2025-09-21
Engineering creates the world, and education leads the future. On September 21st, the 2025 International Engineering Education Development Conference opened at the Peiyangyuan Campus of Tianjin University. Guests including Zhang Ling, Vice Mayor of Tianjin, Zhou Tianhua, Director-General of the Higher Education Department of the Ministry of Education, Elizabeth Taylor, President of the International Engineering Alliance, and Zaw Min Aung, Chair of the WFEO Committee on Engineering Education, joined nearly 1,000 participants from more than 90 universities on five continents, as well as representatives from industry, professional associations and learned societies. Together they gathered in Tianjin to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing engineering education and to jointly map out a new blueprint for its global development. The opening ceremony was chaired by Chai Liyuan, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, President of Tianjin University and head of the national working group on emerging engineering education.
On behalf of the Tianjin Municipal People’s Government, Zhang Ling extended a warm welcome to all participants. She noted that Tianjin has faithfully implemented the central leadership’s strategic blueprint for integrated development of education, science and technology, and talent. Since the launch of Tianjin University’s “TianDa Action” and the national “Excellence and Top Talent” 2.0 initiative, the city has continued to deepen reform of engineering education, working to build a “Tianjin model” with Chinese characteristics that radiates its influence nationwide. The aim is to comprehensively enhance the quality of engineering talent cultivation and the capacity of science and technology to serve innovation, so as to supply more high-caliber, innovative and well-rounded professionals for national and regional development. Looking ahead, Tianjin will continue to improve its innovation ecosystem, build broad platforms and support more talents in realizing their potential and value.
In his remarks, Zhou Tianhua outlined the philosophy and practice of emerging engineering disciplines in China. He proposed that, on the basis of “new engineering programs, new requirements for engineering disciplines and renewed innovation through interdisciplinary integration”, efforts should adhere to four principles: serving national strategies, prioritizing competences and qualities, leveraging artificial intelligence, and strengthening international exchange and mutual learning. He called for accelerating the construction of “Emerging Engineering 2.0” to make engineering education better aligned with labor-market needs, more integrated in terms of key elements, more innovative in its models, smarter in its forms, more open in its structure and more excellent in quality.
Yang Xianjin, Party Secretary of Tianjin University, welcomed all guests and delegates to the 2025 International Engineering Education Development Conference on behalf of the university. He noted that as a key advocate, leader and practitioner of emerging engineering education in China, Tianjin University has embraced the philosophy of “from the future to the future”, taking an early and forward-looking view of the new qualities that future-oriented talents will need and accurately grasping emerging demands on disciplines and programs. The university has built platforms for international exchange and cooperation among engineering faculty members. Yang expressed the hope that this conference would help forge new consensus on engineering education, open up new pathways for its development and create a shared vision for the future of global engineering education.
During the welcome addresses, Li Jiajun, Vice President of the Chinese Society for Higher Education and former Party Secretary of Tianjin University, underlined that engineering science and technology, as a core engine powering innovation, is becoming ever more important, and that engineering education—as the cradle of future engineers—bears an unprecedented historical mission. He expressed the hope that this conference would serve as an opportunity to deepen pragmatic cooperation with international organizations and multilateral mechanisms. Gong Ke, former President of WFEO, stressed that engineering education must remain anchored in the fundamental task of fostering virtue through education, with a focus on cultivating students’ engineering competences and ethical awareness. At the same time, it should evolve in line with the needs of the times, advancing towards a synergistic transformation that combines digitalization and greening. Facing shared global challenges, he argued, all countries need to strengthen engineers’ awareness of sustainable development, starting with teachers, and comprehensively enhance engineers’ overall qualities. Ding Yangbing, Deputy Director-General of the Second Bureau of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, called on all parties to uphold openness and collaboration, integrated innovation and cultural leadership, and to work together to build an engineering education community, reshape talent-training paradigms and guide future engineers to develop sound values, ethics and a strong sense of responsibility.
A highlight of the conference was the inauguration of two new international centers: the International Excellence in Engineering Talent Development Centre and the International Emerging Engineering Faculty Development Centre. The two centers are jointly established by more than ten Chinese and international universities and enterprises, including Beihang University, Tianjin University, Harbin Institute of Technology, Southeast University and Huazhong University of Science and Technology. Covering 37 frontier fields such as aerospace technology, artificial intelligence, energy and power, and the industrial internet, they aim to create a new pattern of “joint university–enterprise platforms at home and abroad and shared communities of practice for faculty development”.
Inauguration ceremony of the International Excellence in Engineering Talent Development Centre
Inauguration ceremony of the International Emerging Engineering Faculty Development Centre
At the conference, Tianjin University President Chai Liyuan and Professor Wendy Larner, President of Cardiff University in the United Kingdom, jointly released an important outcome: the International Engineering Education Development Report. The report systematically traces the evolution and underlying rules of international engineering education, brings together the current situations and experiences of representative countries in Asia, Oceania, Africa, Europe and the Americas, and provides theoretical references and practical pathways for countries seeking to deepen engineering education reform and enhance the quality of engineering talent cultivation.
Release of the International Engineering Education Development Report
A team from Tongji University carried out an on-site demonstration of a “Future Classroom”, vividly recreating an intelligent teaching environment. The demonstration showcased a new engineering education teaching model that is student-centered, technology-enabled and interdisciplinary, attracting wide attention and discussion among participants.
“Future Classroom” teaching demonstration
During the keynote session, Elizabeth Taylor, President of the International Engineering Alliance; Zaw Min Aung, Chair of the WFEO Committee on Engineering Education; Chai Liyuan, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, President of Tianjin University and head of the national working group on emerging engineering education; Wendy Larner, President of Cardiff University; Zheng Qinghua, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and Party Secretary of Tongji University; Richard A. Williams, Principal and Vice-Chancellor of Heriot-Watt University; Wang Shuxin, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and President of Chongqing University; Andrew Jones, Vice-Chancellor and President of Brunel University London; Ahmadou Aly Mbaye, Honorary President of Cheikh Anta Diop University of Dakar in Senegal; Nie Zuoren, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and President of Beijing University of Technology; and Sang-Gue Park, President of Chung-Ang University in the Republic of Korea, delivered keynote speeches on topics such as the digitalization and internationalization of engineering education and the deep integration of industry and education.
Elizabeth Taylor, President of the International Engineering Alliance, delivering a keynote speech
The roundtable discussion was chaired by Gu Peihua, academician of the Canadian Academy of Engineering and Director of the Emerging Engineering Education Centre at Tianjin University. Representatives from universities and enterprises—including the University of Engineering and Technology of Colombia, Yokohama National University in Japan, Brunel University London and Cardiff University in the United Kingdom, the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina, Curtin University in Australia, Kyushu University in Japan, Zhongjin Lingnan Non-ferrous Metals Co., Ltd. and China Resource Recycling Group Co., Ltd.—engaged in dialogue on global collaborative governance of engineering education and innovation in talent-training models.
Roundtable Discussion
Alongside the main conference, a “University–Enterprise Cooperation Platforms and Strategic Partners” plaque-awarding ceremony and five parallel sessions were held. These focused on topics such as “Governance and Transformation of International Engineering Education in the Era of Digital and Intelligent Technologies”, “Building an Engineering Education Ecosystem under Deep Industry–Education Integration” and “Practice of Sino–Foreign Cooperative Education”, advancing theoretical discussion and practical exploration in tandem.
In addition, an “International Exhibition of Achievements in Emerging Engineering Education” ran from 20 to 26 September, showcasing outstanding achievements by universities at home and abroad in engineering education innovation, curriculum development and technology R&D.
International Exhibition of Achievements in Emerging Engineering Education
It is reported that the International Alliance of Emerging Engineering Education was established in 2019, with Tianjin University serving as its first rotating chair and secretariat institution. This conference is one of the Alliance’s flagship events. It aims to focus on engineering challenges of common concern to humanity, build a cooperation network connecting government, universities, enterprises and international organizations, bridge the education and industrial communities, effectively match technological needs with talent needs, continuously expand the international influence of emerging engineering education and enhance the global capacity to cultivate and attract engineering talent.
(Source: Tianjin University News)
