas collaborators.
Zhao Duo, Party secretary of the School of Integrated Circuits Science and Engineering at Southwest Jiaotong University and vice chair of the Technical Committee on Intelligent Detection and Motion Control of the Chinese Association for Artificial Intelligence, gave a keynote speech titled “Focusing on Strategic National Needs: Practice and Exploration of Science–Industry–Education Integration and University–Enterprise Co-education in Modern Industrial Colleges.” He argued that reform of higher engineering education should adhere to principles such as achieving organic integration between engineering science and engineering practice, integrating disciplinary knowledge learning with the development of professional engineering competences, providing students with a four-year “design-to-implementation” learning experience, cultivating students’ positive engagement with engineering disciplines, promoting innovative use of digital resources and technologies in teaching, and training a new generation of engineers for the era of Industry 5.0.
Guo Hui, professor at the Institute of Education Science and director of the Institute of Engineering Education at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, spoke on “Interdisciplinary Competence in Engineering: Historical Logic, International Experience and Chinese Evidence.” She reviewed the evolution of engineering education paradigms from a technology-centered to an engineering-centered orientation, pointed out that China is currently in a transitional period from a scientific paradigm to an engineering paradigm, and highlighted the importance of cultivating interdisciplinary competence in engineering during this phase. She also used empirical analysis to identify key factors influencing the development of engineering students’ interdisciplinary capabilities.
On October 25, the parallel sessions focused on such themes as engineering knowledge graphs, industry–education integrated training for professional degree postgraduates, the cultivation of engineering undergraduates in application-oriented universities, and demand-led mechanisms for program adjustment. The successful convening of the forum has comprehensively promoted in-depth interaction and collaboration among China’s engineering education academic organizations, universities and research institutes, and has effectively supported the construction of a high-quality engineering education system and the cultivation of outstanding engineers.
(Source: New Engineering Online)
