Professor Song Yonghua, Executive Vice President of Zhejiang University, Director of Zhejiang University Center for International Education Research, and Chairman of International Education Committee, Chinese Society of Educational Development Strategy (IEC) recently published an article entitled Enhancing the Quality of International Student Education in China to Advance "Double First-rate" Plan on China Education Daily. He proposes new ideas for improving the quality of international student education in China in the new era when the establishment of both world-class universities and first-class disciplines is a high priority.
The article points out that the core value and mission of world’s leading universities lie in the accountability of cultivating high-qualified talents and global leaders with national passion, international vision, and global competitiveness. Due to the general trend of the internationalization of higher education worldwide, the competition for high-quality students has become a common trend among universities worldwide. Providing high quality international student education to world’s top talents and employing the graduates have become an important national strategy. Therefore, in this context, it is important to strongly emphasize the strategic role of international student education to further improve China’s international competitiveness.
The article further stresses that in order to advance the goal of double first-class by elevating the quality of international student education, the following steps need to be taken into consideration, including "improve the status of international student education in China and contribute to the national development strategy," "innovate the concept of international student education in China and cultivate world leaders," "expand the input of educational resources to improve the quality in education," and "create advanced and systematic support system to expand service capacity." The article carries significant guiding concepts to both Chinese-foreign cooperative educational programs, as well as educational practitioners nationwide.