On the morning of April 3, 2019, the third meeting of the international advisory committee of the college of economics and business administration was successfully held in the conference room A314 in the back main building of Beijing Normal University（BNU）. Dong Qi, president of BNU and chairman of the committee, met with the participants before the meeting. Zhou Zuoyu, vice president of BNU, attended the meeting and delivered a speech. The members attending this meeting are: Claudia Bock-Valotta, vice-president of the inter-American development bank; Song Xiaowu, director of the academic committee of the China society for economic restructuring; Zhong Hande, chairman of the board of directors of Hong Kong Hande group Co., Ltd; Mao Jiye, dean of Renmin University of China business college; Yang Jiantao, party secretary of Ruihua Certified Public Accountants and chairman of Ruihua group; Hu Shaoxian, secretary of the Party Committee and chief partner of Pan-China Certified Public Accountants, deputy to the 13th National People's Congress; Shi Yanlai, chairman of the board of directors of GEH education ;Cai Lei, vice president of Jingdong group; Qin Gang, deputy secretary of Center for China and Globalization. More than 30 people including party and government leaders, teachers and student representatives from the college of economics and business administration attended the meeting.

 

 

The agenda was divided into two halves. The first half was held by Sun Zhijun, the party secretary of college of economics and business administration.

 

 

Zhou Zuoyu extended welcome and thanks to all the participants, then introduced to the guests the construction target and development of the university since the 13th Party Congress in 2017. The university was making steady progress towards the goal of building "a world-class university with Chinese characteristics that is comprehensive, research-oriented and leading in teacher education". He pointed out that the international advisory committee of the college played an important role in improving the management system and establishing modern university system. Since its foundation in 2016, the committee had given a lot of advice to college in terms of subject construction, talent cultivation, scientific research and etc, which promoted the reform and development of the college.

 

 

Next, the appointment ceremony of the new members was held. According to the articles of the international advisory board of the college, the new members were: Claudia Bock-Valotta; Cai Lei; Chen Yanshun, CEO of BOE Technology Group Co., Ltd;Hu Hao, a deputy governor of ICBC; Ke Wenjin, the standing committee of Beijing CPPCC and director of the economic committee; Liu Shijin, deputy director of the economic committee of the CPPCC and former deputy director of the development research center of the state council and Yang Jiantao. Zhou Zuoyu presented the appointment letter to the new members.

 

 

 

Figure 1: President Dong Qi met with representatives of the international advisory committee

 

 

Figure 2: the third meeting of the international advisory board

 

Figure 3: vice principal Zhou Zuoyu presented the appointment letter to the new members

 

Subsequently, Qi Yudong, the dean of the college gave a work report entitled "steadily moving forward to the first-class college of economics and management". According to Qi, the college had made a series of remarkable achievements since 2016. First, it passed the EQUIS international certification and became one of the leading 1% business colleges in the world in 2016. Outstanding achievements had been made in terms of the disciplines and an addition of first-class doctoral programs in business administration was set up. In the fourth round of discipline evaluation in 2017, theoretical economics was categorized to A level, ranking the fifth in China. In 2019, finance and accounting, business and management research, economics and econometrics were listed in QS, which ranked among the top universities in mainland China. Second, talent training features were more distinctive and there formed a series of student-centered activities. Third, important progress had been made in scientific research. For example, a number of teachers had won Sun Yefang award for Economic Science, the eighth China Economic Theory Innovation Award and provincial and ministerial awards for scientific research. Fourth, the international teaching staff had been further expanded, and the proportion of overseas doctorate recipients and high-level foreign teachers had been further increased. Fifth, international exchanges and cooperation had deepened. Teaching and research institutions had been set up in Tokyo, Japan, and overseas student training programs covering undergraduate, master and doctor had been established. More than 70 overseas cooperation agreements, spreading the five continents of the world, had been signed. At the same time, Qi introduced the next development goal and working idea of the college and put forward the problems and challenges facing the college's development.

 

 

The second half of the meeting was held by Zhou Zuoyu. Centering on the theme of "how to achieve characteristic development and build a first-class college", the committee gave suggestions on development strategy, governance system, talent cultivation, scientific research, social service and discipline construction.

 

 

Mao Jiye put forward opinions and suggestions on the school-running characteristics and the construction of the discipline .He argued that while the college had made significant achievements in discipline construction, scientific research and internationalization, it should lead in teaching innovation and serve the strategy of BNU, using comprehensive resources of humanities and social science to strengthen quality education, realize educational feature differentiation and innovation. It should also actively embrace comprehensive mobile Internet era and the discipline should focus on the digital transformation and organization reconstruction.

 

 

Song Xiaowu gave three suggestions for the college's education work. First, we needed to continue international exchanges and further open up. The second was to further strengthen the links between the college and the industry, especially in carrying out a series of research and social service work on the reform of state-owned enterprises and the development of private enterprises. Third, we should fully grasp the new economic development trend and take the initiative to meet the new challenges in management and economics.

 

 

Zhong Hande thought that the college should continue to innovate and develop, break the old tradition, be ready to compete and speed up to grow. He also stressed that the college should improve governance, further integrate with the international community, research the development direction of the global economy and the legal system to realize the effective use of resources.

 

 

Shi Yanlai proposed from the perspective of the industry that comprehensive modern education management talents need to have professional knowledge of education, practical ability of operation as well as a good grasp of the modern education technology and tools, internationalization mode of thinking. The college should take the advantage of dominant disciplines to strengthen the research and training of talent development.

 

 

Hu Shao contributed three suggestions from the perspective of employers. First, interdisciplinary education was imperative because under the new situation, talents from cross-fields and cross-disciplines are more in line with the needs of employers. Secondly, while the college was developing internationally, it should also focus on localization and strengthen students' humanistic skills. Third, the institutional building of the international advisory board system needed to be strengthened.

 

 

Claudia Bock-Valotta said it was important to give play to competitive advantages and brand building of the college, and to highlight them in the teaching. Education reform should focus on enterprise management and the development of Internet economy in the digital economy. In terms of talent cultivation, we should pay more attention to the emotional intelligence education of students and improve their soft skills, rather than just theoretical knowledge. In terms of discipline construction, we should give full play to the advantages of different disciplines and develop cross-disciplines. In terms of college governance and management, cooperative leadership should be formed, and managers should strengthen communication.

 

 

Cai Lei first talked about his working experience across multiple industries and pointed out that the gap between China's education level and that of foreign famous universities meant that more international talents were needed, who can help shorten the gap or even help surpass the level of foreign education. He also said that in the future, he could try to make contributions to the college personally or on behalf of his company by means of pilot work.

 

 

Yang Jiantao introduced the Ruihua Certified Public Accountants. Based on its past successful cooperation experience, he hoped that it could further strengthen cooperation and deepen friendship with BNU in the future.

 

 

Qin Gang, from the perspective of think tank and college-enterprise cooperation, suggested that it should give play to the educational function of think tank in university and college. And the college should closely cooperate with enterprises to form cooperative partners and jointly cultivate talents possessing both theory and practice.

 

 

Figure 4: group photo of committee members

 

Founded in April 2016, the committee is an internal advisory body composed of famous experts, scholars, entrepreneurs and government officials at home and abroad. The committee provides advice on the development strategy and major policies of the college, which is an important part of the college's governance system.

(contributor: Yang Jing)