From June 22 to 23, Romain Soubeyran, President of the Groupe des Écoles Centrales (GEC), led a delegation to Beihang University. During the visit, the delegation met with Huai Jinpeng, Education Minister of China, and Li Yi, Director of the Beijing Municipal Education Commission. They also attended the 2026 Graduation Ceremony for the master's and engineer graduates and the 35th Joint Management Committee meeting of Sino-French Engineer School (l'École Centrale de Pékin). The exchange activities yielded fruitful results, injecting new momentum into the deepening reform and high-level international cooperation of the Sino-French Engineer School. Wang Yunpeng, President of Beihang University, and Vice Presidents Zhao Weisheng and Wu Jianghao participated in relevant activities.

On June 23, Minister Huai Jinpeng met with the delegation in Beijing to exchange views on Sino-French higher education cooperation. Huai Jinpeng introduced China's reforms and practices in cultivating excellent engineers, fully affirming the positive results achieved by the GEC and Beihang in the talent cultivation, scientific research cooperation, and promotion of internationalized education. He expressed the hope that both sides would adapt to the transformative trends, such as artificial intelligence and green and low-carbon development, enrich bilateral cooperation, expand cooperation areas, and explore new mechanisms and models for engineering talent cultivation.

Soubeyran briefed the attendees on the latest cooperation progress between the GEC and Beihang, spoke highly of China's achievements in talent cultivation and scientific and technological innovation, and expressed his willingness to further deepen inter-university cooperation and encourage more students from GEC member schools to pursue studies in China.

On the morning of June 23, the 35th Joint Management Committee meeting of the Sino-French Engineer School was held at Beihang. Present at the meeting were Wang Yunpeng, President of Beihang; Zhao Weisheng, Vice President of Beihang; Romain Soubeyran, President of the GEC; Gilles Fleury, General Delegate of the GEC; and Thomas Maurer, Director of École Centrale de Lille. Also in attendance were Mickael Corbard, Attaché for Higher Education at the French Embassy in China; Wang Yan, Senior Executive of Safran China; Xu Ming, Chief of the Talent Development Division of the Human Resources Department at Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC); as well as heads of relevant Beihang departments and the Chinese and French deans and leadership from the School. The meeting was chaired by Zhao Weisheng.

At the meeting, Geng Lisheng, Chinese Dean of the Sino-French Engineer School, and Adnane Boukamel, French Dean, reported on the School's recent achievements and future plans in teaching, research, and exchange cooperation. Beihang and the GEC highly commended the School's development and signed the upgrading plan for its training model.

Soubeyran pointed out that the world is undergoing profound changes, and modern engineering technology plays a key role in addressing global climate governance and environmental challenges. Over twenty years ago, China and France jointly established an engineer training system, which was highly farsighted. He fully acknowledged the work and innovations of the School over the past year, noting that the School has become an important bridge for Sino-French communication—not only helping Chinese youth learn the French language and advanced engineering concepts but also attracting an increasing number of French youth to China to study Chinese culture and cutting-edge technology and to understand contemporary China. This two-way exchange has far-reaching significance for global development. He stated that the GEC will continue to support the School in implementing its high-quality internationalization development strategy.

Wang Yunpeng noted that Beihang is currently in a year of deepening reform, and the School's reform exploration is highly aligned and synchronized with the University's overall development. The School has undertaken extensive and systematic reviews and implemented innovations in areas such as professional optimization and adjustment, international student recruitment expansion, and the cultivation system and practical training, laying a solid foundation for high-quality development. He emphasized that the School must adhere to deepening reform as its overarching guideline, further strengthen its two major specialized areas of artificial intelligence and carbon neutrality, continue to deepen cooperation with French-speaking countries and regions, and actively build a multi-level, broad-scope international cooperation network. The University will support the School's development as always, continue to empower its internationalization efforts, strengthen policy coordination and resource allocation, and promote the sustained and steady progress of the School's new educational model.

On the morning of June 22, Soubeyran and his delegation held a meeting with Li Yi, Deputy Secretary of the Education Work Committee of the Beijing Municipal Party Committee and Director of the Beijing Municipal Education Commission, where they reached multiple consensuses on strengthening cooperation among the Beijing Municipal Education Commission, Beihang, and the GEC regarding the joint training program with Beijing Information Science and Technology University.

This visit further consolidated the consensus for Sino-French cooperation and opened up new avenues for the Sino-French Engineer School to deepen its multilateral cooperation framework and lead the innovative development of Sino-French engineering education. Under the new operational model, the Sino-French Engineer School will respond to changes with greater resilience, cultivate talent with higher quality, and demonstrate the unique value of Sino-French cooperative education amid diverse challenges.

Editor: Liu Tingting