Here, the graduate students first rotate around different laboratories, then choose a supervisor they found most in tune with.

Here, we use the same economics textbooks as the best economics departments in the U.S do.

Here, we have one of the eight pilot sites chosen by the United Nations.

For a university, internationalizing school running is not solely about ushering in and sending off, ultimately it should fall on talent training. Today, we will introduce to you how Xiamen University managed to lay the foundation for its students to reach out to the world.

Student internationalization

They should be trained to master several skills, just like Zhang Wuji.

The rotation system means that graduate students won’t be assigned a supervisor immediately after they enter school, instead they can rotate around three different laboratories in the first 3 months to study different research areas and experience different teaching styles. The purpose of doing so is to allow the students to find their true interests and supervisors they want to study with.

For some people, the Xiamen University Graduate School pretends to be located in New York to some extent, for example, all signboards in the office are written both in Chinese and English, news about graduate education posted on the website should be translated into English too. Certainly, there are more advanced things-- in the office of Tao Tao, executive dean of graduate school, hangs several frames with his English theses in them, which have been published on International Journal of cell biology.

The 51-year-old Tao Tao once studied in Japan, and then he went to America for doctoral study .After finishing his postdoctoral research in Canada, he returned home. Now, Mr. Tao Tao is also an editorial board member of a top International Journal of cell biology. He says that if you return home after you studied abroad, you will have a better understanding of student training. He explained to us his standards of university internationalization in popular language. One of them is to train students in international perspective, thus enabling them to participate in international cutting-edge researches. Therefore, the training standards should be international.

The graduate training program of Xiamen University now more and more uses international standards for reference. For instance, some colleges in Xiamen University adopted the rotation system popular among North American universities. From the perspective of Xiamen University, the goal of graduate education is to explore their potentials and help students with research talent achieve their best.

The College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering is one of the pilots to implement the rotation system. Professor Zheng Xiaofeng thinks that by implementing the system, we can eventually train students to become Zhang Wuji, the hero of one of Jing Yong’s Kung Fu novels, who has mastered four greatest martial skills. By making graduate students the major focus and allowing them to fully explore their potentials; they will be the main force of innovation-driven development.

Professor Zheng also hopes to explore the talent training system of supervisor group, in other words, students will have several supervisors from different backgrounds, with whom they can learn different skills. In the end, students will master several unique skills.

Certainly, the substantial talent training system of supervisor group is still in its infancy, facing challenges from traditional opinions. However, professor Zheng believes that given some time, we will figure out the graduate training system that meets the need of national innovation.

Curricula Internationalization

With the opening of courses taught in English, foreign students flooded in to study in Xiamen University

There are five departments in the School of Economics, each department has an international pilot class in which courses are delivered entirely in English. In the Wang Yanan Institute for Studies in Economics (WISE), courses in all classes are delivered in English, making it a hot spot for overseas students. However, the WISE adopted quota limits as too many exchange students want to study in it, in other words, with limited places for foreign students in each class, they have to apply more than half a year earlier.

Speaking of internationalizing school running, many people only care about how many students have been sent abroad, which surely is an indicator. But the WISE goes one step further to attract foreign students to study Economics in Xiamen University.

In the process of internationalizing school running in Xiamen University, the WISE is a landmark. In 2005, Professor Hong Yongmiao, tenured professor of Cornell University, went back to Xiamen University after he had spent nearly 20 years abroad. When setting up the WISE, he said it should be geared to international standards. Ge Jiashu, first dean of the School of Economics, Xiamen University, made an exemption to accept Hong Yongmiao as a postgraduate student after he graduated from the Department of Physics. Since then, the child of a rural family in Xiang’an district began his life as an international famous econometrician.

Professor Hong Yongmiao suggested the WISE be an independent school and carry out experiment independently. He said: “It is not that I have some discontents, but that I know how hard it is to reform within China’s institutional framework.”

It now seems that being the pilot of internationalization of Xiamen University has brought about some favorable policies for the WISE. For instance, it can pay higher salaries to the returnees it recruited to ensure hiring top-class talents. Professor Hong decisively abandoned the common practice of using textbooks written by the teachers, instead, all professional courses use textbooks used in North American universities, which means they use the same textbooks as the best Economics departments in the America do.

Through the efforts of the WISE, Xiamen University has managed to bring its old brand School of Economics back to the track of internationalization. Now, professor Hong is both the dean of the School of Economics and the WISE. In his opinion, the so-called internationalization means that on one hand, you should know the out world; on the other hand, you should let the out world understand China and attract foreign students to study in China.

However, in order to attract foreign students to study in Xiamen University, the courses should be delivered entirely in English. Only when they can fully understand the courses, will they come to study in here. In 2011, the WISE and the School of Economics jointly ran an international pilot class, selecting students from freshman in the School of Economics. Apart from public courses and physical education classes, all professional courses are delivered entirely in English.

School- running internationalization

Be chosen by the United Nations as the only pilot university in East Asian area.

IQA amounts to the international version of undergraduate teaching evaluation system. Through the practices of pilot universities, the evaluation system is set up, making clear what is the goal of higher education and how to regulate it. Then, other universities can follow suit. In that case, the pilot university should be an example in undergraduate teaching quality assurance.

Recently, the most frequently mentioned term in Xiamen University is IQA, short for Internal Quality Assurance. It is implemented by the United Nations, and Xiamen University is the only selected university in East Asia.

Mr. Ji Guojun, director of Xiamen University Academic Affairs Office, said that as hierarchy and differentiations among higher education become more and more obvious, internal quality assurance has gained importance. That’s where IQA emerges-- United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization select some universities from every continent and ask them to learn from excellent school running examples and figure out outstanding principles. Ultimately, these principles should be promoted to universities in developing countries to increase their higher education quality.

After competitive oral defense with other domestic universities, Xiamen University got selected in the programme, along with other 7 demonstration universities in Germany, Austria, South Africa, Chile and other countries.

Why is Xiamen University eligible for the programme? There are two reasons. First, since Xiamen University passed the undergraduate teaching evaluation of the Ministry of Education with excellent results, it has carried out self-evaluation every year. Second, Mr. Wu Daguang, vice president of Xiamen University and an expert in higher education, made great contribution when competing with other universities as he speaks fluent English.

The true value of IQA lies in its practical projects. After IQA comes up with school running standards, pilot universities should do as required, if they can’t, an explanation is essential. Mr. Ji gave an example to further explain it. IQA set up rules about handing in homework. If teacher said it should be handed in in the afternoon, then students must abide by the schedule. If they don’t, they will fail the exam or get 60 grades at best. It is through a series of strict rules that the quality of university education is guaranteed.

In implementing IQA, the education quality of Xiamen University has increased as well. Mr. Ji said, when experts of UNESCO was visiting Xiamen University, they questioned that with fixed classrooms where teachers and students both stayed still, how can you achieve interactive teaching? Therefore, Xiamen University plans to establish intelligent classroom to push teachers to change their teaching styles.

His overseas studying experience has made him a supporter of school running internationalization. He has always been dreaming about bringing back his experience gained in America, that is if teacher assigns homework of reading 50 pages, then students should read more than 50 pages.

Ji Guojun said that after joining in the IQA system, Xiamen University will try to integrate itself into it as soon as possible, and absorb useful foreign experience.

Key words

Curriculum

The new undergraduate teaching plan adopted the benchmark of “5+5”, that is when designing curricula for every profession, we should refer to curricula in five foreign top-class universities and in five domestic top-class universities.

We have set up international classes in which all courses are delivered in English in department of Finance、Economics、Accounting and so on.

The graduate curricula construction in Xiamen University follows the principle of “three top-classes”, that is setting up top-class curricula, recruiting top-class teachers, using top-class textbooks.

Sending off

Xiamen University has signed practical cooperation agreements with over 250 universities from both home and abroad. Over the last two years, nearly 300 undergraduate students successfully applied to China Scholarship Council for fully funded opportunities to go abroad. What’s more, each year, Xiamen University takes out over 5 million yuan to fund more than 1400 undergraduate students for overseas studying and visiting study.

As for graduate students, Xiamen University takes out over 2 million yuan each year to support more than 150 doctoral students to attend overseas meetings or visiting study (excluding those who get national financial aids).