On June 27, Mourad Boukhalfa, President of Institut National des Sciences Appliquées (INSA) Group, Bertrand Raquet, Director of INSA Toulouse, Armel de la Bourdonnaye, Director of INSA Hauts-de-France, Frédéric Fotiadu, Director of INSA Lyon, Damien Fabregue, Deputy Director for International Affairs at INSA Lyon, visited Beihang University Hangzhou International Campus, further promoting and implementing the strategic cooperation between the two sides. Zhao Weisheng, Vice President of Beihang University, met with the guests, accompanied by Sun Qingfeng, Secretary of the Party Committee of Hangzhou International Innovation Institute of Beihang University, and Hong Guanxin, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee and Dean of the Institute.
During their stay, the INSA delegation participated in the Seminar on the Role of Enterprises in Training Excellent Engineers and INSA Alumni Day held by the Institute. Focusing on university-industry cooperation, the event attracted INSA alumni who have returned to China to work and start businesses, business elites, and teachers and students on campus to discuss the practical significance of industry-academia integration in the training of excellent engineers. The seminar was hosted by Zhang Wei, Deputy Dean of the Institute, and Chen Chao, Director of the International Affairs Office.
At the meeting, on behalf of Beihang University, Vice President Zhao Weisheng extended a warm welcome to the INSA delegation, corporate representatives, and INSA alumni present. Zhao shared his experience of studying in France and introduced Beihang University’s innovative measures in engineer training and university-industry integration. He pointed out that the current development of the society calls for an increasingly large number of outstanding engineers, and universities and enterprises are the main force in cultivating outstanding engineers. It is necessary to gather the advantages of academia-industry cultivation, build a two-party dialogue platform, deepen the multi-dimensional collaboration between universities and enterprises, promote the deep integration of engineering and education, and continuously form an organic ecology of university-industry collaborative education and improve the quality of independent cultivation of outstanding engineers.
Beihang Vice President Zhao Weisheng delivering a speech
On behalf of INSA Group, Mourad Boukhalfa expressed his sincere gratitude to Beihang University for the warm reception, and introduced the school-running situation and engineer training characteristics of INSA Group. He said that the engineer training model of INSA Group emphasizes humanistic education and diversified student backgrounds. The Group deeply integrates the concept of sustainable development into teaching and research, and practices it through innovative models of university-industry cooperation. INSA Group will continue to promote in-depth cooperation with enterprises in platform construction, teaching staff construction, curriculum setting, etc., give full play to the advantages of both parties, and explore new paths for the cultivation of outstanding engineers together. Boukhalfa also shared the development prospects of INSA Group from the perspective of digital transformation and international development strategy.
Mourad Boukhalfa, President of INSA Group, delivering a speech
In the roundtable session, INSA alumni and student representatives who have been deeply engaged in basic research, artificial intelligence, new energy and other fields shared their experience in learning, scientific research, employment and entrepreneurship around the INSA model and university-industry cooperation. They said that the INSA model has laid a sound foundation for their practical innovation ability and professional quality, helping them grow into capable and thoughtful engineers.
INSA alumni representatives Shi Zhichao and Wang Mi and student representative Du Kenan giving speeches
In the discussion session, the guests and representatives had in-depth exchanges.
After the meeting, the delegation visited scientific research laboratories, smart classrooms, the library, student dormitories, sports stadiums, etc., and learned about the study, scientific research and living conditions of teachers and students.
The Seminar on the Role of Enterprises in Training Excellent Engineers and INSA Alumni Day is a derivative event of the Forum on Digital Economy, Industrial Transformation and Engineering Education held in Paris, France on June 21. The forum was jointly organized by Beihang University and Groupe des Ecoles Centrales. Huai Jinpeng, Minister of Education of the People’s Republic of China, and Chen Jie, Vice Minister of Education of the People’s Republic of China, leaders of Chinese institutions such as Beihang University, Tongji University, and Shanghai Jiaotong University, leaders of French institutions such as the Groupe des Ecoles Centrales, Université Paris-Saclay, and INSA, as well as many academicians of National Academy of Technologies of France attended the event. Experts and scholars from various fields in China and France held in-depth discussions and exchanges, shared insights, and enhanced mutual trust, providing wisdom for deepening the integration and development of the academia and the industry of the two countries, and promoting the development of world higher education and future industrial transformation.
INSA Group delegation has visited Beihang University Hangzhou International Campus for the second time this year. In March this year, Wang Yunpeng, President of Beihang University and seven INSA directors including Mourad Boukhalfa, Director of INSA Rouen and President of lNSA Group, signed a strategic cooperation agreement between the two sides online to jointly promote the innovation of the mechanism and model for the cultivation of excellent engineers and build a broader platform for promoting scientific and educational cooperation and cultural exchanges between China and France.
Beihang University will take the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and France as an opportunity to further deepen and implement educational cooperation with INSA Group, give full play to the characteristics of INSA Group’s humanistic and diversified engineer education, strive to explore a new model of independent training of excellent engineers through industry-education integration, and continuously deepen high-level exchanges and cooperation with France.
(Source: Human Resources Department, International Relations Department)
Written by: Xu Jingyao, Xu Ran
Edited by: Xie Yuqian, Zhuang Yuming
Reviewed by: Hong Guanxin, Ying Weidong, Zhang Wei
Translated by: Lu Meili
