Shanghai International Studies University (SISU) released the 2021-2025 SISU Global Strategy at the 2020 Conference on Further Opening of Education on November 19th, highlighting its new goals for the next five years.
GROWTH, the acronym created by the first letters of SISU’s newly announced six goals, embodies the university’s strategic pursuit of becoming a “Double First-Class” university. The “World-class universities and disciplines”, also known as the “Double First-Class” Initiative, is a national plan released in 2017 to enhance all-round strength of Chinese universities.
SISU has proposed to accomplish these strategic goals in the following six aspects: promoting comprehensive international cooperation strategy and global network building, cultivating talents with a global mindset, organizing faculties with global competence, advancing interdisciplinary integration and international cooperation in researches, enhancing global reputation and influence, building an efficient management and service system, and a smart and humanistic campus.
Li Yongzhi, deputy director of Shanghai Municipal Education Commission (SHMEC), said that international exchanges and cooperation in education would continue in the post-COVID-19 era, and that more public attention would be devoted to “Internationalization at Home”, which is to take advantage of international learning experiences on campus. Facing both challenges and opportunities ahead, China should embrace innovation and improve the quality and effectiveness of further opening of education.
Li also introduced the key programs for international exchanges and cooperation in education within the next five years. These programs aim to establish a more extensive platform for cultural integration in education on multiple levels. Of all the programs, the project that promotes less-commonly taught languages, operating since 2015 with SISU’s support, will be further expanded in 2021-2025, which will provide a large reserve of all-rounded talents with international insights for China’s development.
Jiang Feng, SISU Council Chair and Head of the university’s Committee of Further Opening of Education , pointed out that SISU should be future-oriented, and have a precise understanding of and responding to changes. The embrace of further opening of education will answer the needs of the university and the country.
Jiang said that internationalization is more like a state of mind than a choice or strategy for SISU. In the next five years, SISU would make coordinated efforts to participate in the “Double First-Class” Initiative. It would also support Shanghai in its building of an international city and contribute to the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.
SISU President Li Yansong summarized SISU’s work on internationalization. He praised the achievements SISU has made in the past five years, but he also expressed concerns for the unbalanced and insufficient development of internationalization, the incompleteness of intensive development, and the abundant supply of global teaching and research programs. He encouraged participants to recognize SISU’s new mission towards further opening of education under the new condition and to combine internationalization with all the aspects of the university’s governance.
During the sharing session themed “World and Globe, Future Discussed Together”, five faculty members and students shared their experience of internationalization at SISU.
“Embrace the world and make our future more ‘intercultural’.”
-- Wang Yuqin, senior student majoring in German
“As an international student at SISU, I hope one day I can be a diplomat.”
-- Mohamed Salaheldin Mohamed Ahmed, Sudanese PhD student in international relations
“I hope more and more SISUers can go global to tell Chinese stories well and establish a rational dialogue platform.”
-- Ning Yi, lecturer of Swahili studies
“On behalf of over 100 foreign experts at SISU, I would like to say let's work together at SISU to reach out to the world and build more connections with global scholars toward intercultural understanding.”
-- Professor Steve Kulich, executive director of SISU Intercultural Institute
“China is becoming a global power. This process needs the support of well-rounded area studies in which SISU will definitely play a pivotal role. It will bridge the past and the future by providing the knowledge of area studies.”
-- Professor Yang Cheng, executive director of Shanghai Academy of Global Governance and Area Studies
These wonderful and interconnected stories received rounds of applause, leading the conference to a climax. Just as Jiang Feng pointed out, SISU’s unique characteristics of internationalization can be found in every personal story of students, faculty members and alumni.
