Chinese visitors interested in TUAS' learning approach
Visitors from the city of Tianjin, China, familiarized themselves on Thursday 28 September with the TUAS way of teaching business and technology. The prestigious delegation consisted of representatives of Tianjin University of Technology / Business College (TUT) and Tianjin Municipal Education Commission.
TUT was represented by Chen Minfang, Director at TUT Office of International Programmes, and Yu Haomiao, Associate Professor. The city of Tianjin was represented by Deputy Director General Liu Xin and Director Tianjin Education Committee International Exchange Office Zhang Jianqing.
Turku University of Applied Sciences and TUT have signed a bilateral cooperation agreement. There is both staff and student exchange between the institutions of higher education. In addition, TUT sends third year students of its Business College degree programme focusing on entrepreneurship to TUAS for a year-long programme in business. The programme is subject to a charge. The first group of students, altogether twelve of them, from Tianjin arrived to Turku earlier this autumn.
As a new form of collaboration, TUT has suggested a joint degree programme in the field of business. Together with TUT representatives, TUAS received representatives from Tianjin Municipal Educational Commission, whose support for joint degrees is essential. The development of the collaboration continues with TUAS Rector and President Vesa Taatila travelling to China in early October as part of the business delegation of Ministry of Education and Culture.
"Tianjin University of Technology is our long-term cooperation higher education institution. Their proposal on a joint degree is a great example of how the collaboration of TUAS with international partners may develop over time from traditional student and teacher exchange towards deeper educational cooperation", rejoices Anu Härkönen, Head of International Affairs at TUAS.
TUAS representatives learned that Ministry of Education of China supports international joint degrees when something clearly novel and innovative is involved. The entrepreneurship-focused degree in the field of business would be just such. Additional value would be provided by TUAS innovation pedagogy and the Business Academy model related to it.
The programme for the visit started with Dean Juha Kontio’s presentation handling the pedagogy of TUAS. The major topics were innovation pedagogy (a practical and working life oriented learning approach developed at TUAS), the international engineering-oriented collaboration network CDIO and the Business Academy learning environment. The guests also visited Ruiskatu and Sepänkatu campuses and met the TUT exchange students currently in Turku.
"We are excited about developing the Business Academy model together with TUT. Perhaps we will see the Business Academy environment in Tianjin in the future", Kontio reflects.
Tianjin and Turku are sister cities. The cooperation is also participated by the City of Turku, Turku subregion and the economic life in the Turku region. The guests stayed in Turku until Saturday 30 September and attended meetings with representatives of the City of Turku and the University of Turku.
For more information on Tianjin University of Technology, please visit their website .