On November 17, the Times Higher Education (THE) Asia Awards 2020 were announced, and Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) won the International Strategy of the Year Award, SUSTech’s first THE Asia Award. SUSTech was one of the two recipients from mainland China, along with Tsinghua University.
This year, SUSTech was shortlisted for three awards (the joint-most of any Asian university): the International Strategy of the Year Award, Student Recruitment Campaign of the Year Award and the THE DataPoints Merit Award. Eight universities were nominated for each award from hundreds of entries submitted early in 2020.
SUSTech continues to make great strides in internationalization. In 2019, more than half of first-year undergraduate students participated in study abroad programs, and the proportion of students taking long-term overseas courses increased from 20% to 45%. At the same time, due to our superior geographical location in Shenzhen, China’s “Silicon Valley”, entrepreneurship courses have been developed and implemented, further promoting international student exchange. According to the judges’ comments, the “scale and depth” of SUSTech’s achievements were “really impressive”, with “evidence of high-level collaboration from the leadership of the university with government counterparts in the country, and visibility and presence at international conferences designed to push the boundaries on international collaboration”.
The awards ceremony came at the end of the THE Live Asia 2020 online summit, which included SUSTech representation on three panel discussions. Prof. Chunmiao ZHENG, Vice Provost (global strategies), Director of SUSTech Global joined the “Does a post-covid world require new international strategies?” panel. Prof. ZHENG outlined SUSTech’s previous international strategy, the adaptions employed as a result of the covid-19 pandemic, and the key future trends and developments in the internationalization of higher education.
Dr. Xu LI, Associate Dean of the School of Design spoke on the panel “Do universities really understand what students want?” Dr. LI outlined SUSTech’s admissions model and student recruitment methods whilst highlighting the ways in which the university’s education model nurtures an environment which allows students to explore what they themselves want.
Prof. Junguo LIU, Associate Dean for undergraduate education in the School of Environmental Science and Engineering was a panelist on the “Research or reputation: Can universities succeed at one without the other?” panel. Prof. Liu discussed the relationship between research and reputation, the explosive growth of SUSTech’s reputation in China during the five years since his arrival, and the factors that influenced this growth.
THE Asia Award 2020 winners: https://www.timeshighereducation.com/the-live/asia/awards-winners/
