Recently, the 2026 Heilongjiang Provincial Training and Exchange Conference on Sino-Foreign Cooperative Education was held at Harbin Engineering University (HEU). The conference brought together CHENG Shuang, Deputy Director-General of the Heilongjiang Provincial Department of Education, YU Zhiwen, Vice President of HEU, and HE Pei, Secretary-General of the China Association for Sino-Foreign Cooperative Education, who delivered addresses at the event. The opening ceremony was moderated by Assistant to the President GENG Jing.
CHENG Shuang, in her address, highly commended HEU for its active role in promoting the coordinated development of Sino-foreign cooperative education across the province. She also reviewed the strategic initiatives and major achievements in Heilongjiang’s efforts to expand educational openness, while identifying key challenges currently facing the provincial cooperative education landscape.
YU Zhiwen provided an overview of HEU’s institutional history, disciplinary strengths, and major milestones in its internationalization efforts and Sino-foreign cooperative education programs. He emphasized that the conference brings together leading policymakers and nationally recognized experts, offering provincial institutions authoritative policy interpretations and cutting-edge practical insights, while also creating a valuable platform for mutual learning and collaborative growth. He reaffirmed HEU’s commitment to leveraging its strengths to contribute to the province’s cooperative education endeavors and to work closely with peer universities to deepen the substantive development of Sino-foreign cooperative education.
HE Pei outlined the policy foundations, guiding principles, and broader context that continue to shape the evolution of Sino-foreign cooperative education. She noted that such programs serve multiple purposes—expanding access to high-quality educational resources and deepening international scientific and technological collaboration—while also playing an integrated role in attracting, cultivating, and deploying talent. She observed that the sector is now entering a new phase marked by simultaneous quality enhancement and capacity expansion, with policy support, public attention, and institutional recognition at an all-time high. She urged universities to thoroughly comprehend policy frameworks, strategically plan their development portfolios, reinforce the foundations of educational quality, strengthen internal governance, and uphold robust safety and risk-management standards.
During the training and exchange segment, WANG Jian, Dean of the Saint-Petersburg State University of Aerospace Instrumentation – Hangzhou Dianzi University Joint Institute, and WANG Yi, Deputy Director of the Office of International Cooperation at Nanjing Tech University, delivered featured presentations as renowned experts in the field. The conference also convened a general assembly of the Heilongjiang Provincial Alliance of Sino-Foreign Cooperative Education Institutions, during which the alliance’s work was reviewed, new member institutions and governance structures were approved by vote, and discussions were held on future directions and priorities.
