China and US universities launch global degree pathway plan

The  University of Michigan (UM) and Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) jointly launched a global degree pathway plan on May 24 as part of the duo’s partnership agreement to build a diversified international educational platform.
The two universities also renewed their cooperation for another 10 years during the event.

The degree pathway plan will encourage graduates from the UM-SJTU Joint Institute to take on master programs at UM and other colleges in the US. Eligible students will be recommended to UM and other world-leading universities, such as the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden, and the State University of New York at Stony Brook, for further study.

“It is good to see students study and gain degrees here,” said Mark Schlissel, the president of UM. “I’m also glad to see the implementation of the global degree pathway plan, which provides opportunities for more students to study in world-class universities.”

Established in 2006, the UM-SJTU Joint Institute currently has 17 dual-degree majors, 11 frontier research areas, two engineering majors, and 1,353 graduates.

According to the institute, the goal of this partnership is to build a world-class teaching and research institute in China to nurture innovative leaders with global visions.

In 2015, the institute did its first scientific research project and has since completed about 100 more, with about half of them selected as municipal and national-level innovation and entrepreneurship projects.

In 2016, two majors from the institute were approved by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, the most authoritative international certification. More than 80 percent of UM-SJTU’s graduates have entered top universities including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University and the University of California, Berkeley.

“The joint institute is a rare higher education platform for reform and innovation in the 21st century,” said Huang Peisen, the dean of the joint institute. “We hope to combine the concepts and features of both countries’ education systems to cultivate world-leading engineers and leader-type innovative talents.”

Besides the global degree pathway plan, the new agreement also involves the establishment of an international joint laboratory and an artificial intelligence research center focusing on smart sensors, wireless network, intelligent information management, machine learning and AI platforms.

Contact the writer at heqi@chinadaily.com.cn