Currently, it is the critical period for Chinese nation to fight against the outbreak of COVID-19. Under the strong leadership of Beijing Normal University, BNUBS has been timely arranged for a joint meeting of the Party and government, during which the future work was assigned. With the efficient cooperation of the International Exchange and Cooperation team of BNUBS, various work has been carried out in response to the outbreak.

 

With the support of the university’s favorable policies and guidance of relevant departments, the office of International Exchange and Cooperation of BNUBS, after years of practice and development, have gradually formed a comprehensive communication and cooperation model with deep exchanges in various fields, including degree programs in English, the international summer school, overseas teaching and scientific research base, students exchanges of inbounds and outbounds, teachers’ academic visits of both short-term and long-term, recruitment of international faculty, holding international conferences, conducting degree cooperation, etc. (Figure 1). The Office is centered in achieving the goal of making BNUBS a world-class business school with rich humanities. It is committed to serving all the students and teachers and supporting the long-term development of BNUBS and reforming the form of communication and cooperation. Stressing the conduct and valuing the practical results, it has, to a large extent, supported the development of teaching and academic research and obtained some remarkable achievements. Up to now, BNUBS has signed cooperation agreements with 68 overseas renowned universities and research institutes, accepted almost 80 foreign academic visiting scholars annually, held or co-held 4 international annual conference each year with its cooperative partners, introduced nearly 150 students to attend overseas long-term and short-term exchange programs, and 60 teachers to attend international conferences annually. There are 95 international students, majoring in Chinese undergraduate degree program, Chinese postgraduate degree program, Chinses doctor degree program, English postgraduate degree program and English doctor degree program. Based on English degree programs, BNUBS has accepted almost 60 overseas exchange students annually, most of whom come from Germany, Spain and Portugal. BNUBS is an EQUIS accredited school since 2016, marking its entry into the top 1% of elite business schools in the world.

 

Figure 1 The outline of major duties of the Office

 

Before the outbreak of COVID-19, it was the end of the autumn semester of school year of 2019 when all the International Affairs are conducted in order. Overseas students have either returned to their motherlands or been on travel. Arrangements have also given to the visits in or out of the staff during the winter vacation. However, the outbreak of COVID-19 has significantly influenced the conducting of international academic affairs of BNUBS.

 

1. Sending students overseas

 

Influenced by the pandemic, on January 27^th, Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism has announced the suspension of all tourism group business including outbound tourism and airplane tickets booking plus hotel booking services. On the same day, Beijing Normal University has announced a notice, banning the gathering and returning to school in advance. One day later, on January 28^th, BNU has announced another notice, suspending the students group overseas visits. Therefore, BNUBS has timely contacted with the host schools of two short-term programs planning to be held in February. With their understanding and support, they both got delayed, minimizing the losses of host schools and our students. Two short-term programs involved are a training course intended to be held from February 2^nd to 15^th by Fitzwilliam College of Cambridge University (14students plus 1 teacher accompanied) and a training camp initially from February 3^rd to 9^th by Singapore Management University (10 students plus 1 teacher accompanied). In addition, another student intending to attend the exchange program from Audencia Business School has delayed his or her previous visiting plan.

 

Figure 2   Timeline of banning due to Covid-19 in BNU

 

2. Teachers’ overseas visits

 

According to the announcement of BNU on January 28^th, the approval of recent visits by teachers and students on official business and other related activities had to be suspended. In addition, those teachers (individuals and groups) who had been approved to visit on official business from January 28^th to February 29^th were required to suspend or postpone their visits. If one insists on going abroad, he or she shall submit a written application to the person in charge. After being approved, he or she shall understand the quarantine procedures of the port of entry according to the information of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the instructions for going to the country or region and take protective measures throughout the whole process. Teachers and students who have returned to Beijing from abroad should be quarantined. At the same time, a special fund for epidemic emergency response will be set up to reimburse the expenses incurred by the changes of each project. One teacher is scheduled to visit New Zealand from January 28^th to February 29^th, who cancelled the visit because of school rules and New Zealand entry rules.

 

 

3. Work on international student affairs

 

As of February 2020, there are 95 international students enrolled in BNUBS. At the beginning of the epidemic, when the fall semester of 2019 came to an end, more than 30 newly registered international students of our school just left the country. Among the 95 international students, 11 students were staying in the school, 9 students were living outside the campus, and 4 were in other Chinese cities, 71 people returned to their home country (Shown in Pie Chart 3). After the outbreak of epidemic, on January 27, a document was issued by BNU to canvass all students and notify each student of the epidemic. On the same day, the Chinese and English version of the epidemic prevention and control system for all teachers and students of Beijing Normal University was launched. Every international student was required to report their situation as the Chinese students did. At the beginning of this work, BNUBS set up an emergency working group for international students’ management. The associate Dean in charge of international exchange and cooperation affairs served as the group leader. The Director of the BNU Office of International Exchange and Cooperation Information were responsible for collecting and summarizing the information submitted by head teachers of international students and administer of exchange students, as well as reporting the daily situation of international students. The head teachers of international students were assigned to maintained liaison with each international student. Since the international students usually would arrange their own journey at the end of each semester, the students had been distributed around the world when the epidemic occurred. As a result, the contact means for the head teachers to contact with the international students were mainly via telephone, email and WeChat. With the efforts of the working group, the college has contacted 95% of the international students, notified them the domestic epidemic situation and the requirement that BNU temporarily not allow students to return to school. The proportion of students filling in the daily report also reached 93% (February 15, 2020). The epidemic prevention and control reporting system helps the school and the university to know students’ situation in real time. For students who reported malaise or fever, their head teachers had made a one-to-one contact, urging students to pay close attention and seek medical treatment as soon as possible. During this period, two students from Business School returned to Beijing from other Chinese cities. The two students were arranged to live in the Changping Campus of Beijing Normal University for a 14-day quarantine observation. At present, they have returned to the main campus of BNU with the end of their quarantine observation. With the development of the epidemic, on February 11, 2020, Beijing Normal University issued its arrangements in a document again, which required all students not to return to school. As to students living on campus, they should stay in the dormitory as much as possible, and the University would be managed in a lockdown manner. On February 13, 2020, in accordance with the requirements of the Ministry of Education and the Beijing Municipal Commission of Education, BNU delayed the start date next semester openly, implemented online teaching and online administrative office. Therefore, BNUBS required once again that all international students to reschedule or refund tickets purchased for return to Beijing, and the start date will be decided and notified in accordance with the epidemic situation.

 

 

Figure 3    Proportion of the vacation destinations of international students studying in BNUBS

 

 

4. Teaching management

 

According to school rules, students are not allowed to return to school and teaching needs to be adjusted accordingly. According to the original teaching arrangement, BNUBS plans to open 5 postgraduate courses and 13 undergraduate courses for international students in the spring semester. On February 9 2020, the educational administration department of BNU issued a document, requiring the opinions of teachers and students to be collected on the basis of considering the teaching environment and teaching quality, and the spring semester courses can be taught online or postponed. After consulting with foreign students and teachers, 80% of the teachers and students chose to postpone the start of classes, and 20% of the teachers and students chose to deliver classes online on schedule.

 

 

5. Exchange student acceptance

 

In the spring semester of 2020, we plan to accept 16 students from the cooperative institutions to study in BNUBS. After the outbreak of Covid-19, BNUBS immediately notified the students and their school contacts of the outbreak and informed them of the possible impact of the outbreak on the opening and teaching of the courses. Among the 16 students, 8 chose to give up the exchange opportunity, 3 students chose to keep the exchange opportunity, waiting for the new school opening notice, 1 student chose to study online, and 4 students did not reply.

 

 

6. International visit reschedule   

 

According to the original plan, BNUBS will undertake the short-term study and practice project of the University of Macerata in March 2020. In view of the development of the epidemic and in accordance with the arrangement of postponing the reception of overseas visiting missions in China as required by the Ministry of Education on January 27, BNUBS contacted with the University of Macerata to inform them of the epidemic situation and negotiate the postponement of their spring visit to our college.

 

 

7. International conferences reschedule

 

BNUBS originally planned to cooperate with the University of South Australia to hold an academic seminar in China in March 2020, which included 12 Australian scholars and 15 Chinese teachers. The application for the conference was completed in January 2020. Affected by the epidemic, we have agreed with them to postpone the academic seminar to the autumn of 2020.

 

 

Figure 4   The number of people affected by Covid-19 outbreak on the international exchange and cooperation work of BNUBS

 

To sum up, the outbreak had a certain degree of impact on BNUBS's overseas visit arrangement, international meetings, exchange students, international student management and other work (figure 4). This is a critical period in the fight against the outbreak, and the impact of the outbreak on the BNUBS's international exchange and cooperation will stay for a while, so there is still a lot of work to be done.

 

With the continuous development and promotion of work, BNUBS is constantly reflecting on the content and improving methods in international exchange and cooperation. This special fighting against the epidemic not only brings us challenges, but also offers enlightenment on how to better accomplish the internationalization work in the future.

 

 

1. Adhere to the leadership of the party, take into consideration the overall situation of the school, and carry out international work based on the development of the college.

 

As the basic unit of BNU's international exchange and cooperation, the college should always adhere to the party's absolute leadership and act according to the overall situation of the school. We should always carry out international work at the consideration of the interests of teachers and students, especially when public health emergencies such as epidemic occur.

 

 

2.Maintain close contact with partners overseas, establish timely and unimpeded channels for information exchange.

 

Since the outbreak, eight exchange students, an Italian delegation, an international conference team, more than 80 international students and a foreign teacher have canceled plans to come or return to Beijing. This is a big challenge for our cooperation with overseas partners. Overseas partners are our important stakeholders, and foreign teachers and students are also important members in our big family. Keeping them informed of the situation and how school and college are responding is an important way to allay concerns and restore confidence in cooperation.

 

 

3.Strengthen the contact and communication with overseas students, to best help every international student

 

Through this outbreak, we find that there is still room for improvement in the management of overseas students. For example, the students' contact information and schedules are not fully grasped, and the information is not accurate enough, resulting in the failure to contact a small number of students in an emergency. Furthermore, it also reveals students’ lack of trust for their teachers, who choose to ignore their messages or emails when they contact them.

 

We also find that the students only study professional required courses and professional elective courses, have little knowledge of China's national conditions, which lead to their weak legal consciousness, unfamiliar with the state and the school's policies, disregard for rules. Due to above situations, management foundation is lost and we are often in passive situations. In the future, the college needs to strengthen the management of overseas students, hold regular class meetings, and ask them to update their contact information, in-school and out of school arrangements to the head teachers in a timely manner. While caring about the study and life of them, introduction of basic knowledge on China's situation and policies is a necessity. In addition, in view of the multicultural background of overseas students and the fact that most of them live independently, we also consider to classify and manage the students according to their focus and general concern, so as to make the work more targeted.

 

 

4.Establish a professional team with international vision.

 

Concerning job responsibility, we work to serve and communicate with teachers and students in school, overseas partners, overseas students, foreign university teachers, as well as international professional institutions. So, apart from language, the basic requirement, our staffs need to have the international vision, global view, cross-cultural communication ability, strong sense of service and patience, and strong ability to learn. On behalf of the school, we must establish positive image, take the initiative to safeguard the interests of the university, maintain good international reputation. The initiative and professionalism of work is a window for overseas partners and international colleagues to know about us, especially during the special period of the epidemic, which highlights the importance of building a high-level international team.

 

（Xie Jia, Director of International Exchange and Cooperation Office, School of Economics and Management）