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It is essential to establish a multi-dimensional postgraduate quality evaluation system for student assessment and training. This study aimed to explore the construction of the multiindex and hierarchical comprehensive evaluation system for postgraduate training in science and engineering based on the Context, Input, Process, Product (CIPP) model using Analytic Hierarchy Process. It involved 756 postgraduates in physics and engineering who were randomly selected via the Internet. Data were collected from the questionnaire about postgraduates' basic information. After collection, Factor Analysis was used to verify the rationality of the design of second-level and third-level indicators, and adjust the corresponding weights. On this basis, Cluster Analysis was used to classify the training quality of the postgraduates based on their scores on academic ability, basic quality, and social ability indicators. The results revealed that the index system includes 4 first-level indicators,12 second-level indicators and 36 third-level indicators, and different weights being assigned to the indicators according to their influence on the training quality of postgraduates in science and engineering. This study also provides some reference for the quality of science and engineering postgraduate training in Chinese universities by proposing relevant measures, which could be interesting also for international audience.

Research excellence is one of the key missions of universities and an important engine for socio-economic development. However, the outbreak of COVID-19 has affected academic research in many ways. This study examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the research performance of science and engineering faculty members in China's top research universities. It is found that the pandemic caused a decline in the numbers and quality of published articles, and the effects persisted over time. The negative effect of the pandemic on research excellence was more pronounced in the older faculty groups and departments of science. In addition, the pandemic has harmed international research collaborations among academics, which is likely to obstruct research excellence in the long run. In the end, this paper proposes several policy recommendations to reinvigorate universities' capacity for research innovation in the post-pandemic era.

Computer programming and municipal engineering (ME) students' specialised knowledge are still poorly integrated, leading to limited improvement of students' programming abilities. This paper describes an effective attempt in ME at Xi'an University of Architecture and Technology (XAUAT). Students were divided into several teams and required to develop software tools for ME design problems using Visual C++ 6.0. In this teaching approach, students need to identify the solutions by integrating knowledge in mathematics, physics, chemistry, basic engineering science, and ME. Moreover, students should develop programmes with friendly interfaces, essential prompts, and reliable results. The example programmes, positive feedback from the survey, and better performance in the final examination proved that the students' abilities of knowledge application and problem-solving had been developed, and their motivation in learning programming had been improved.

"Global Engineering Education Accreditation" (GEEA) is an internationally accepted quality assurance system for engineering education in universities, and technology competitions for college students are also considered important approaches to achieve the educational objectives and meet graduation requirements of GEEA in practice aspects. In this paper, the competency of guiding teachers of technology competitions for Chinese college students is evaluated through a case of "National Competition of Transportation Science and Technology for Students" (NACTranS). Firstly, 7 theoretical hypotheses of the modified "structural equation modeling" (SEM) for competency were developed by concentrating on some principles pertaining to the key concepts of GEEA. Secondly, competition results were set as the dependent variable and 3 dimensions of competition (topic selecting, works producing and team managing) were set as the independent variables under the modified SEM. Meanwhile, both administrative ranks and regional locations of universities where guiding teachers work were set as intervening vectors so as to explain the formation mechanisms of competency. Thirdly, a case study of NACTranS data from 68 universities in China's mainland was done through modified SEM calculating. The conclusions indicate that competency of guiding teachers is not only represented by 3 dimensions but also indirectly manipulated by 2 intervening vectors. According to the case calculating by modified SEM, the determinant of guiding teachers' performance in topic selecting is the administrative ranks of universities, whereas their performance in works producing is dictated by the regional locations of universities. Various improvements on the competency of guiding teachers can be carried out in schools of engineering in Chinese universities, such as sufficient academic communications, efficient industry-university-research cooperation and so on.

This paper examines the "imaginaries" taking place in New Engineering Education (NEE). The NEE is the most recent reform of the engineering education sector in China and is used to interrogate the more encompassing backdrop of the country's national imaginary, the "Chinese Dream." Further, this paper analyzes three important policy documents that constitute the blueprint of the NEE. Drawing on Charles Taylor's concept of the "social imaginary" and using critical discourse analysis, a close analysis of the discursive construction of the technological and national elements in the policy texts is carried out. This combinatory theoretical and analytical framework is used to examine how a normative vision and ideology of the development of engineering education is constructed as taking a "new" direction. In undertaking this policy analysis, this paper demonstrates how a rising power is revolutionizing its engineering education as a resource, coupled with the ideological "social (national) imagination" of the Chinese Dream, to extend its power and geopolitical positioning in a competitive and globalized economy.

We examine the effects of computer-based versus paper-based assessment of critical thinking skills, adapted from English (in the U.S.) to Chinese. Using data collected based on a random assignment between the two modes in multiple Chinese colleges, we investigate mode effects from multiple perspectives: mean scores, measurement precision, item functioning (i.e. item difficulty and discrimination), response behavior (i.e. test completion and item omission), and user perceptions. Our findings shed light on assessment and item properties that could be the sources of mode effects. At the test level, we find that the computer-based test is more difficult and more speeded than the paper-based test. We speculate that these differences are attributable to the test's structure, its high demands on reading, and test-taking flexibility afforded under the paper testing mode. Item-level evaluation allows us to identify item characteristics that are prone to mode effects, including targeted cognitive skill, response type, and the amount of adaptation between modes. Implications for test design are discussed, and actionable design suggestions are offered with the goal of minimizing mode effect.

Few empirical studies have analyzed the return to distance higher education in different academic disciplines. This study used quantitative methods, data from a nationwide survey, and Mincerian earnings function to analyze the return to distance higher education among different disciplines in China's labor market. Results were compared with the return to face-to-face higher education and showed that the returns to face-to-face higher education were higher than those to distance higher education. Returns to the disciplines of economics and management were at a high level in both face-to-face and distance education; returns to the disciplines of literature, as well as education and law, were at a low level in both face-to-face and distance education. The returns to the disciplines of science and engineering were higher in face-to-face education than in distance education. This paper proposes several recommendations. Adults who do not have higher education degrees should invest in distance higher education to obtain considerable monetary returns, particularly in the disciplines with higher returns such as management and economics. China's distance education institutions should improve the quality of teaching in science and engineering education and find ways to provide high-quality experimental teaching practices. At the same time, they should scale back on instruction of literature, as well as education and law.

This paper describes an experiential education course designed to enhance student learning while abroad. Studies have shown that students studying abroad need specific interventions in order to profit fully from the immersive experience. The article describes a sequence of task-based interventions designed to prompt students to engage with the host language and culture. A description and rationale for each assignment explains how the tasks target language functions and intercultural development. The language functions relate to ACTFL's proficiency scale. The intercultural development process relates to Bennett and Hammer's Intercultural Development Continuum model (Bennett, 1986; Hammer, 2012). The students involved participated in the five-year dual bachelor's degree International Engineering Program at the University of Rhode Island and spent a year abroad in China, France, Germany, Chile, or Spain, studying for six months and then interning for six months. Discussion of student work shows the extent to which the tasks elicited interaction with the host culture and reflection on the experience. Results show that the interventions result in greater student engagement with the host culture and greater reflection on the impact of the overseas experience on their linguistic and cultural competency development.

This article describes how the Sichuan University - Pittsburgh Institute has embraced new methods and new technologies to ensure high-quality laboratory teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic. Taking Mechanical Measurements 1 course as an example, this paper introduces two lab projects that were successfully transferred into online experiments through remote-control platform and virtual simulation software, as well as three lab projects which were transformed into "pocket labs" where cheap and easy-access equipment was mailed to enable students to conduct experiments at home. Meanwhile, video demos, online Q&A sessions, feedback collection were employed to deliver a realistic lab experience to students.

Embedded system is an interdisciplinary, profound foundation and practice-oriented course; at present, in the traditional teaching mode, embedded systems in colleges and universities generally have problems such as disconnected theory and practice, outdated assessment methods, and low enthusiasm of students. Arming to cultivate compound embedded development talents that meet the needs of enterprises, based on CDIO engineering education mode, this paper analyzes the characteristics of the "Embedded System" course, and takes engineering project development practice as the dominant idea to discuss the course system, teaching material construction and teaching method reform of "Embedded System." By designing a complete project teaching system, closely combines the theoretical teaching and practice of the course. Multiple rounds of teaching practices show that through the project-driven teaching method, students' engineering practice ability can be significantly improved, so that students can deeply master the basic principles of embedded systems, and possess the engineering development ability of embedded products at the same time, thus meeting the needs of enterprises for innovative and interdisciplinary talents.

The education for the engineering masters in the colleges and universities of National Special Needs Talent Cultivation Project (NSNTCP), is an important component of the graduate education system in China, and is one of the important patterns to cultivate high-level application-oriented talents. However, there are some serious problems in the traditional classroom teaching for the education of engineering masters in the colleges and universities of NSNTCP. In the traditional teaching mode, the interaction between teachers and students is becoming less and less, the students' learning enthusiasm is becoming weaker and weaker, and the students are often passive acceptance. Being faced with the dilemma of classroom teaching for engineering masters in the colleges and universities of NSNTCP, combined with the practical teaching experience of engineering master education in our university, this paper discusses the core ideas of PAD Class teaching mode for engineering masters in the colleges and universities of NSNTCP from three aspects: emphasizing the teachers-students dual centers, strengthening 4C core competencies (namely critical thinking, communication skills, collaboration, and creativity), and paying great attention to process evaluation. Moreover, it also elaborates the crux in the implementation process of PAD Class teaching mode for engineering masters in the colleges and universities of NSNTCP. The results obtained from the teaching practice in the basic course of Advanced Engineering Mathematics is positive and satisfactory. It indicates that PAD Class teaching mode is a kind of new teaching mode which adapts to the growth and development of engineering masters' education in the colleges and universities of NSNTCP, and is an efficient and practical teaching reform that can not only embody the teachers-students dual centers, but also ensure the high-level application-oriented talents training goal of the engineering masters' degree education in the colleges and universities of NSNTCP.

Educational data mining (DEM) provides valuable educational information by applying data mining tools and techniques to analyze data at educational institutions. In this paper, tree-based machine learning algorithms are used to predict students' overall academic performance in their bachelor's program. The transcript data of the students in the same department in a Chinese university were collected. All the courses in the bachelor's program were then divided into six typical categories, and the mean GPAs of each category were taken as primary input features for prediction. Three tree-based machine learning models were established, i.e. decision tree (DT), Gradient boosting decision tree (GBDT) and random forest (RF). Results show that we can successfully identify more than 80% of the students at low-performance risk using the RF model at the end of the second semester, which is meaningful because the global quality of teaching and learning of the department can be improved by taking targeted measures in time according to the machine learning model. Feature importance and the structure of decision tree were also analyzed to extract knowledge that is valuable for both students and teachers. The results of this case study can be used as a reference for other engineering departments in China.

Responding to globalization trends, many engineering schools are internationalizing their courses and curricula to prepare graduates for careers that involve working across countries and cultures. As a result, both students and staff are looking beyond study abroad to international work, research, and service learning opportunities as alternate pathways for high-impact experiential learning in global context. However, such programs can also pose unique challenges related to preparing students for professional practice abroad and systematically evaluating program outcomes and impacts among students and other stakeholders. This paper responds to these challenges by reporting on International Research and Education in Engineering (IREE) 2010 China, a summer engineering research abroad program. It describes orientation strategies designed to improve student readiness for global practice, and presents mixed-method assessment methods and results for global engineering competency and other key learning outcomes. The main audience for this paper includes faculty and staff who develop and support global learning experiences in engineering and other professional degree programs.

Contribution: This paper qualitative research delineates the thinking and behavioral patterns that reflect students' advanced level of epistemological thinking in project-based learning (PBL) activities and the associated impact factors. Background: PBL has been widely adopted in engineering education for its effectiveness in improving students' problem-solving abilities, collaboration skills, and academic achievement. The four stages of Perry's theory--Dualism, Multiplicity, Relativism, and Commitment (within Relativism)--depict students' epistemological development from dualistic to contextual relativistic thinking. Prior research suggested that participation in PBL could benefit students' development to relativistic thinking--the most revolutionary change in Perry's model. Nevertheless, how epistemological thinking was exhibited in the context of PBL, and the relationship between students' epistemological thinking and PBL learning activities both remain unclear. Research Questions: 1) What are demonstrations of students' relativistic thinking in PBL activities? and 2) What are the factors in regard to students' relativistic thinking in PBL activities? Methodology: Built upon quantitative results obtained using a modified Zhang's cognitive development inventory (ZCDI) developed in the context of Perry's theory, this paper explored demonstrations of students' relativistic thinking in PBL in a qualitative manner, and analyzed the associated factors based upon one-on-one interviews with 17 engineering students. Findings: In PBL activities, students' epistemological thinking is reflected in their solving problems within constraints, conducting feasibility analyses, exhibiting commercial awareness, having their thinking broadened, and more. Their epistemological thinking can be impacted by factors, such as guidance from professors, collaborations with peers, communications with other stakeholders, and complexity level of projects.

Purpose: Embracing reflective practice and retrospection, with a goal of identifying commonalities, this paper aims to examine delivery of engineering subjects in both traditional higher education (THE) and technical and vocational education and training (TVET). Design/methodology/approach: Reflections on actions and autoethnography were used to examine the teaching and learning experiences of three educators across two higher education (HE) institutions (HEIs) in the greater Chinese context. Literature reviews and historical contexts are outlined to support the approaches and insights identified. Findings: This paper presents a number of common characteristics and challenges identified across both THE and TVET. Drawing on the successful embrace of ambiguity and change in recent software engineering (SE) development paradigms, recommendations are made for how the agile SE themes can be applied in a larger sense to address the wider challenges facing both THE and TVET. Originality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first time that engineering education has been examined and contrasted in the contexts of THE and TVET. The similarities and common challenges may represent a new focus for related work, and the presented insights, from agile methodologies in SE, represent a new perspective for viewing future HE and TVET sustainability.

Since becoming a formal signatory of the Washington Accord in 2016, China has outlined an initiative 'New Engineering Education' (NEE) to reform its engineering education at university level. This paper elaborates upon the NEE initiative by presenting analysis of its domestic and international context, the goals of the initiative, how the initiative draws upon international standards, major actions under the initiative, and the challenges remaining for NEE to achieve its goals. The paper argues that China views international practices and standards of engineering education in developed nations as highlands to imitate and surpass, and the NEE goals embody an ambitious systematic rather than partial reform of the sector. China has pushed forward the NEE reform with measures such as formulating National Standards for dozens of categories of engineering programs, commissioning 600+ research projects on NEE development, establishing new engineering programs and interdisciplinary courses, strengthening university-partnership, updating accreditation for engineering programs, and improving both external and internal quality assurance mechanism. The sector, however, still faces challenges in achieving systematic quality upgrade due to hindering factors like enlarged uneven resource allocation, downplayed teaching activities and the difficulties in reforming the curricula system. Expected changes are also discussed.

The final year design project is one of the most important components of any undergraduate engineering program. Fair and efficient project allocation procedures can be vital in ensuring a great student experience and exceptional learning out of these projects, which then could contribute in shaping students' future prospects. In this paper, we review a wide range of project allocation strategies used in various universities at undergraduate levels. We then focus on the project allocations in transnational education (TNE) contexts, which inherit additional allocation challenges. We highlight these challenges and provide recommendations to solve them. We present and compare project allocation strategies adopted at two of the largest TNE programs in China. We also present the factors that influence the project allocations, particularly regarding TNE provisions. Finally, we describe the challenges associated with the project allocations in the TNE scenario, along with proposing some feasible solutions to address these challenges.

In the current landscape of higher education in the UK, international students play a key role. It is an environment in which they not only cross borders physically but also transition through various identities as they develop their professional and linguistic confidence and skills to fully access and contribute to their programme of study and beyond. The aim of this paper is to outline the results of an empirical investigation into Chinese students' perceptions of their study experiences in the context of student mobility and English-medium instruction in higher education. It reports on a study of two groups of Chinese students--one group studying in an English-speaking environment, the other in their home country where instruction is delivered through the medium of English. Semi-structured focus group interviews were conducted at each site which focused on the transition of "crossing borders" for educational purposes. The data was analysed using thematic analysis (Clarke & Braun, 2016). The main finding was that both groups experienced remarkably similar learning issues, despite being located in very different learning environments and crossing different types of borders.

This paper gives a brief analysis on the educational advantages and objects of NCWU. It believes that the educational philosophy and development direction of foreign school in engineering colleges must be set up on the basis of need of China and talents need, moreover, the development of the School of Foreign Studies must be analyzed by integrating into the whole development of NCWU. This paper put forwards the educational philosophy of "Drawing on Advantages, Avoiding Disadvantages, and Gearing Education to Society" and the Development Direction of "Rooted in Foreign Language and Characterised by Engineering and Business". It analyzes the problem of school of foreign studies in NCWU in Specialty Construction, teaching team and Construction of Discipline and puts forwards some solutions.

This paper regards the mechanical curriculum teaching as a design problem and uses environment-based design (EBD) method to solve it. First, environment components and their relations of the mechanical curriculum are found out by recursive object model (ROM). Then, conflicts in the teaching process are identified by analysing the above relations. Finally, solutions for solving these conflicts are generated. The proposed method is applied to mechanical manufacturing technology foundation (MMTF) curriculum with 217 students in grade 2016 in China. The solutions used in MMTF include decreasing the mental stress of students, developing more experimental projects, applying real cases and projects, adopting variety of assessments and so on. Compared with the performance of students in grade 2015, the average attendance rate and final scores are both increased, and three of the four achievement values of graduation attributes are risen. The practical example illustrates the EBD method is effective in improving curriculum teaching.

Assessing student learning outcomes has become a global trend in higher education. In this paper, we report on the validation of the Chinese HEIghten® Critical Thinking assessment with a nationally representative sample of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science students from 35 institutions in China. Key findings suggest that there was a test delivery mode effect favoring the paper tests over the online tests. In general, the psychometric quality of the items was satisfactory for low-stakes, group-level uses but there were a few items with low discrimination that awaits further investigation. The relationships between test scores and various external variables such as college entrance examination scores, university elite status and student perceptions of the test were as expected. We conclude with speculations on the key findings and discussion of directions for future research.

It is well-known that engineering is a key profession for both economic and social development. This is as true for China as it is for other countries which are in the process of development. However, what are the economic incentives for young people to enter the profession today? Currently, there are many studies of the rate of return to educational investment, but recent empirical studies of the rate of return to educational investment for engineers are uncommon. This is true generally, but especially for contemporary China. This is because it is difficult to obtain high-quality and representative sample data about engineers. This paper uses the data of the Chinese Family Panel Studies, 2010, and applies a Mincerian income function to estimate the rate of return to education for engineers who work in the private sector in urban China. The empirical results show that the rate of return for engineers is 12.3%, which is an impressive figure. It is in accordance with the current supply and demand of the Chinese labour market which requires many engineers to carry out construction and maintenance projects given China's continuing industrialisation, modernisation and urbanisation. However, the empirical results also show that compared with the rate of return to education for professional and technical personnel who are employed in business economics and finance, the rate of return for engineers is significantly lower. This may explain why in China today the attraction of engineering education for talented young people is declining, with more and more students choosing business economics and finance as their first choices of major and career, rather than engineering as in the past.

Over the past few decades, many researchers have tested course designs that may better engage students in developing countries, accommodate for Millennials' desires to learn and teach at will, and teach students the skills they need for their first jobs. The vision of this paper for a web design course seeks to address these issues for engineering students. The paper first details the "study everywhere, anytime, from any device and using any tool" approach, following the CDIO (Conceive, Design, Implement and Operate) contextual learning model sustained by gamified crowdsourcing. Then the multi-pronged approach has been tested in a high-enrollment (269-student) web design course at a university in China. The success of integrating the gamification and crowdsourcing techniques into the web design course is then analyzed. Results are positive overall. A linear upward trend is observed in the number of students who completed the course exercises over the duration of the course, marking an increase in student engagement over time.

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Electronic industry is an economic pillar in China. Due to the Moore's Law, the industry requires continuous development and innovation. In order to achieve these goals, the cultivation of electronic application-oriented undergraduate is essential. However, at current, the innovative educational concepts and teaching methods are lagging behind so that the graduates cannot meet the requirements of electronic industry. In this paper, we adopt a variety of measures, which include the construction of parallel course system, the establishment of cooperative education mechanics and the creation of training evaluation mode, to improve the training quality of electronic application-oriented undergraduate. The research findings show that the undergraduates improve their engineering practices and innovation abilities.

Science and Technology Innovation Communities (STICs) are student-led partnerships that bring together businesses, research centres, and university staff. They constitute an effective way of promoting student innovation ability. However, the students' position within the STICs organisation network may condition how their innovation ability is effectively acquired. Using Social Network Analysis (SNA), this study measures how the STICs organisation network promotes the innovation ability of its actors. The paper finds that network centrality and structural holes of the STICs organisation network are positively correlated with student innovation ability. The results are validated through robustness tests in three different STICs, involving engineering students from China's Chang'an University. Semi-structured interviews are also conducted with 20 relevant actors of STICs. The conclusion suggests that a higher involvement of core actors, more support from schools, and more restrictive entry requirements are necessary to improve the organisation management and training level of engineering students in STICs.

Research on engineering practice is scarce and sharing of qualitative research data can reduce the effort required for an aspiring researcher to obtain enough data from engineering workplaces to draw generalizable conclusions, both qualitative and quantitative. This paper describes how a large shareable qualitative data set on engineering practices was accumulated from 350 interviews and 12 field studies performed by the principal investigator and by students conducting PhD and capstone research projects. Ethical research practice required that sharing and reuse of qualitative data be considered from the start. The researchers' interests and methods were aligned to maintain sufficient consistency to support subsequent analysis and re-analysis of data. Analysis helped to answer questions of fundamental significance for engineering educators: what do engineers do, and why are the performances of engineering enterprises so different in South Asia compared with similar enterprises in Australia? Analysis also demonstrated the overwhelming significance of technical collaboration in engineering practice. Conceiving engineering practice as a series of technical collaboration performances requires a more elaborate understanding of social interactions than is currently the case in engineering schools. Another finding is that global engineering competency could be better described in terms of "working with people who collaborate differently". Research helped to demonstrate that formal treatment of technical collaboration in an engineering curriculum could help avoid student misconceptions about engineering practice that hinder their subsequent engineering performances.

Assessments of new pedagogical practices usually rely on instructor oriented surveys and questionnaires to measure student perceptions of teaching methods; however, fixed response categories in structured questionnaires might bias results. This paper demonstrates a mixed methods approach using open and multi-dimensional scaling (MDS) for a student-oriented exploratory analysis and visualization of perceptions of teaching methods. A scientific writing and research methodology course is a required course for first year PhD students in software engineering and geo-infomatics at Wuhan University, China. PhD students attending this course came from countries whose first language is not English, and from a variety of software engineering and geo-infomatics domains. The problem therefore, was to elicit un-mediated perceptions of course assignment, reduce and generalize the resulting data for interpretation. A graphical visualization of themes emerging in student responses to two open-ended questions about an assignment provided a basis for inferring student interests and needs. In this course, an assessment of a task oriented problem-solving experience was implemented through a mixed method strategy incorporating qualitative methods, exploratory data mining techniques, and cartographic visualization. The visualization shows that participating students generally perceived the exercise as challenging, helped them understand journal requirements, and develop ways to survey texts to extract information. The results also suggested that this consensus breaks down in terms of each participant's own goals, domain, and research interests. Unstructured questions, open coding, and MDS visualization might also prove to be helpful in the process of devising and assessing other student centered pedagogies.

Purpose: This paper aims to explore the holistic picture of sustainability curricula in Asian higher education. Design/methodology/approach: Content analysis was conducted based on Asian management education for sustainability in higher education. Online courses arrangement, teaching methods, instructors' educational background and cross-referencing data between triple bottom line and sustainability courses have been investigated. Findings: The paper provides empirical insights about the current state of sustainability education in Asia. The results show that there is an opportunity for interdisciplinary integration, as there are imbalanced sustainability courses offered by business, science and engineering schools. It also suggests that Asian universities should add an international connection and active promotion of sustainability education on their Web sites. Research limitations/implications: Findings are based on web-based sustainability-related courses. Future research could apply method of case study to do a deeper study. Practical implications: The paper provides an overview of Asian management education for sustainability and curricula analysis through our research, and that this will further assist in the development of interdisciplinary integration in Asian management education for sustainability. Originality/value: This paper is the first attempt to gain better understanding of sustainability-related courses offered in leading business/management colleges in Asia.

Although engineering education has played important roles in China's growing power and influence on the world stage, engineering education policy since the Reform and Opening-up in the late 1970s has not been well documented in current English-language scholarship. Informed by historical and sociological studies of education, engineering and engineering education, this paper attempts to address this scholarly gap by relating contemporary Chinese engineering education policy-making to its broader historical, cultural and ideological contexts. Based on analysis of policy documents and reports released by the Chinese government and engineering schools, and drawing on prior scholarship of Chinese (engineering) education policy, this paper employs the concept of "past/forward" as an analytic lens to interpret and understand four major areas of engineering education policy change in contemporary China: institutional reform, disciplines and majors, training objectives, and curriculum reform.

Synchrophasors, widely used in the monitoring and analysis of power systems, evolved from the phasor method presented by Charles Proteus Steinmetz in 1893. The phasor method is a mathematical method for solving linear sinusoidal steady-state circuits and time-varying electromagnetic fields. This paper traces the history and diffusion of the phasor method in the discipline of electrical engineering in China. In 1914, Sidney Roby Sheldon, an American teacher at the Government Institute of Technology of the Communications Ministry, Shanghai, China, introduced the phasor method to his students in his Alternating Currents course. The textbook used was "Elements of Electrical Engineering (Volume II)" by William Suddards Franklin and William Esty. In 1920, "The Electrical Magazine" published a paper "Complex number and its application" by Sijiu Shi (editor of the electrical engineering section of this periodical). This is the earliest example found of Chinese literature introducing the phasor method. In the 1930s, "Principles of Alternating Currents", an American electrical engineering textbook that includes the phasor method, was translated by Chinese scholars; this Chinese version promoted the use of the phasor method in China's electrical engineering field. "Alternating Current Circuits", authored by the Chinese university professor Pen Tung Sah and published in 1948, may be the earliest example of the phasor method being included in a Chinese electrical engineering textbook; it played an important role in popularizing the phasor method in China.

A plan for national education to train outstanding engineers has been put into practice at Henan Polytechnic University (HPU). Practical education is a basic characteristic of engineering education. This paper proposed ideas and models to reform the mineral processing engineering education system and also described the discipline and the objective of cultivating students for careers in mineral processing engineering. On the basis of a survey and analysis of the quality of graduate student cultivation, we established a practical teaching system of 'four levels, seven categories' and the effect of this system was initially apparent.

Experiential learning pedagogy is taking a lead in the development of graduate attributes and educational aims as these are of prime importance for society. This paper shows a community service experiential project conducted in China. The project enabled students to serve the affected community in a post-earthquake area by applying their knowledge and skills. This paper documented the students' learning process from their project goals, pre-trip preparations, work progress, obstacles encountered to the final results and reflections. Using the data gathered from a focus group interview approach, the four components of Kolb's learning cycle, the concrete experience, reflection observation, abstract conceptualisation and active experimentation, have been shown to transform and internalise student's learning experience, achieving a variety of learning outcomes. The author will also explore how this community service type of experiential learning in the engineering discipline allowed students to experience deep learning and develop their graduate attributes. (Contains 1 figure.)

In May 2008, the worst earthquake in more than three decades struck southwest China, killing more than 80,000 people. The complexity of this earthquake makes it an ideal case study to clarify the intertwined issues of ethics in engineering and to help cultivate critical thinking skills. This paper first explores the need to encourage engineering ethics within a cross-cultural context. Next, it presents a systematic model for designing an engineering ethics curriculum based on moral development theory and ethic dilemma analysis. Quantitative and qualitative data from students' oral and written work were collected and analysed to determine directions for improvement. The paper also presents results of an assessment of this interdisciplinary engineering ethics course. This investigation of a disaster is limited strictly to engineering ethics education; it is not intended to assign blame, but rather to spark debate about ethical issues. (Contains 2 tables and 1 figure.)

Considering that the course group regarding theory and design of mechanisms is characterized by strong engineering application background and the students generally feel very boring and tedious during the learning process, some teaching reforms for the theory and design of mechanisms are carried out to improve the teaching effectiveness in this paper. Taking the engineering cases as the teaching objectives, we combine the course contents with the engineering background. Moreover, in order to help the students understand the knowledge difficulty and improve the design capacity of the mechanisms and machines, the MATLAB technology is introduced into the theoretical teaching to provide assisted analysis. At the same time, the MATLAB is also introduced into the practical teaching to provide theoretical guidance. The teaching effect shows that MATLAB-based teaching reform under the engineering application can deepen the understandings of course contents for students, improve the interest in learning, strengthen the design capacity and develop the innovation ability.

The academic programs at the graduate level are increasingly interested about the enrollment management challenges in terms of international student mobility. Understanding fundamental enrollment concepts to attract international students provides the essential key to consider the competitive environment concerning university resources, academic program potential, complex cultural dynamics, and workplaces among others. Based on a six-year quantitative and descriptive statistical study, this paper addresses the trends of first-time graduate enrollment and patterns of international student mobility by faculty at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez. Results revealed the sustained trend of graduate enrollment of international students mainly from South America, Central America, and the Caribbean among others. Moreover, the presence of international graduate students adds a dimension of diversity to UPRM between teaching and research undertakings that enhance the Colleges of Engineering, Arts and Sciences, Agricultural Sciences, and Business Administration. The international student mobility has a consistent tendency mainly in the Colleges of Engineering, Arts and Sciences, and Agricultural Sciences. This consistency resembles the quality and reputation recognized by educational institutions and organizational world rankings. In-depth, understanding the trends related to international graduate enrollment and mobility should be considered by institutional leaders and administrators at UPRM to make knowledgeable decisions and to effectively set priorities to recruit highly qualified international students.

This paper summarizes the phenomenon of offshore outsourcing and relates it to the history and current state of engineering education and the engineering profession in Europe and the USA. In order to assess the climate affecting employment decisions by and about engineers we have used as sources mostly the serious press, with an emphasis on material dating from 2004 forward. The authors conclude that despite anxiety about the out-migration of engineering and technical jobs to places such as India and China, there is reason to see offshoring as the result of Western investment in capacity building in developing countries and to believe that the creation of new jobs will outpace the rate of job loss in Europe and the USA. The paper should serve as a prod to policy-makers and educators to set about creating an environment in which highly educated engineers and technical employees can continue a pattern of economic revitalization.

This paper not only aims to present the feedback received from the students, but also evaluate the feedback by reviewing the teaching practice. It analyses the teacher should be aware of the importance that feedback, both to and from the students, has upon the teaching and learning process. Through a case study about the feedback from the students in Construction Engineering Technology of YAU, the author gives some suggestions on the teaching that the teacher's reflective evaluation can refine the teaching and help them to be better teachers. The teacher may incorporate feedback into practice, which teachers, like students, can benefits from assessment and evaluation of their own work or practice.

This paper proposed the affordance approach of material, affective and social dimensions so as to explore the learners' engagement and disposition to share of using mobile learning technology. The participants in this study were graduate-level engineering students (N = 387) from a research university in People's Republic of China. "Rain Classroom" in this case referred to the newly developed built-in mobile application in China facilitating the didactic practice both synchronously and asynchronously in class. Two surveys were issued to both groups before and after the 14-week long experiment. All the data were input into SPSS 16.0 and examined in descriptive statistics and independent samples "t"-test. The results showed that the group exposed to Rain Classroom had a positive attitude towards the mobile technology tool. Also, the same test group obtained statistically higher scores than the control group in both learning engagement and their willingness to continue and share the learning experience. The study implies that what the mobile learning technology affords has produced positive impact on teachers, students and institutions in terms of curriculum design, learning activities and policy making towards improving academic quality. Future work could focus on comparing learning effects with different time duration and learning intensity. It might also extend to participants from different educational background.