In order to gain insights into students participation in international exchange projects, on September 25, the International Affairs Division, the Teaching Affairs Division and the Student Affairs Division of the Faculty of Education organized 12 representatives of undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate students from Department of Education Science, Department of Educational Administration, Department of Arts Education, Department of Education & Rehabilitation, Department of Educational Information Technology, Department of Special Education, and Institute of International and Comparative Education, to have a symposium on student international exchange projects.
At the meeting, the staffs from the three divisions had in-depth discussions with the student representatives on students’ international exchange projects, projects application process, and students’ willingness to participate in exchange programs.
The student representatives expressed that students international exchange programs of the Faculty of Education are plentiful and diverse, including academic year and semester exchanges, short-term exchanges, overseas internships during winter and summer vacations, overseas volunteers programs, and supervisor participation in transnational projects. The exchange programs involve a wide range of countries and regions. Students have fully broadened their international horizons and benefited a lot. During the epidemic, international exchanges were hindered and the situation abroad was severe. The Faculty and the departments maintained close contact with overseas students, paid attention to their personal safety and mental health, and provided financial subsidies.
As for information acquisition of international projects, some students still have information blind spots: the information on CSC projects and undergraduate international exchange projects is mostly obtained through others experience, neglecting the information on websites of the university, the departments and CSC website. Moreover, freshmen know very little about international exchange programs, and may miss the opportunity due to language scores, application essays, course and credit arrangements and other failure to prepare in advance.
Student representatives actively shared exchange experiences, raised questions about various links of the exchange projects, and based on the actual situation during attending the exchange programs, made suggestions for improvement on talents cultivation internationalization of the Faculty of Education. The staffs interact positively and answered the questions raised by the students. It is said that in the coming years, the faculty will further integrate international education resources, develop more high-quality projects, expand information release channels, and strengthen students’ guidance in applications preparation and academic arrangements for participating in international exchange projects.
Internationalization is the primary development strategy of the Faculty of Education. It is the development goal of the Faculty to cultivate compound talents with “profound foundation, all-round ability, strong responsibility and internationalization”. In order to better promote the international development strategy of the Faculty of Education, and serve its teachers and students, the three divisions take ” Exploration and Practice of Optimizing the Management Mode of International Talent Cultivation” as research topic, to apply for the “Three-Aspected Education” (All-staff, All-process, All-round) comprehensive reform pilot project of ECNU. The project team has conducted a number of small seminars in the early stage, and designed a survey questionnaire on students’ international exchange projects based on the student symposium to further understand students’ expectation on international talent cultivation.