The 2025 Meeting of the International Advisory Board of BNUBS was Successfully Convened

On May 26, 2025, the 2025 Meeting of the International Advisory Board of BNUBS, was held in the 5th Conference Room of Jingshi Hall. Wang Ming, Vice President of Beijing Normal University, attended the meeting. More than 40 participants included 13 members of the International Advisory Board, members of the Party and administrative leadership of BNUBS, heads of internal institutions, and faculty-student representatives participated in the meeting . The meeting held an appointment ceremony for the new members, who contributed suggestions on the theme of "Innovation and Transformation of Business Schools in the Digital-Intelligent Era" for the School's development.

The first half of the meeting was chaired by Sun Zhijun, Party Secretary of BNUBS. Vice President Wang Ming emphasized in his speech that in the new era of booming digital economy, business education faces important opportunities for transformation and upgrading. The University is vigorously promoting the "1228 Action Plan" and actively exploring paths for the deep integration of artificial intelligence and higher education. He expected BNUBS to fully leverage the think tank advantages of the International Advisory Board to make breakthroughs in discipline construction and international accreditation.

After the speech, Wang Ming presented appointment letters to the new members. Mao Jiye, Dean of the School of Entrepreneurship and Management at Shanghai University of Science and Technology, was appointed Chairman of the International Advisory Board of BNUBS. The newly appointed members also include: Guan Tao, Global Chief Economist and Managing Director of BOC Securities; Chen Yanshun, Chairman of BOE Technology Group; Wang Huiyao, Founder of Center for China and Globalization; Wang Mingfu, Chairman of Hejun Group; Lin Tao, Secretary of the Party Committee and Senior Vice President of KE Holdings Inc.; Xin Lu, General Manager of China Internet Finance Data Technology Co., Ltd.; Li Qiang, Executive Vice President of Zhilian Recruitment Group; Li Tao, Vice President of Li & Fung Development (China) Co., Ltd. and Chief Representative of the Fung Group in Beijing; Hu Cheng, Vice President of Didi Group and Dean of Didi Development Research Institute; Li Zhenhua, Dean of Ant Group Research Institute; Shi Yanlai, Founder and President of Qi Jin Group (Red Yellow Blue Education); Moon Hye-chang, President of Seoul National University of Science and Technology, South Korea; Xiong Wei, Professor of Economics at Princeton University, USA, and Academic Dean of the School of Economics and Management at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen; Zhao Shuming, Senior Professor at Nanjing University and Honorary Dean of the Business School; and Lai Youwei, Professor at the National Development Research Institute of Sun Yat-sen University.

Figure 1 Speech by Vice President Wang Ming

Figure 2 Appointment Ceremony of New Members of the International Advisory Board

Figure 3 Sun Zhijun Chairing the Meeting

Qi Yudong, Dean of BNUBS, delivered a work report titled "Innovation and Transformation of BNUBS in the Digital-Intelligent Era," comprehensively reviewing the School's remarkable achievements in recent five years: Firstly, Discipline Construction: Significant progress has been made, with theoretical economics and other disciplines performing excellently in multiple authoritative rankings, continuously consolidating and enhancing academic influence. First, in terms of discipline construction, the School has made remarkable progress. Disciplines such as theoretical economics have performed excellently in multiple authoritative rankings, continuously consolidating and enhancing academic influence. Second, in talent cultivation, the School adheres to "Digital+ Empowerment" for discipline development, has established related majors, launched a number of courses and textbooks. Multiple majors have been successfully selected into the national first-class undergraduate major construction sites, and the effectiveness of teaching reform is remarkable. Third, in scientific research, the quality of the School's research achievements has been steadily improved, and academic influence has been continuously enhanced. Fourth, the construction of the teaching staff has been continuously promoted. Full-time teachers have a high overall academic degree and rich overseas study and research backgrounds. Fifth, international exchanges and cooperation are extensive and in-depth, and the School has established cooperative relations with more than 50 universities worldwide. Sixth, substantive progress has been made in international accreditation. On the basis of successfully passing the EQUIS international accreditation, the School is expected to welcome the on-site review of AACSB accreditation in 2026. Dean Qi Yudong also introduced the School's development goals and work ideas for the next stage, pointed out the current difficulties and challenges, and sincerely hoped that the participating members would actively contribute suggestions to help the School's high-quality development.

Figure 4 Dean Qi Yudong Delivering the Work Report

The second half of the meeting was Chaired by Mao Jiye, Chairman of the current International Advisory Board, the members discussed the theme of "Innovation and Transformation of Business Schools in the Digital-Intelligent Era," offering suggestions on development strategies, talent cultivation, scientific research, social services, and discipline construction.

Figure 5 Speech by Chairman Mao Jiye

Mao Jiye proposed fully activating alumni resources, nourishing the School's development by serving the needs of alumni enterprises to form a positive "resource-content" cycle. He emphasized introducing a large number of enterprise tutors to make up for faculty shortages, clarifying the School's vision through AACSB accreditation, formulating a 5-10-year discipline focus strategy (such as innovation and entrepreneurship management), and systematically optimizing discipline layout and talent structure.

Moon Hye-chang suggested paying attention to the comprehensive application of technologies such as AI and blockchain (ABCD model) from a global perspective and integrating them into the teaching system. He proposed that the School design courses combined with the international political and economic environment to enhance the global attractiveness of China's business ecosystem, while balancing hard skills (such as data analysis) and soft skills (such as strategic thinking) to promote the deep integration of academic theories and industrial practices and cultivate international talents adapted to an uncertain future.

Guan Tao proposed strengthening the market attractiveness of the faculty and expanding the School's influence by increasing teachers' industry exposure. He suggested taking emerging disciplines such as financial technology as a breakthrough to achieve "corner overtaking" and called for integrating alumni resources, inviting outstanding alumni to participate in curriculum design and forum activities, and creating a high-quality industry-academia-research cooperation ecosystem.

Wang Mingfu pointed out the disconnection between traditional business courses and enterprise needs, advocating increasing the proportion of practical and study tour courses and creating an autonomous learning atmosphere. He suggested focusing on two directions: "Chinese enterprises going global" and science and technology enterprise management, building a knowledge system suitable for emerging business forms, strengthening the configuration of practical teachers, and promoting the transformation of the teaching system to an application-oriented one.

Lin Tao proposed that the School jointly carry out major topic research with enterprises (such as real estate data governance and platform economy antitrust) and open enterprise data resources to the academic community. He called for strengthening the student internship and enterprise tutor system, systematically building a part-time tutor database covering cutting-edge topics and career planning guidance, and improving students' ability to solve complex business problems.

Xiong Wei suggested that the School seize the opportunities of the digital wave, focus on frontier issues such as the value of data elements and the incentive mechanism of the platform economy, and refine China's digital economy practice experience into theoretical innovation. He emphasized the importance of interdisciplinary integration, proposed adding computer and data science content to courses, cultivating composite talents, and advocating obtaining real-scene data through school-enterprise cooperation to promote experimental research and help young scholars grow rapidly.

Xin Lu proposed deepening the construction of financial technology disciplines, adding courses on "five major articles" such as technology finance and green finance to respond to national strategies. He suggested promoting students to enter enterprises for practice, jointly formulating training plans with industry associations, and relying on the BNU platform to participate in financial technology policy research, transforming academic achievements into industry standards and policy suggestions.

Li Qiang proposed redefining the positioning of business talents in the AI era (such as "new coordinates of business cognition") based on insights into the job market, introducing industry tutors to co-build AI business laboratories, and strengthening students' practical capabilities. He emphasized that enterprises need talents with both innovative thinking and resource integration capabilities, proposing to develop frontier topics such as dynamic pricing and algorithmic decision-making through school-enterprise cooperation, transform industrial data into teaching resources, and enhance students' employment competitiveness.

Li Tao emphasized the need to strengthen the cultivation of skills such as big data analysis and AI tool application, enabling students to transform data into business insights. He suggested attracting top international talents through Hong Kong/Macao branch schools or flexible introduction mechanisms and giving play to the advantages of enterprise tutors' "inspirational teaching" to make up for the shortcomings of traditional classrooms with high-quality interaction and cultivate talents with both international vision and practical capabilities.

Lai Youwei pointed out the need to improve students' data-driven decision-making and AI tool application capabilities, mastering the full chain of skills from data analysis to business transformation. He suggested regularly organizing school-enterprise exchange salons, guiding research topics with real enterprise needs, and paying attention to the challenges of real-time data analysis and dynamic management in digital transformation to cultivate business talents adapted to rapid technological iteration.

Xue Yan, Deputy Dean of Didi Development Research Institute, on behalf of Hu Cheng, Vice President of Didi Group suggested that the development of BNUBS should focus on "digital reform" and "practical innovation," reshape the curriculum system with "AI+business," and strengthen data analysis and algorithm application capabilities; based on China's experience, build characteristic disciplines (such as financial technology and cross-border management), promote school-enterprise co-construction of internship bases and case libraries, and introduce corporate executives as tutors; build an "academic leadership-industry collaboration" ecosystem to cultivate composite business talents.

Ma Dongdong, Director of Research Cooperation at Ant Group Research Institute, on behalf of Dean Li Zhenhua proposed strengthening case teaching, introducing real corporate decision-making cases to simulate the business environment, and inviting entrepreneurs and policy makers to offer practical courses. He suggested adding programming and data analysis tool courses, encouraging students to take interdisciplinary courses, and opening Ant's economic research platform data to support academic research, promoting in-depth industry-academia-research linkage.

Gao Shouyan, Vice President of Qi Jin Group and General Manager of Zhimeng Early Education, on behalf of President Shi Yanlai suggested that the School give play to BNU's disciplinary advantages in psychology and education, create "cross-disciplinary" courses (such as decision analysis combining economics and psychology), and form a differentiated brand. She believed that top faculty should be attracted through characteristic courses, and star courses with both academic depth and social influence should be designed by learning from Harvard cases to enhance the School's attractiveness.

Figure 6 Members and Member Representatives Making Speeches

Sun Zhijun, Secretary of the Party Committee, expressed heartfelt thanks on behalf of the School for the valuable suggestions from the members. The members' opinions were based on the School's development reality, closely followed the pulse of the digital-intelligent era, had both strategic height and practical depth, and provided important references for the School's innovative development in key areas such as discipline construction, talent cultivation, scientific research innovation, and international cooperation. After the meeting, the School will convene a special meeting to systematically study, classify, and integrate the members' suggestions and effectively transform them into specific measures to promote the School's high-quality development.

Figure 7 Group Photo

Contributed by: Office of International Exchanges and Cooperation

Edited by: Li Jingya

Reviewed by: Sun Zhijun