From December 16-20, 2019, the University Cooperation Framework for Knowledge Transfer in Central Asia and China (UNICAC) held the third training module in the School of Mechanical Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University (NPU) at B416 in Hangkong building. The project manager, Professor Shuxia Wang，hosted the training module. Professor Inmaculada and Miguel Angel from the University of Seville were responsible for the training. Lots of people attended the training, including the international relations offices from the University of Seville (US), the Tashkent University of Information Technologies (TUIT), the National University of Uzbekistan (NUUz), the Khorog State University (KhoGU), Institute of Economy and Trade of Tajik State University (IET TSUC), the Xinjiang University (XJU), the Northwestern Polytechnical University (NPU) and the Northwest A & F University (NWAFU).

At the opening ceremony on December 16, Honglong Chang, the Vice dean of the School of Mechanical Engineering addressed a welcome speech to all the participants joining the training. He said that the university paid lots of effort in the Europe project and was willing to strengthen cooperation with other universities.

Miguel Angel from the University of Seville introduced the schedule of the training, which covered Fostering Quality Teaching in Higher Education: Methodologies and Good Practices (Day 1-2), Quality Research of Higher Education Institutions: Goals, Strategies, and Achievements (Day 3-4), Conclusions and Recommendations (Day 5).

During the five day meeting, the members gave introductions to their own universities and shared the approaches to quality teaching, respectively. They also presented the good practices and policies such as joint international degree and exchange students. As the project leader, Mr. Angel demonstrated diverse strategies and practical cases in the US as the flexible length of schooling, online classes and full credit system. All participants subsequently discussed the question about how to improve the quality of teaching and learning. In the end, they discussed the issues about academic university rankings.

The training strengthened the connection between our university and others through developing the UNICAC network of international cooperation. This module gathered all the member universities to design the strategic plans for international cooperation. All the attendees believe that this project would enhance the cooperation and also accelerate the internationalization of the School of Mechanical Engineering of NPU.

(Reporter: Shuxia WANG, reviewer: Honglong CHANG, School of Mechanical Engineering)