The MOE held a symposium in Nanjing, on April 22 to deepen the reform of “excellent engineer” training. Minister of Education Huai Jinpeng attended the meeting and delivered a speech.

Huai said that, since the launch of the reform in 2010, remarkable progress has been made in facilitating academia–industry cooperation in talent cultivation, establishing core curricula and engineering competence standards, and transforming the evaluation system to focus on innovation. He also noted that China’s launch of benchmarks for master’s and doctoral engineering programs in 2025 has further increased its influence in global engineering higher education.

Huai stressed that reforming engineering education is a key means of developing new-quality productive forces and advancing education, science and technology, and talent cultivation in a coordinated way. He proposed three initiatives for the next stage of reform. First, major industries identified in the Fifteenth Five-Year Plan should be prioritized to facilitate the development of a modern industrial system. Second, an AI-empowered pedagogical paradigm shift should be facilitated by reforming institutions and evaluation mechanisms. In addition, key training program components should be enhanced, including core curricula, hands-on training platforms, and academia–industry integration. Third, international cooperation should be strengthened so that China can share its experience in training excellent engineers more broadly.

Leaders from China National Petroleum Corporation, relevant MOE departments, and the Chinese Union for Training Excellent Engineers presented reports. Representatives from the Jiangsu Provincial Educational Department, Tsinghua University, and the Aviation Industry Corporation of China shared insights.

Before the symposium, Huai visited various research institutes, enterprises, and laboratories to investigate the current state of engineer training in China.