An Entry Gate to China and the Global Manufacturing Industry

Editor’s Note: 

Tsinghua University has been taking large footsteps towards internationalization ever since its establishment more than a hundred years ago. Up to now, over 80 international graduate degree programs have been implemented to enhance students’ global competency and the reputation of Tsinghua worldwide. With various cultural backgrounds, students and teachers from all corners of the world gather in the beautiful campus of Tsinghua University, sharing knowledge and life experiences and opening windows of the outside world for each other. The “International Programs in the Eyes of Student Reporters” series are narrated by the program students and teachers, providing readers an in-depth insight to those colorful pictures of cultural integration.

“There is a lot of manufacturing industry in China and Tsinghua is the best university in China. It’s a good entry gate to China and the whole manufacturing industry.” said Matthieu Bristiel, a French student who graduated from the Master’s Program in Global Manufacturing at Tsinghua University in 2013, “It’s a big plus for my career afterward.”

Group photo of Global Manufacturing Students on Campus

Global Manufacturing program is an English language master’s program at the Department of Industrial Engineering, Tsinghua University. The two-year, professionally-oriented program was founded in 2009, focusing on China’s manufacturing industry. The top three employment areas for the program’s graduates have been manufacturing, the service industry, and information technology (IT).

An entry gate to the whole industry

The curriculum of the Global Manufacturing Program focuses on three areas: manufacturing, logistics, and business and culture.

Speaking about the curriculum, the director of the Global Manufacturing Program, Liang Ma said, “The program aims to cultivate high-level international applied management talents who not only master industrial and systems engineering knowledge – such as quantitative analysis, optimization decision, and human factor design – but will also understand China’s industrial development and gain international vision, teamwork, and leadership ability.”

For example, Ma said that the lectures regarding manufacturing mainly include “China Industry Study: Advanced Manufacturing and Modern Services” and “Production Management.” These required courses introduce manufacturing systems and mathematical modeling. Some also include on-site visits to companies. Most specialized courses incorporate practical cases, and industry experts are invited to give lectures and provide career guidance to students.

Global Manufacturing students are Conducting Experiments

A current student from Russia, Arina, thought that courses are interconnected, “For example, to put it simply, we have the course on decision-making which is all about finding practical and optimal solutions for a wide variety of problems different enterprises and companies face daily. And then we have the course on logistics and supply chains, a huge part of which is devoted to decision-making from a different perspective.” She also learned to code, a skill she said, “I never thought I would learn.”

Director Ma said, “Through the study and practice of professional courses, students will not only master the professional knowledge of industrial engineering fields such as operation research, statistics, human factor design, manufacturing, logistics, and operation management but will also have the ability to preliminarily ‘interpret’ the manufacturing industry, especially the Chinese manufacturing industry and related fields.”

Since the establishment of the Global Manufacturing Program, more than 20 teachers have participated in the construction and implementation of the curriculum. Ma said the current faculty in the program have extensive cross-cultural experience and are able to support students’ development with international and Chinese perspectives.

The combination of internationalization and the visions of China

China is the second-largest consumer market and the largest trading country in the world. It’s deeply integrated into global industrial and supply chains. China has been focusing on innovation, quality, sustainability, structurization, and talents, to grow stronger as a manufacturing country. International talents are the core resource for corporations in China to go global. Yet the quality of current talents may not always meet the standards of multinational corporations.

The goal of the program is to develop talented students who are capable to work with Chinese colleagues and understand Chinese culture as well as Chinese manufacturing. Ma said the program has constantly been optimizing the courses and practical projects to let students better arrange the curriculum to fit their future plans.

The Global Manufacturing Program’s mission is to become a world-class international program in the integration of industrial engineering and the manufacturing and logistics industries in China; to lead and update “Made in China” to “Created in China”; and to prepare outstanding international students ready to work with Chinese. The program highlights the combination of internationalization and the visions of China.

“48% of the enrolled students come from Asia, 37% are from Europe, 6% are from North America, 5% are from Africa, and 4% are from South America. About half of the students come from famous universities in Asian countries along the Belt and Road, and half from European and American countries. The student population is relatively diverse,” Ma stated.

Group photo of Global Manufacturing students at the Memorial Gate of Tsinghua

During the class, professors will clarify how theories can be applied to specific professional practices in China and help students develop a global vision and a more macro understanding of the field. Professors also regularly organize guest lectures to show how their knowledge learned in school is put into practice.

Moreover, the courses often assign group projects to allow Chinese and international students to work together and learn from each other’s strengths and perspectives. 

Arina Bogdanova said, “If you don’t master anything, for instance, you missed the lecture due to illness, or if you forget something, you can either learn from your group mates or review the material while doing the project.”

The program also carries out field studies to visit enterprises around China, such as those in Hangzhou, Ningbo, Yiwu in Zhejiang Province, and Xiamen in Fujian Province.

Group projects as memorable highlights

“At my university in Russia, we didn’t have that many group projects and guest lectures, while here we have them almost every day,” Arina Bogdanova said.

Although some classes were only available online because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the students built a great friendships. Projects require students to spend a lot of time working together. Arina Bogdanova said that every time they gathered online with groupmates to work on the project, they would spend hours talking with each other. One day they even spent eight hours in an online meeting.

Group projects not only deepen the relationship between students but also enhance their understanding of the reality of the industry. Matthieu Bristiel once had a group project on waste reproduction with members from Thailand, China, and Switzerland. They were impressed by the huge amount and various types of garbage and by how little money garbage collectors could get from bringing garbage to the recycling center. Their group project was designed to bring value to the collected materials to help garbage collectors. “We want to change that into thermal insulation material to add value to these people. The insulation material is the type of stuff you put into the walls to make sure that your apartment is not getting too cold in the winter or too warm in summer. With limited investment, the price of the insulation material would be much higher than that of garbage,” Matthieu Bristiel explained.

Recalling the projects they had in class, Matthieu Bristiel also said, “I can access teammates’ cultures and know what these people like when we talk to each other. And the projects at Tsinghua let me know more about how to manage production and how to improve quality and efficiency.”

Now, Matthieu Bristiel is working in an international corporation in Shanghai. The intercultural communication skills he learned in the Tsinghua program helped him work more effectively in a foreign company. He can write in English and converse in Chinese.

Arina Bogdanova added, “The program is not limited to the manufacturing industry only. If someone like me is not an industrial engineer, he or she will easily find another field he or she wants to work in. What’s more, if someone wants to establish his or her own company after graduation, I believe that people from the program are the best ones to form a team and go into business together.”

The Global Manufacturing Program is also undertaking a curriculum reform, which will sort out the relationship between courses.  “So that courses can achieve a closer connection and better realize the integration of Chinese cases into the courses,” Ma said, “The curriculum adjustment, so far, considers international students’ interest in Chinese culture and the manufacturing industry while closely following the strategic goals of Tsinghua and China.”

Program Overview：

This two-year program in Management Science and Engineering (Global Manufacturing) was founded in 2009 and aims to develop students’ global vision of management and engineering through a special focus on the manufacturing industry in China. To date, graduates have come from various regions around the world including Europe, North America, Africa, Central Asia and Southeast Asia.

Source:

【School of Journalism and Communication】Tsinghua University“Journalism Practices on International Education”  Project Group: Jiaqi Saw, Xinyi Peng, Chen Chen, Zilu Wang, Yixiao Zhu

Editors: 

【Graduate School】Minzhi Lv, Lixia Liu, Fu Sun, Yuwei Wang  

【School of Journalism and Communication】Chengzhang Li